Welcome

Renee Miller, BA, MA, LLB is a lawyer practicing family law in Okotoks and throughout Southern Alberta.​  She is a past member of the Law Societies of Ontario (2006) and Bristish Columbia (2006) and a current member of the  Law Society of Alberta (2018).   Renee is a member of the Association and Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada

Background

Renee was called to the Bar in Ontario and British Columbia after completing her articles with the Honourable Madam Justice Karen Sharlow of the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa in 2006. She holds a Master’s Degree and a Bachelor’s Degree in English, and has completed two courses of Negotiation Training at Harvard Law School.  
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Renee is an experienced litigator and appellate counsel. She has appeared at every level of court from Provincial Court to the Court of Appeal in both Alberta and British Columbia. She brings to her family law practice many years of court room experience as a criminal defence lawyer. Renee has argued a number of precedent setting Charter of Rights and Freedom decisions in British Columbia, including R. v. Bradley-Luscombe [2015] BCJ No. 1685, where the court found a 2 year minimum mandatory sentence to be cruel and unusual punishment.  That decision was upheld on appeal in R. v. Dickey, 2016 BCCA 177.  Read the decision here.

Renee successfully argued an important spousal support decision in Bone v. Bone 2020 ABCA 323 (Alberta Court of Appeal), leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed on February 18, 2021.  Read the decision here.

In the child welfare context, Renee was one of the first lawyer’s in British Columbia to challenge the Director’s Administrative Review legislation. In July of 2018, the British Columbia Supreme Court directed that the Ministry of Child and Family Development be required to make information about the Administrative Review of the Director’s day-to-day decision-making available to parents and the public. Renee believes that the Judicial Review of administrative decision-making in child welfare law is the only way to overcome a child welfare system routinely described as "broken."