Janneke Lewis

Janneke Lewis was called to the Bar as a barrister in 1986 in South Africa and thereafter practiced as a prosecutor. After emigrating to Canada, Janneke re-qualified as a lawyer in Canada in 1995 and was called to the British Columbia Bar in 1996. Janneke Lewis was a family lawyer on the North Shore from 2001 to 2012. In 2014 she returned to the North Shore after living in Scotland for two years.

Janneke focuses primarily on the areas of family law including abuse issues, child abduction, and parenting and financial issues including division of assets and support. She is an accredited Family Law mediator and Parenting Co-ordinator.

EDUCATION

In 1979, Janneke obtained her BA and in 1981 she obtained an LLB from the University of Natal, South Africa. She was accredited in Canada in 1995.

ASSOCIATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Janneke was an elected member of the Provincial Council of the Canadian Bar Association representing North Vancouver for four years. In 2010 she was honoured with the Canadian Bar Association, BC branch Community Service Award for her work in the area of human trafficking. She is also a member of the Trial Lawyers Association and the BC Parenting Coordinator Roster Society where she is currently the Past -President.

Janneke has contributed to Family Law Source Book as a Member of the Editorial Board in 2012 and as the editor of individual chapters in 2009-2012 and 2015. Janneke has contributed to the CLE Manual on Agreements in 2009 and 2010 and from 2016 - 2021.

Janneke has been a guest lecturer at the Professional Legal Training Course (PLTC) and has presented at TLABC conferences and chaired a TLABC conference.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Janneke is a past Governor of Western Canadian Region for Soroptimist International. She has attended several international conferences on human trafficking. In April 2005, she presented a workshop on prosecuting child trafficking at a UN conference in Bangkok and participated in the consultative NGO group for the UN Vienna Forum held in February 2008. She talks publicly to interested groups on human trafficking to raise awareness on this issue. While in Scotland, she volunteered with Rhoda Grand MSP to lobby and advocate for the Nordic Model of prostitution laws and was a member of the Cross Party Human Trafficking Group.

In 2022, she was awarded the Frances Wagner award for woman of the year by the Western Canada Region for Soroptimist international for her 38 years of volunteer work.