Allison Fenske

Allison Fenske joined the Faculty of Law in 2023 as Clinical Counsel. She is a member of the clinical practice team which includes acting as Director of the University of Manitoba Community Law Centre – a long standing partnership with Legal Aid Manitoba providing law students with the opportunity to represent individuals who would not otherwise receive legal aid. She is also leading the development of an International Human Rights Clinic. Allison has taught courses at the Faculty of Law and the University of Winnipeg as a sessional instructor.

Allison obtained her LL.B (2007) from the University of Manitoba where she was a Solomon Greenberg Finalist, the recipient of a Top Oralist (2nd) and Team Award (2nd) at the Wilson Moot, and the 2006-07 President of the Manitoba Law Students’ Association. She was called to the Manitoba Bar in 2008.

After beginning her legal career with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP, she joined Legal Aid Manitoba’s Public Interest Law Centre where her litigation practice focused on human rights and constitutional law. She has represented an array of equity-deserving groups before all levels of court in Manitoba, the Federal Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as numerous provincial and federal administrative tribunals.

From representing residential school survivors in her early years of practice to representing 2SLGBTQ+ families in a successful constitutional challenge to Manitoba’s definition of legal parentage in the Family Maintenance Act, Allison’s advocacy work has focused on navigating legal issues through a lens of social inclusion and advancing the rights of people and communities marginalized through state and systemic oppression.

She continues to be a practicing member of the Manitoba Bar and is a member of the Association of Canadian Clinical Legal Education, the Canadian Prison Lawyers Association, and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, Winnipeg Chapter.

Allison is the chair of the Board of Directors of Klinic Community Health. She has been an advisor and café volunteer with the Bell Tower Community Café, and has trained and coordinated legal observers at pop-up safe consumption sites.

She is the past Chair of the Manitoba Bar Association’s Aboriginal Law Section and has sat on the executive of the Canadian Bar Association’s Aboriginal Law Section.

• Pastora Sala, Joelle & Allison Fenske. “The Wheels of Justice: Reflections from the Public Interest Law Centre of Legal Aid Manitoba” in Cheryl Milne & Kent Roach, eds, Public Interest Litigation in Canada (Toronto, Ontario: LexisNexis Canada Inc., 2019) 93.
• Fenske, Allison & Beverly Froese, Justice Starts Here: A one-stop shop approach for achieving greater justice in Manitoba (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2017).
• Barr, Kristine., Fraser, Danielle., Fenske, Allison., & Thurmeier, Sarah. (2006). Twenty years later: has the Charter made a difference to Manitoba women? (Manitoba Association of Women and the Law, 2006).

• Jurist of Robson Hall (2022)

• Manitoba Bar Association Access to Justice Award (2017)

• Commendation of Service from the Cleark of the Executive Council (Province of Manitoba) for her work assisting the first Manitoba families to access medical assistance in dying. (2016)

• Manitoba Bar Association Pro Bono Award (2013)