Emilie Cox is a partner in the Aboriginal and Business Law groups at Cassels. She maintains a broad Aboriginal law practice, providing advice to clients in the resource sector across Canada on matters relating to Aboriginal rights, the duty to consult, Indigenous-Crown relations, and project-related environmental and regulatory matters. Emilie also advises clients on issues pertaining to Indigenous self-governance, constitutional, and administrative law.
Emilie has extensive advocacy experience, including appellate litigation, commercial and international arbitration, and constitutional litigation. She regularly appears before the Federal Court of Canada on matters under judicial review pertaining to Aboriginal and environmental law. Emilie has devoted significant hours to pro bono work, including working to further LGBTQ+ rights in Alberta. She sits on the Board for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary and the Elektra Choir in Vancouver.
Prior to joining Cassels, Emilie clerked at the Alberta Court of Queen’s bench and was an associate at another national law firm, before moving in-house at an integrated energy company based in Calgary.
Representative work includes:
- Acting for a major project proponent with respect to federal environmental assessment determinations and associated judicial reviews
- Representing a palladium mining company with respect to its 2022 federal-provincial Joint Review Panel hearing for its project; the hearing involved more than 50 participants, including Indigenous communities and government agencies
- Advising Indigenous clients on claims involving breach of fiduciary duties and bad faith dealings
- Advising Indigenous and government clients on Aboriginal title and consultation matters
- Successfully representing a public-interest organization to obtain intervenor status in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal of Alberta on a matter concerning the constitutionality of an Alberta law that facilitates Gay-Straight Alliances and protects the privacy of LGBTQ+ youth (reported decisions at T. v Alberta, 2018 ABQB 496 and P.T. v Alberta, 2019 ABCA 158)
- Successfully representing a large integrated energy company in a judicial review application involving the calculation of oil sands royalties
