The WILL Awards are presented annually to female members of the Alberta legal profession in recognition of their outstanding dedication, initiative, achievement, and contribution to the community, profession, legal scholarship, and pro bono activities.
WILL is proud to present the 2024 Alberta Lifetime Achievement Award to Eileen Sasakamoose, IPC.
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to a woman who has demonstrated leadership in the profession and a commitment to the advancement of women lawyers and who is deserving of recognition for their body of work in the legal profession.
This award recognizes and applauds a woman who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and contributions over a sustained period and throughout their career in one or more of several areas including: legal skills and capabilities, contribution to legal education and/or scholarship, mentoring of law students and junior lawyers, demonstrated leadership in law and diversity initiatives, and a commitment to being a positive role model for other lawyers.
I am a proud Indigenous Yellowknife Dene woman, from a family of 8 children. Born in Yellowknife, to Indigenous parents, I saw Yellowknife grow from some 1,000 residents to ten times that. It has since more than doubled in size. In early adulthood, I decided to move to Edmonton to pursue further studies and later decided to study law. With encouragement from my friend, who later became my husband, I enrolled in law school at the University of Saskatchewan in 1984. I found the study of law fascinating and was drawn to how the Canadian legal system impacted Indigenous peoples. Shortly after graduation, I articled with Leonard (Tony) Mandamin, former Federal Court of Canada Justice, who agreed to take me on as his first articling student after I made a pitch he couldn’t resist. That was the start of a long and rewarding legal career.
In 1988, I became the first Dene woman to become a lawyer when I was admitted to the Law Society of Alberta. The following year, after completing the statutes exam in the NWT, Justice M. de Weerdt agreed to host a second bar admission ceremony in Yellowknife, to allow my friends and family living in Yellowknife to attend. Shortly after my admission to the practicing bar, I became a founding director of the Indigenous Bar Association in 1988. 26 years later, in 2014, I was appointed Indigenous Peoples Counsel (IPC) by my mentors in the Indigenous Bar Association, a distinction I hold in high regard.
After 36 years as a general private practitioner, primarily in the service of Indigenous communities and First Nations people in a broad range of practice areas, including administrative law, business law, restorative justice, claims under the class action lawsuits for Indian Residential School, Indian Day School and First Nations Drinking water claims, family law, wills and estates and elder law, I can see, on retrospect, how busy my private practice would become. Early in my career, I spent ten years tutoring and instructing in Athabasca University’s legal studies courses, in particular, the law and labour relations, administrative law, commercial law, and municipal law, which allowed me to teach in many Indigenous communities. Later, in 2007 and then in 2014, I was honoured to article two students, who are currently practicing members of the Alberta bar, Koren Lightning-Earle and Sherri-Anne Turner.
Recently, in my role as technical advisor to an Indigenous Women’s Advisory group, I worked in a front-line capacity, addressing Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) issues, and I see how the tragic loss of life is continuing, unabated. More needs to be done to keep Indigenous women safe, to keep Indigenous families intact, to bring back our languages, to strengthen our culture, values and traditions and to reverse the ill-effects of the Indian Residential School era.
My goal in life and in my work has been to advance the cause of Indigenous women, children, the elderly and the disabled. While there is a huge demand for legal services, few Indigenous clients have access to resources to pay for the legal services they desperately need. I believe that, by working together, we in the legal profession, can help to reverse the legacy of colonial policies, practices and laws that have hampered Indigenous Peoples’ survival and that by working collaboratively, we can make a positive impact on the lives of Indigenous Peoples.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to the many elders, including the late Harvey Tootoosis, my mentor, and many women who have been a huge support to me over the years. Without the support of my family and friends, especially my husband, Leo, and our two boys, Joshua, 29, and Matthew, 23, who have sacrificed much for my career, I would not have become the person I am today.
For individual categories, members of the legal profession are nominated by a single nominator.
Nominators must be members of the legal profession practising in Alberta. Nominators who are nominating in multiple categories must complete a separate nomination package for each category.
All nominations close September 3, 2024.
Contributions to the legal profession are recognized in the following categories:
This award recognizes and applauds a lawyer in private practice who has shown extraordinary leadership in one or more of the following areas:
This award recognizes and applauds a lawyer working as in-house counsel or in government who has shown extraordinary leadership in one or more of the following areas:
This award recognizes and applauds a lawyer who applies her skills as a leader in a non-practising broader role (specifically not in a law firm, in-house/government, or community environment covered by other award categories) who has shown extraordinary leadership in one or more of the following areas:
Lawyers nominated under this category could include lawyers active in an academic setting, a non-profit group, an organization that governs or promotes the legal profession, or in any other position not covered by another award.
This award celebrates the outstanding contributions of a lawyer who applies her skills as a leader in her community through pro bono legal services or service to other community organizations. The recipient will have shown extraordinary leadership in these areas and a commitment to being a positive role model for the community.
This award encourages and recognizes the accomplishments of a lawyer who was first called to the Alberta Bar not more than 10 years prior to the year in which the award is received. The recipient of this award will have demonstrated significant growth, development, and initiative throughout her first years of practice, and shows great promise for superior legal capability and leadership potential through her actions and attitude.
Join us for the 14th Annual WILL Awards on November 21, 2024 at The Westin in Calgary!