About Elsa Wyllie

Elsa is a criminal defence lawyer committed to defending the rule of law. She has acted for clients accused of serious offences including sexual assault and first-degree murder, and has appeared at all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Merging domestic expertise with global insight, she holds an MA in International Law (UK), an LLB from Otago, an LLM from Columbia University, and is an Associate Member of London’s Church Court Chambers. She has contributed to the UK/Canadian High-Level Panel on Media Freedom (led by Amal Clooney) and serves on the IBA War Crimes Committee, spearheading its 2025 Law on the Frontline conference in The Hague. Her work has focused extensively on the rule of law and the intersection of power, legitimacy, and responsibility in international law. She supports IBA initiatives in Ukraine, ensuring war crimes adjudications meet international standards and conform to the rule of law.

Pre-law, Elsa’s experience at NATO, NORAD, and the UN in Rwanda—where she managed disarmament efforts from Roméo Dallaire’s former office—forged her understanding of legitimacy, power, and accountability. The 2020 racial justice reckoning prompted deep introspection: after inadvertently harming a Black woman, she undertook antiracism training, later urging systemic reform in Recognizing Racialization, Reforming the Law, and Raising the Bar: “there is fear…for lawyers facing the decision to raise racialized defences. We know that racialized mythologies persist… even the most unapologetic antiracist advocate would have to take serious pause in an era where calling out someone as racist is inexplicably more offensive than the racism itself…The risk we face by not using our voices is continuing to repeat what we do not repair. As we stand by, we risk clients foregoing their Charter rights for self-preservation.”

Elsa advocates for those facing discrimination, exemplified by a landmark 2024 human rights settlement securing $50,000 for a Black man wrongfully accused of “threatening conduct” by a company that later exonerated him—a case underscoring her fight against racialized policing and corporate complicity.

Five years after a car accident left her navigating serious chronic pain, she returned to practice, transforming lived experience into advocacy. She has guest lectured at UBC’s Allard School of Law, speaks at forums like the Trial Lawyer’s Criminal Law Conference, most recently focusing on the Charter and its capacity for change through litigation. She sits on TLABC’s EDI and Criminal Defence Committees.

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Education

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Columbia Law, NYC, LLM 2020

Elsa completed her LLM at Columbia Law School a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She was awarded an Innovation Grant for her work to transform Columbia Law School by successfully eliminating the availability of single use plastics and collaborating with local farms to offer sustainable food options and composting. Experiential coursework included arguing cases at the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Manhattan. She focused extensively on trial advocacy, human rights and constitutional law.

Otago Law, New Zealand, LLB 2012

Elsa trained at her father’s alma mater, Otago Law School, where her grandfather, by then a judge, had taught him evidence thirty-three years previously. She gained insight into Maori-Pakeha (the Maori term for white “imaginary beings resembling men”) relations in New Zealand and graduated with First Class Honours. She refined and developed her research from her MA, completing “Beyond a Categorically Zero-Sum Game: a New Approach to the Laws of War.” She achieved top of her class in Advanced Criminal Law and was awarded a Faculty of Law Research Scholarship.

United Kingdom, MA (International Law and Security) 2007

Elsa graduated with Distinction from the University of Birmingham, where she completed her thesis “Beyond a Zero-Sum Game: Power, Legitimacy and Responsibility after Iraq.”