The Honourable Shannon Smallwood was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories in 2011. Prior to her appointment, Chief Justice Smallwood had been a senior counsel and team leader with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Yellowknife since 2008, and Crown counsel from 2005 to 2008. She was counsel with the Department of Justice Canada’s International Assistance Group in Ottawa in 2005, and Crown counsel in Yellowknife from 2000 to 2004. Her main area of practice was criminal law.
Since her appointment to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, Chief Justice Smallwood has chaired the Court’s Criminal Bench and Bar Committee and has engaged in judicial education through the National Judicial Institute. She is a former member of the Canadian Bar Association and was also a member of the Bench and Bar Committee (Territorial and Supreme Courts), Admissions Committee, and Discipline Committee of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories.
Chief Justice Smallwood is K’ashógot’įne and is originally from Fort Good Hope (Radįlįh Kǫ́ę́, Northwest Territories. She received a Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1999 from the University of Calgary. She was admitted to the Bar of the Northwest Territories in 2000.