In school I was most captivated by constitutional and government studies classes. When I realized that law was the glue that held it all together, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. I love the law - its ability to shape social change and impact people’s lives has always inspired me, and its potential for building a better society has been a constant motivator.
I saw becoming a lawyer as a primary means of engaging with that promise – though I admit the rigors and conformity of law school at times clouded that initial inspiration. I attended UBC in Vancouver, a large faculty with a strong emphasis on ‘BigLaw’, and, though I enjoyed my time there, I realized pretty early on that “one of these things is not like the other” - everyone was focused on corporate law jobs, summer clerkships, working on big figure deals. It all just filled me with dread, yet the social pressure to take that path can be pretty intense, and I did it too, for a short time. I’m glad that I did. It provided a slew of challenges and confirmed for me that I was right to pursue a brand of work that intrinsically made me happy. So I left.
The corporate law experience prompted me to embark on a legal internship with a human rights organization in West Africa. As unconventional and surprising as this decision was at the time, quite simply, it was the best one I’ve ever made. I found myself in an environment where the rule of law often existed in name only, conditions that created rosters full of clients but no access to the lawyers needed to represent them. I worked with clients who had been forcibly removed from their homes, minorities and impoverished groups whose legal rights were either forgotten or ignored. Being their advocate filled me with a deep sense of purpose and meaning. I emerged with a reconnection as to why I became a lawyer in the first place – to be someone others confide in and seek advice from, to solve problems for people, and to help improve their lives.
My return home was with the vision and intent of serving my own community in this same way – promoting accessibility to justice. The opportunity of practicing with the Legal Services Board in the North has presented this and a whole lot more. Practice here has a frontier aspect to it; you feel as though the legal system and local community are evolving together. The legal community has a similarly collaborative tenor – a legal body that is largely collegial, not needlessly adversarial, and where sharp tactics are frowned upon rather than rewarded.
That’s not to say coming North has all been easy. It has its own unique difficulties. Friends and family are thousands of kilometers away and mail never seems to arrive on time, to say nothing of the -50 winter chill, but its charms are unparalleled - the midnight sun, northern lights, and a chance to experience some of the world’s last untouched wilderness. And, while the cases I work on aren’t likely to get me before the SCC, they are equal in their significance; there is something to be said for work that allows me to spend my days assisting some of the most vulnerable members of society. Although the difference I make here isn’t likely to change the world, in a community that is small enough to retain the true meaning of the word, there is a heightened intimacy that allows the impact you make to be felt all around you. In short, while there are still moments where I say to myself “is this nuts?” – such as the first time I walked on the open tundra – my only regret with coming North is that I didn’t do it sooner.
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