Jeevyn Dhaliwal (Vancouver County) and Pinder Cheema, Q.C. (Victoria County) have been elected to the Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia.

Jeevyn and Pinder are the first South Asians elected to these prestigious positions and will serve for a two-year term beginning January 1, 2014 and ending December 31, 2015.

Pinder Cheema’s parents arrived in Victoria, BC in July 1952 seeking to make a better life. The young couple had three daughters, and there was some pressure to send all of them back to the village to be raised in India. Pinder’s mother refused the suggestion and promised to provide her daughters the opportunity for a Canadian education. Pinder graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and eventually a Law Degree from the University of Victoria in 1983. She practiced law as a sole practitioner in Victoria serving clients in French and Punjabi, until she joined the Ministry of the Attorney General in 1989. Ms. Cheema has broken many barriers and set records as the first female Sikh law graduate at UVic and Queen’s Counsel designation (2002).

Jeevyn Dhaliwal was born and raised in Kamloops, BC to an early pioneer family. She obtained her law degree from the University of British Columbia in 1997 and was called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1998. She has long been active in the legal community, including having served on the Law Society’s Rule of Law and Lawyer Independence Advisory Committee for 2013. She is a Board member and past President of SABABC. As a testament to her skills as a lawyer, she was selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2014 edition of Best Lawyers Canada. Her community involvement extends to singing at charitable and sporting events and she has, over the years, been a frequent guest anthem singer for the Vancouver Canucks NHL hockey team.