Matthew Nefstead (he/him/his) is a staff lawyer at West Coast whose work focuses primarily on environmental law reform in British Columbia, including advocating for the development of legislation to promote and protect biodiversity and ecosystem health.
Matthew has spent most of his legal career working as a litigator, including on matters of public interest environmental law, civil liberties, and Indigenous rights. He has represented clients at all levels of court in British Columbia, as well as at the Environmental Appeal Board, the National Energy Regulator, and other specialized tribunals.
Before becoming a lawyer, Matthew worked for the Yukon Government in the area of contaminated sites remediation. He continues to be interested in the complex interactions between people, pollutants, and the environment, and how we can better manage these interactions to reduce human impacts and improve accountability for environmental harms.
Matthew lives and works in Victoria, on the traditional and unceded territory of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations.