Rachel S. Forbes

Staff Counsel, West Coast Environmental Law

Rachel currently works at West Coast Environmental Law, where her work focuses on environmental assessment law reform, and law and policy projects related to local government sustainability and natural resource development.

Rachel has a bachelor of arts in geography and communications from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and a certificate in urban studies. Her legal education at the University of Victoria focused on environmental and Aboriginal law, both of which she gained experience in while working with legal environmental NGOs and a law firm that focuses on Aboriginal law. Rachel spent two years working for various local governments in BC doing environmental, land use, and First Nations relations work. She has worked in sustainable community planning, in particular with the UniverCity project at SFU, and is currently an associate member of the Planning Institute of British Columbia. Rachel has previously been a volunteer director of non-profit and for-profit organizations and she is currently a director at large of the BC Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.