Odette Dempsey-Caputo

BA (Victoria), JD (Saskatchewan)

Odette Dempsey-Caputo received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria and her Juris Doctor from the University of Saskatchewan College of Law. She completed her articles in Victoria at British Columbia’s oldest law firm, focusing on civil litigation and administrative law. Odette then moved to Kamloops, where she spent the next ten years in private practice gaining extensive experience in personal injury defence, estates law, corporate law, and society litigation.

In 2017, Odette joined Thompson Rivers University’s Community Legal Clinic as a supervising lawyer—just one year after the Clinic opened its doors. She played a pioneering role in the Clinic’s early development, making significant contributions to student mentorship, professional development, and the creation of resources and program materials.

In 2019, Odette left the TRU Community Legal Clinic to establish the Kamloops & District Elizabeth Fry Society Legal Clinic and its satellite offices. Since then, she has continued to advance access to justice in the region. She currently serves as the Executive Director and Senior Clinic Lawyer with the Okanagan Thompson Legal Clinic, which operates offices in Kelowna and Kamloops, and also oversees the Immigration and Refugee Legal Clinic in Vancouver. Both clinics operate under the Community Legal Clinic Operating Society of BC. In her role, Odette provides legal services to low-income and marginalized clients, develops public legal education initiatives, and carries out overall management and strategic leadership functions for the clinics.

Odette is an LL.M. candidate at the University of Ottawa. Her graduate research focuses on technology and access to justice for equity-seeking communities in rural and remote areas of British Columbia. She is a regular volunteer judge for TRU Law moot teams, and a frequent presenter at professional development seminars and public legal education events throughout British Columbia.