Iqaluit lawyer Alison Crowe is taking the Legal Services Board of Nunavut to court after the board denied her application to join its criminal defence panel.

Crowe is asking a judge to order the board, which is responsible for providing legal aid services in Nunavut, to add her to the panel, which is the board’s roster of private practice lawyers who provide services to legal aid clients.

She is also seeking an order for the legal aid organization to assign cases to her “commensurate with her experience and residency in Nunavut,” and to award her damages for lost income.

The 77-page application package includes a notice signed by Crowe’s lawyer, Craig T. Rogers, an affidavit signed by Crowe and email correspondence with representatives from the legal services board.

Crowe has lived and practised law in Iqaluit since 2014, but her Nunavut experience dates back to the 1980s.

In 2024, she was appointed as a justice of the peace. With that new role, she resigned from the Law Society of Nunavut and withdrew from the legal services board’s criminal panel.

Last June, however, Crowe returned to private practice. She was readmitted to the law society and applied to return to the legal services board’s criminal panel.

In November, she was informed her application was denied by the board in a letter signed by co-chairperson Tim Zehr, following a review of her previous tenure on the panel.

“A number of concerns were raised, including your interpersonal skills, your ability to work with Inuk staff and some questionable interactions with staff lawyers and judges,” Zehr wrote.

Crowe declined Nunatsiaq News’ request for an interview about her legal challenge because her case is before courts.

In her affidavit, Crowe said legal aid files count for 80 to 100 per cent of her annual income, and without them she “will be unable to continue to live and work in Nunavut as criminal defence counsel.”

Crowe also mentioned that in 2022, she was the subject of a harassment complaint from Madeleine Redfern, who was then a co-chairperson of the board.

The specific allegations against Crowe stem from comments she made and questions she directed toward Redfern during the 2022 annual general meeting of the Maliiganik Tukisiiniakvik legal aid clinic.

In her application for a judicial review, Crowe included emails from the law firm Dentons, which investigated the harassment complaint. However, she refused to participate in that investigation.

Crowe said she took part in a Government of Nunavut-ordered audit of the legal services board and its leadership in 2023. That audit has not been made publicly available.

Teena Hartman, CEO of the Legal Services Board of Nunavut, also declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation.

In an Iqaluit courtroom Monday afternoon, board lawyer Stephen Bird — who appeared by videoconference — said the board’s response to Crowe’s court submission is in the works.

Bird said the board’s submission may include “sensitive” information from clients and whistleblowers, for which he would request that some details be either redacted or placed under a sealing order, preventing them from being available to the public.

“I can see a great deal of difficulty if this information becomes public,” Bird said.

However, he also agreed to provide unredacted copies to Rogers.

Rogers promised the court “absolute confidentiality” on those details.

Crowe was in the courtroom Monday while her lawyer spoke on videoconference.

The case is set to return to civil court March 9.

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