With the departure of Judge Lane Weigers from Estevan, the Provincial Court in the city has already filled that position as of last week with Judge Michelle R. Brass. She's been in the city for the last week and is excited to be apart of the community.

"I'm excited about being in Estevan, it seems like a really nice community. I'm from Balcarres, not too far from here, and I'm also from a First Nation outside of Balcarres, the Peepeekisis First Nation."

A Saulteax woman of Treaty 4 Territory, Judge Brass has been in the law practice since 1997 when she graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with her J.D. from the College of Law, and in 1991 added a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Classics. From there, Brass went on to the Saskatchewan Bar the year after she graduated. While her practice mainly revolved around Aboriginal Law, she also practiced in both Constitutional Law and Environment Law. 

After only four years of experience in law including working for the Crown in Saskatchewan and with Sask Justice's Constitutional Branch, Brass made her way out to Ottawa for work with Justice Canada for fourteen years. In that time, she was apart of the Legal Services of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) working on Specific Land Claims, and also worked with the Indian Claims Commission in Ottawa.

Judge Brass then left Ottawa and returned to her home province in 2014 and used her work with Enviromental Law to take up a position with the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency before breaking off and starting her own law practice in Regina.

"I'm looking forward to getting settled. Before I was appointed (as judge), one of my clients was with the University of Saskatchewan and I was holding a seminar tour across the province which meant that I've been on the road since about June I guess holding seminars all over the province, so it's kind of nice being in one spot."