About Me

Eric is an Associate at TLE working primarily in the areas of Treaty right claims, self-governance, and election appeals.
Eric is part of the Treaty rights negotiations and Treaty rights litigation teams at TLE with experience drafting claims for submission to the Specific Claims Branch and litigating Treaty claims in the Specific Claims Tribunal and Federal Courts.

Eric’s practice includes supporting our First Nation clients with their self-governance by advising on jurisdictional issues and potential constitutional/legal challenges and assisting with the drafting of Codes, bylaws, Trusts, contracts, and other instruments.
Eric serves First Nation clients by responding to election appeals and to judicial review applications in the Federal Courts.
Eric has appeared before the Alberta Court of Kings Bench, Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and Specific Claims Tribunal and made written submissions to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Eric has experience working on a wide range of Specific Claims including Agricultural Benefits, Treaty Land Entitlements, illegal surrenders of reserve lands, Treaty annuities, Ammunition and Twine, and TOPGas. Eric is currently working on dozens of Specific Claims for our Treaty 6, 7, 8, and 10 clients including numerous claims that are valued at or above 150 million.

Eric’s legal practice is grounded in a strong academic foundation. While completing his law degree Eric taught the foundations of legal reasoning through LSAT seminars, taught legal research and writing to first-year law students and internationally trained lawyers through the Faculty of Law, worked as an editor at the Constitutional Studies Center, and worked as a legal researcher for three different law professors, assisting with research into topics such as the Crown’s assertion of its criminal law jurisdiction in Alberta during the late 1800’s when the numbered Treaties were being negotiated.

Eric completed a thesis based LLM in addition to his JD. Eric’s Master’s in Law was focused on Aboriginal Law and in addition to writing his thesis on the insufficient protection afforded by the legal test for justifying an infringement of Treaty rights he wrote an award-winning term paper arguing that the application of legal restrictions on relief available against the Crown breaches Treaty rights.
In addition to a strong theoretical understanding of that law that has been recognized by numerous scholarships and awards, such as the Trevor Anderson Prize in Jurisprudence, Eric has a developed a thorough practical understanding of Aboriginal Law that has been both recognized and further developed by his appointment as a sessional instructor of Law 590: Indigenous Peoples and Law by the University of Alberta Faculty of Law.

In his spare time, Eric cycles, kayaks, and cross-country skis. He also likes coffee, coniferous trees, strong winds, and trudging through snow.

Education

2021
University of Alberta
Master of Laws, Thesis: Infringement of Treaty Rights

2016
University of Alberta
Juris Doctor (with Distinction)

2009
University of Alberta
Bachelor of Arts
(with Distinction)

Awards

• Sheldon M Chumir Memorial Essay Prize in Human Rights or Ethics in Government (2018) for the essay “Vindicating Treaty Rights”
• GE Trott Excellence in Law Endowment funded Graduate Research Assistantship
• Honourable ND McDermid Graduate Scholarship Indigenous Graduate Award
• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Award
• Professor Trevor Anderson Prize in Jurisprudence Robert A Homme QC Memorial Scholarship in Law
• Eric AD McCuaig QC First Year Scholarship in the Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Law Entrance Scholarship
• Jimmy Condon Athletic Scholarship