Maggie Wente

Chair of the Board

Maggie Wente is a partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP, a law firm serving exclusively Indigenous clients from across Canada. She is of Anishinaabe and settler descent and is a member of Serpent River First Nation. Maggie has a broad practice serving First Nations governments and their related entities. Maggie litigates Treaty and Aboriginal rights equality rights, and governance matters. As a solicitor, Maggie advises on governance, employment and human rights law and matters related to the Indian Act. A significant portion of Maggie’s practice is devoted to the pursuit of equality in services for Indigenous children in child welfare and health services and assertion of First Nations jurisdiction over child welfare.

Maggie has appeared in tribunals, courts of appeal and trial-level courts in Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Federal Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Maggie is actively involved in community service and mentorship within the profession. Maggie is past-President of the Board of Directors at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. She was a Commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2015. Maggie is a member of the Indigenous Bar Association, the Ontario bar and the Newfoundland and Labrador bar, and is listed as  Most Frequently Recommended  in the Lexpert Directory on Indigenous Law and in Best Lawyers In Canada.

Maggie’s most loved parts of her job are travelling to clients’ communities, to learn from community members and elders and mentoring Indigenous law students.