Josh Paterson joined the Law Foundation as Executive Director on September 3rd, 2019. He holds law and master’s degrees from the University of Toronto, and clerked at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. Before joining the Law Foundation, Josh was the executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association since January 2013, leading legal challenges and law reform work which created substantial change in Canadian law, modernizing its governance structure, developing its first strategic plan, and significantly increasing its financial capacity.
Josh’s legal practice has included constitutional law, First Nations law, labour and human rights law, and environmental law, working at a number of different legal organizations and a litigation firm. He has served on a number of government advisory bodies, including BC’s Advisory Committee on Provincial Policing Standards, the BC Police Academy Curriculum Evaluation Steering Committee, and the National Energy Board’s Land Matters Group. Josh taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia for six years.