Audrey Doxtdator
2014-2015
Audrey Doxtdator is a champion for children and youth and a fierce advocate for families. She helps protect the rights for some of the province’s most vulnerable children and she is determined to amplify their voices where she can.
About Audrey Doxtdator
Associate Legal Counsel, Falls Law Group, Bracebridge, ON, Canada
Audrey Doxtdator is a champion for children and youth and a fierce advocate for families. She helps protect the rights for some of the province’s most vulnerable children and she is determined to amplify their voices where she can. “It’s emotionally charged work. But it’s rewarding to help people navigate the system that can often be challenging,” says Doxtdator.
Her own experience with a personal disability showed her how the Ontario Human Rights Code is designed to prevent and provide some restitution to those who have faced discrimination and what good advocacy can achieve. “For the first 3 and half years I worked for a law firm that focused on family law. I did work in Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. Most of the work was in child protection with a mostly Indigenous client base,” she says.
In September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Audrey decided to expand her practice. “I went to Bracebridge for a vacation and I simply fell in love with the Muskoka community and I immediately knew that I wanted to work in the area,” she says. The majority of her practice is family law and has recently started some civil litigation work. She also became an Ontario Children’s Lawyer.
Audrey Doxtdator is a champion for children and youth and a fierce advocate for families. She helps protect the rights for some of the province’s most vulnerable children and she is determined to amplify their voices where she can. “It’s emotionally charged work. But it’s rewarding to help people navigate the system that can often be challenging,” says Doxtdator.
Her own experience with a personal disability showed her how the Ontario Human Rights Code is designed to prevent and provide some restitution to those who have faced discrimination and what good advocacy can achieve. “For the first 3 and half years I worked for a law firm that focused on family law. I did work in Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. Most of the work was in child protection with a mostly Indigenous client base,” she says.
In September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Audrey decided to expand her practice. “I went to Bracebridge for a vacation and I simply fell in love with the Muskoka community and I immediately knew that I wanted to work in the area,” she says. The majority of her practice is family law and has recently started some civil litigation work. She also became an Ontario Children’s Lawyer.
Law Degree:
Osgoode Hall Law School
LPP In One Word
Game-changer!
Favourite Book Of All Time:
The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
Why law? What inspired your legal aspirations?
When I was 20 years of age I started losing my ability to hear. I faced a whole host of barriers that I had to learn to adapt to. I also started experiencing discrimination once I became hard of hearing. I was the applicant in an employment-related human rights case when I was 23 years of age and I remember being so inspired by my counsel. My counsel was very knowledgeable and able to advise me of my legal rights so as to put me in the driver’s seat at mediation. I remember sitting at mediation thinking-I need to get a job like that!
What is the best part of your career?
I get to help people work through and resolve complicated and confusing legal issues, ensuring they get a good result.
Describe a defining moment in your legal career
Becoming an OCL was a very big achievement to me. To be trusted to represent vulnerable children clients is a big responsibility that I take very seriously.
Where did you complete your LPP work placement?
I completed my work placement with the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSO). I completed a 3 department rotations there. I was able to do legal research with the LSO’s in-house counsel as well as some administrative work.
Describe a particularly memorable or significant experience during your time at the LPP
The biggest take-away from the LPP for me was that I learned that I could in fact work as a lawyer although I am hard of hearing. The LPP was phenomenal in setting me up with the accommodations I needed to be successful. These accommodations gave me so much confidence that I was able to advocate for myself when I began practicing law to ensure I would continue to be accommodated. To date, my lack of hearing has not impaired my ability to practice. Something I was always worried about.
Describe some of the helpful tools or skills you acquired during the LPP
RESEARCH! After the LPP I was able to perform legal research very quickly.
Anything else you'd like to share about the LPP and your experience
The LPP was the best way for me to do articles. I was able to learn how to practice law in the face of my disability via accommodations. Further, I was exposed to so many areas of law that I likely would not have been exposed to had I done articles in a firm. I found that because I had read so much case law in the LPP, I was familiar with how to apply some leading cases when I entered private practice.
