Lara Koerner Yeo joined Cavalluzzo as an associate in 2018. She practices in the areas of Indigenous rights and Aboriginal law, as well as in administrative, constitutional, and human rights law. Prior to joining Cavalluzzo’s, Lara summered and articled at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General’s Crown Law Office Civil.
Lara received her Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto in 2017, where she graduated with the Dean’s Leadership Award and a Certificate in Aboriginal Legal Studies. In law school, Lara was a Co-Chair of the Aboriginal Law Society and the Feminist Law Students’ Association, a Senior Editor of the Indigenous Law Journal, a contributor to the International Human Rights Program’s Rights Review, and a Pro-Bono Student Canada volunteer with Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights. Lara also participated in student intensive and clinic programs, including the Intensive Program in Aboriginal, Lands, Resources and Governments at Osgoode Hall Law School and the International Human Rights Program's Clinic and the David Asper Centre’s Constitutional Advocacy Clinic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Prior to law school, Lara completed a Master's in human rights and humanitarian action at Sciences Po's Paris School of International Affairs, Paris, France. She also earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College, MA, USA. During this period, Lara secured grants and fellowships to pursue research on Indigenous self-government and the use of a human rights framework to advocate for improved state response to the root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Lara is a committed women’s rights activist. She is an active member of the Steering Committee and Human Rights Committee of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA). Lara has also worked with Human Rights Watch (Women’s Rights Division), Justice for Girls, and the West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund and served as the North American representative on the Young Feminist Activism Advisory Group of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.