At an early age, Kyla Lee knew she wanted to be a lawyer one day.
Lee remembers stressing about her grades while in elementary school and how that could impact her future law career.
Lee’s mom would tell her that she came out of the womb a lawyer.
“I was always arguing and debating when I was a kid. I was always really interested in justice and social activism and people’s rights and violations of rights and so as long as I can remember I wanted to be a lawyer and I lived my life working towards that goal,” says Lee on the latest episode of Face to Face.
Initially, Lee thought she would go into Indigenous law, working on land claims and treaty rights. However, she realized you can spend an entire career working on one or two cases.
While in law school, she fell in love with criminal law which would allow her to work on cases about protecting the rights of individuals while “challenging state and police actions.”
Lee believes having Indigenous lawyers working in different facets of law helps to break down barriers.
“I think seeing Indigenous people who are real estate lawyers, and who are civil litigation lawyers and do wills and estates and all sorts of areas of law tells young Indigenous people who are looking for role models, look you can be anything you want to be and then within that profession you can do anything you want to do and there’s no barriers facing you just because you’re Indigenous,” says Lee.
