About Risa Schwartz

Risa Schwartz International Law is a sole practitioner law firm that specializes in international trade and investment law and international environmental law and the intersections with the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Risa was a member of the Indigenous Working Group for Indigenous Trade Policy during the CUSMA negotiations, and a member of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Committee (IPAC) for the IPETCA negotiations. Risa is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Indigenous Trade Steering Group.

Risa formerly worked as a senior research fellow with Centre for International Governance Innovation’s International Law Research Program.

Risa also held positions as counsel to the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in Ontario, and the Ministry of the Environment, and worked as a legal officer at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. She obtained her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School and her LL.M. from the London School of Economics in international and environmental law.

Risa has co-edited two recent books on Indigenous rights and international law:  Braiding Legal Orders (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019) and Indigenous Peoples and International Trade:  Building equitable and inclusive International Trade and Investment Agreements (Cambridge University Press, 2020).