Aboriginal Law Conference 2026

Course Chairs
Karey Brooks, KC — JFK Law LLP, Vancouver
Sara Mainville — JFK Law LLP, Toronto

About the Course Chairs

Karey Brooks, KC is a partner at JFK Law LLP and practices primarily in the areas of Aboriginal, constitutional, administrative, and civil litigation law. She represents First Nations and Indigenous organizations in complex litigation and regulatory matters involving Aboriginal rights and title, treaty rights, consultation, governance, and Charter issues.

Karey has appeared at all levels of court across British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Her work has included representing Beaver Lake Cree Nation in its landmark treaty infringement litigation concerning cumulative impacts on Treaty rights; Kwikwetlem First Nation in an Aboriginal title claim involving novel extinguishment issues; Grassy Narrows First Nation in litigation concerning the Treaty 3 "taking up" clause; and Snaw-Naw-As Nation in litigation relating to former railway reserve lands.

She has also acted in significant public law and constitutional matters, including serving as Associate Commission Counsel to the BC Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (the Oppal Commission). In addition to her Indigenous rights practice, Karey currently acts as lead counsel in a class action against WestJet Airlines concerning alleged systemic failures in its anti-harassment program.

Karey is recognized by Chambers and Partners, Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in Canada, and Lexpert for her work in Aboriginal law and litigation. She was appointed King's Counsel in 2021 and elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in 2022.

Karey is a frequent presenter on Indigenous law, public law, and advocacy. She holds two LLM degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School.

During her early practice years with a well-known Anishinaabe law firm, Sara Mainville completed her LLM (University of Toronto) and a thesis titled: Manidoo Mazina'igan: An Anishinaabe perspective Treaty 3, which was one of the earliest examples of Indigenous ("Miinigoziwin") constitutional research by a legal practitioner.

Sara continues to work with First Nations and Inuit clients and is one of the few practicing lawyers that works as much within Indigenous constitutionalism and "Indigenous law" as within the Canadian constitutional order ("Aboriginal law").

In 2014, Sara was elected as Chief of Couchiching First Nation after the sudden death of her friend and mentor, Chief Chuck McPherson. During that term, she ensured that the First Nation had strong policy going forward, a good social media presence to engage the many off-reserve members in community affairs, and she livestreamed her Chief and Council and community meetings. Sara uses this experience as a former Chief to help leadership work past difficult issues, within Indigenous forms of dispute resolution, and walk the community through processes to encourage discourse and grassroots solutions to long-held problems. Sara is a strong believer that self-determination requires the Indigenization of our policies, approaches, and legal frameworks.

Sara is very proud of her participation in the negotiations that led to the creation of the First Nation Sovereign Wealth LP (FNSWLP), a partnership of 129 First Nations in Ontario. Directed by a Chiefs' Committee on Energy, Sara was active in the negotiations that resulted in the commercial transaction between the Province of Ontario and the FNSWLP of 14 million Hydro One shares and $29 million in seed capital to facilitate long-term wealth creation for the partnering First Nations. The lengthy discussions to transaction closing were completed between October 2015 to the final days of December 2017.

Sara has completed Advanced Negotiations training at Harvard University and dispute resolution, legislative drafting, and mediation training at professional institutes in order to advance her clients’ long held goals for self-determination and truer treaty partnerships in Canada.

Recently, Sara has received a certificate in Entertainment Law, and she has helped clients with Indigenous intellectual property, copyright, and title issues to accommodate better approaches to recognize collective Indigenous knowledge system, community protocol, and cultural ways and values. She is very committed to mentor JFK Lawyers and facilitate legal practices that are better suited to serve the self-determination and ambitions of our clients.

Sara is generally seen as a subject-matter expert about Crown-Indigenous relations, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaty 3, and Anishinaabe Inakonigewin. However, Sara sees herself as a life-long learner willing to meet in community, read voraciously, and listen intently to better understand Indigenous knowledge systems across Canada.

Sara is on the boards of the Ontario Bar Association and the Shine Network. She was formerly on the boards of Ecojustice and the Catherine Donnelly Foundation. Sara loves to teach and she is part of a team of JFK Lawyers teaching Nation-building and Inherent jurisdiction at Osgoode Law School in Toronto. Sara is also the Managing Partner of JFK Law LLP.

Full Agenda to follow!