Laura Schemitsch
Profile
Laura Schemitsch was called to the bar in Ontario in June 2020. She was called to the bar in British Columbia in November 2021. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa in 2019 with specializations in Public Law and Law and Social Justice. Prior to studying law, she earned her Bachelor of Arts with Honours from McMaster University majoring in History, and a Master of Arts from Queen’s University in Art History. Laura’s work has been published in peer reviewed journals and books and most recently her legal op-eds were published in the Huffington Post and Canadian Bar Association National Magazine.
Laura found her passion for immigration and refugee law in 2017 when she joined Capital Rainbow Refuge, a private sponsorship group that brings LGBTQ+ refugees to Ottawa. Laura completed her Articling placement at Gerami Law PC, a boutique immigration and refugee law firm in Ottawa between August 2019 and June 2020 and was hired back as an immigration and refugee lawyer. Laura moved to British Columbia in June 2020 and worked remotely for Gerami Law PC until November 2021.
Laura is originally from Toronto but lived and worked in Whistler for a year before law school and always hoped to return. She is thrilled to join Race and Company LLP as an Associate lawyer specializing in immigration law and looks forward to serving clients in the Sea to Sky corridor.
When Laura is not working she enjoys exploring the outdoors, dancing, crafting and her community work.
Memberships
Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association (‘CILA’) https://cila.co/
Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (‘CARL’) https://carl-acaadr.ca/
Publications
Arghavan Gerami & Laura Schemitsch, “Canada’s Immigration Removal Machine” CBA National
Magazine (13 January 2021), online: https://nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articles/law/opinion/2021/canada-
s-immigration-removal-machine
Laura Schemitsch, “So, About Those Anti-Immigration Claims Being Made this Election” Huffington
Post Canada (7 October 2019), online: https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/canada-election-
immigration_ca_5d9655bde4b02911e117eeeb
Laura Schemitsch, “Setting a Deportation Target Puts Canadian Values on the Line” Huffington Post
Canada (7 November 2018), online: https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/canada-refugee-
deportation-quotas_a_23582638