Leah West

About Leah

Leah West is counsel to Friedman Mansour LLP, focusing on national security law, terrorism and cyber security. She is also a professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, where she lectures and writes on national security law, counterterrorism and cyber operations, and has testified before the Senate Committee on Security and Defence. She previously served as counsel with the Department of Justice's National Security Litigation and Advisory Group, appearing before the Federal Court and the Security Intelligence Review Committee, and clerked for Justice Mosley of the Federal Court before her call to the Ontario bar in 2016. Before law school she served ten years in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Armoured Officer, including a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan where she developed the Female Engagement Strategy. Her practice areas include appeals, DUI and driving offences, drug offences, firearms charges, white collar crime, sexual offences and violent crimes.

Education & credentials

Law school

University of Toronto

Undergraduate

Royal Military College of Canada, BA (Hons.) in Politics

Other degrees

SJD, University of Toronto, 2020
LLM (International Humanitarian and Security Law), University of Ottawa, 2018
MA in Intelligence Studies, American Military University, 2012