Lawyers

Elizabeth, a partner at Young Anderson, is a litigator with a practice focused local government administrative decisions and enforcement, judicial reviews, challenges to legislation, and injunctions. She frequently deals with issues of zoning and land use regulation, building standards, and permitting requirements, with a special interest in matters which involve overlapping levels of jurisdiction, such as constitutional applications, cannabis regulation, foreshore and riparian management, and aboriginal issues. She has appeared in all the courts of British Columbia, the Federal Court of Canada, and applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. She is recognized by Lexpert as a Leading Lawyer to Watch in the area of Regulatory and Public Law Litigation. 

Elizabeth also assists clients with the review and drafting of regulatory policies and bylaws, including development of comprehensive bylaws in novel areas of local government jurisdiction such as retail cannabis and short-term rentals.

She was called to the BC Bar in 2011 after obtaining her LL.B from UVic Law School in 2010, and practiced with a leading full-service business law firm before joining Young, Anderson in 2013. She was awarded the David W. Roberts Prize in Legal Writing from UVic Law. Elizabeth regularly speaks at and authors papers for conferences, including the Local Government Compliance and Enforcement Association, Government Finance Officers’ Association, and Lower Mainland Local Government Association. She has served as a guest lecturer for the Justice Institute of British Columbia’s Bylaw courses and the Municipal Law course at Capilano University’s Public Administration program, and also volunteers her time as a director on select non-profit community boards.

Recent and Notable Cases:

• Blanke v. West Vancouver (District), 2025 BCCA 90
• Onni Wyndansea Holdings Ltd. v. Ucluelet (District), 2023 BCCA 342, leave to appeal ref’d 2024 CanLII 37796 (SCC)
• West Vancouver (District) v Este, 2024 BCSC 2363
• City of Port Coquitlam v Ground X Site Service Ltd., 2024 BCSC 1348
• Este v. West Vancouver (District), 2022 BCCA 445, leave to appeal ref’d 2023 CanLII 54515 (SCC)
• Surrey (City) v Singh, 2022 BCSC 2059 and 2023 BCSC 2161
• BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors v Surrey (City), 2022 BCSC 855
• Surrey (City) v Singh, 2022 BCSC 1455
• Wan v British Columbia, 2021 BCSC 808 and 2022 BCSC 106
• West Kelowna (City) v Black Crow Herbals Association, 2019 BCSC 1082