Selina Lee-Andersen

Selina is an experienced lawyer in the areas of environmental law, Aboriginal law, and regulatory matters. In addition, she regularly advises clients on commercial issues relating to mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, and procurement processes. Selina also specializes in climate change law, where she provides strategic counsel to clients on matters relating to carbon offset systems, emissions trading, regulatory compliance, and clean technologies. Selina is widely published on a range of environmental issues, including contaminated sites, natural resource management, climate change policy, and carbon transactions.

Selina advises clients on a wide variety of matters, including:

Environmental – assisting with environmental assessment (provincial and federal), due diligence, and permitting matters relating to the development, operation and decommissioning of projects in the natural resource, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors; spill reporting requirements; contaminated site matters including remediation and reporting obligations, directors’ and officers’ liability and risk allocation in respect of contaminated site liability and industrial activities; compliance with ISO-based environmental management systems (including ISO 14001 and ISO 14021) and other industry certification programs (including EcoLogo, Forestry Stewardship Council, Canadian Standards Association and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)).

Regulatory – compliance obligations under product stewardship programs across Canada; regulatory requirements of provincial and federal low carbon fuel standards (including compliance credit trading regimes); regulatory compliance with environmental, health and safety legislation and standards, as well as product safely and import/export requirements; policy and legislative analysis in respect of new and emerging technologies; regulatory issues in Western Canadian electricity markets including issues relating to mandatory reliability standards.

Aboriginal – negotiating and drafting agreements between project proponents and Indigenous groups (including joint venture and partnership agreements, impact and benefit agreements, sub-contracts and services agreements); structuring business arrangements to facilitate the participation of Indigenous communities in resource and energy projects; procurement processes within the context of preferential employment, training and contracting opportunities for Indigenous groups; stakeholder engagement and consultation matters in connection with regulatory approval processes.

Climate Change – compliance with provincial and federal greenhouse gas reporting requirements; carbon market opportunities and the potential impacts of new and developing climate change regulations on business operations; preparing contracts for the aggregation of emission offset credits and the purchase and sale of emission offset credits and renewable energy credits in both voluntary and mandatory markets; corporate carbon disclosure requirements under securities legislation and voluntary initiatives (TCFD, CDP, GRI); support with the development of emissionn offset project protocols and the registration of emission offsets.

ESG – ESG reporting requirements (including biodiversity and sustainability frameworks and standards); drafting corporate environmental, health and safety, ethics and compliance, and ESG policies for private and public sector clients; preparing terms of reference and governance frameworks for board members and ESG committees.

Selina is a frequent contributor to industry blogs and publications on a broad range of environmental topics and carbon market matters. She is also a regular speaker at environmental and Aboriginal law conferences and events. Selina values meaningful engagement with her clients and is committed to keeping them updated on legal and policy developments as they relate to their business needs. Selina is also an active member of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and has volunteered as a trainer with Supporting Inclusive Resource Development, a project in East Africa sponsored by CBA and Global Affairs Canada. As Past Chair of the CBA’s National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section, Selina had the privilege of collaborating with the members of the Executive to advance a series of professional development initiatives, and to engage with international bar associations on environmental issues of collective interest.

Before joining Miller Thomson, Selina was a senior lawyer and partner at another national law firm for 10 years, prior to which she was in-house counsel at one of Canada’s largest construction and engineering firms. Selina started her legal career at a Crown Corporation in Ottawa before joining the Calgary office of a national law firm as an associate.

Selina is active in various mentoring programs and has advised non-profit organizations on regulatory and commercial aspects of managing plastic waste in the ocean on a pro bono basis. In addition, Selina is a part-time instructor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s School of Construction and the Environment on environmental law and climate change policy.