Law Dean Recognized For Professional Leadership

The Centre for Cities congratulates acting Dean of Windsor Law and Centre for Cities affiliate Dr. Beverly Jacobs for being selected as a recipient of the 2021 Law Society of Ontario Laura Legge Award.

Established in 2007 in honour of the late Laura Legge, this award is given to women lawyers from Ontario who have exemplified leadership within the legal profession.

In speaking with the Windsor Law Daily News, Jacobs expressed her honour in receiving the award: “It has come at a time in my life when I needed it. I have to acknowledge all of those who reminded me about the responsibilities of being a leader and role model. Needless to say, many of my mentors have now passed on to the spirit world so this is very emotional for me. I continue to stay committed to my family, my friends, my clients, my community, and now to my Windsor Law family and community.”

The award is well deserved as Jacobs, a proud Mohawk woman from Six Nations, has spent her career focusing on ending gendered colonial violence against Indigenous peoples and restoring Indigenous legal orders.

As part of her advocacy, Jacobs has published exemplary work on the factors that contribute to safer cities for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. In 2004, Jacobs was the lead researcher of the Stolen Sisters report which examined the factors that have contributed to a heightened and unacceptable risk of violence against Indigenous women in Canadian cities. In 2018, Jacobs completed her PhD from the University of Calgary entitled “Impacts of Industrial Development on the Wholistic Health of the Mohawk Peoples of Akwesasne: A Human Responsibility and Rights Solution.” The purpose of the dissertation was to determine the impacts of industrial and resource development on the wholistic health of the Mohawk Peoples of Akwesasne and to examine a responsible and rights-based approach to protect their wholistic health.

Recently, Jacobs has been a leading voice in the issues surrounding 1492 Land Back Lane, occurring in her own community of Six Nations. There, the Haudenosaunee land defenders are protesting the courts, Haldimand County’s local government and the developer who do not recognize what the Haudenosaunee see as their well-documented claim to the Haldimand Tract, a 384,000-hectare piece of land, that was subject to a 1784 treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the British Crown. Jacobs leads the call for a moratorium on new development within the Haldimand Tract as the bare minimum starting point for negotiations.

The Centre for Cities congratulates Dr. Jacobs for her continued success and remarkable accomplishment in receiving the Laura Legge Award. Read more about Dr. Jacobs’ success here.