Cherie Brant is a partner in the firm’s Toronto office. She has First Nations law practice with a focus on commercial real estate, energy and transmission, and First Nations economic development. She provides strategic counsel to several First Nations seeking to fulfill their commercial development needs.
Cherie also provides counsel to industry clients seeking to develop projects with First Nations and/or to understand the legal considerations relevant to Canada, and with respect to the constitutionally protected interests of the Indigenous nations with which Canada shares its land and jurisdiction. In 2017, Cherie received the Lexpert Zenith Award, a national award recognizing women’s contributions in the law. In 2012, she was named one of Lexpert’s “Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40”.
In 2012, Cherie completed the first 100% First Nation owned wind-power project in Ontario and is active in renewable energy development ever since having now completed over 300 MW of renewable energy partnerships involving First Nations and completed over 800 MW of partnerships involving First Nations for competitive procurement processes. As lead counsel to the First Nations Energy Alliance (a consortium of twenty First Nations) on the Integrated Power System Plan review before the Ontario Energy Board, her counsel was instrumental in promoting Aboriginal participation models for renewable energy procurement.
More recently in 2015, Cherie Brant was selected as lead counsel to the Chiefs of Ontario on behalf of the Chiefs in Assembly for Ontario to assemble one of the largest First Nations led limited partnerships in Canada. On December 29, 2017, the Ontario First Nations Sovereign Wealth LP closed on a share purchase and loan agreement with the Province of Ontario for approximately 2.4% of Hydro One Limited to support long term wealth creation for its 129 First Nation limited partners.
Cherie is both Mohawk and Ojibway from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Territory. Cherie is a noted speaker, having presented on topics relevant to Aboriginal Economic Development and Energy Development across Canada since 2009. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2003.
Education:
- University of Waterloo, B.A., Environmental Studies, Urban and Regional Planning Program, 1998
- University of Toronto, J.D., 2002
- Called to the Bar of Ontario 2003
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