My path to law: one that couldn’t happen now
Late July, my 15th anniversary as a lawyer passed without me even realizing.
I am keenly aware of my privilege. My entry to law school, my call to the bar, and the time since have been made possible by growing up when I did and having the choices I’ve had. I am not from a rich family and I have no lawyer-relatives but yet I was able to attend school and earn a living where my values align with clients', have a reasonable work-life balance, and live comfortably in a house I own in Toronto. Here’s the story.
I started with a BA and MA in political science and went right into the Toronto Civic Service as a management trainee. By 27, I managed the Toronto City Council meeting process mentored by the best - Clerk, Barbara Caplan, and Deputy Clerk, Syd Baxter - and surrounded by managers whose ethics and commitment to public service defied the stereotype. Many of these people, including Barb and Syd, remain my close friends. Although most of my work touched on law it was never on my radar as a possible career. I had a career.
As my odometer clicked over to 30, I saw the road ahead descending into a one-way tunnel where I imagined myself becoming City Clerk ending with an OMERS pension. I felt claustrophobic.
As the panic rose in me, ICLEI, an environmental NGO the City supported, advertised a secondment. The job looked perfect - office and governance management and possible travel, located in City Hall, and focussed on something meaningful: a lay-by to prepare for that tunnel.
At that time, Toronto’s leftist Council, under Barbara Hall’s mayoralty, was poking the Mike Harris bear at Queen’s Park. Harris’ PC government swatted back by amalgamating Toronto with its surrounding municipalities. No amount of protest could stop him. Jan 1, 1998 dawned the age of the Megacity: Toronto, the fifth largest city in North America. The new suburban voters put former North York Mayor, Mel Lastman, in charge. I watched from my lay-by as my mentors left or were forced out. Now my tunnel had nothing at the bottom of it except, way off, a pension. I decided to turn the lay-by into a new road. The City was anxious to downsize its combined Clerk departments so I negotiated an exit package effective the end of the secondment.
The ICLEI job was panning out. I managed the governance of five organizations. I oversaw contract management and the employment relationships in our Toronto office. I felt like in-house counsel without legal training. I travelled a couple of times annually to far-flung places where I met municipal politicians and staff who cared for the planet while also having fun. I developed new professional relationships that became life-long friendships. I knew my new road was the non-profit sector which needed good administrators to support the subject-matter experts.
At ICLEI I learned of Iler Campbell, a law firm serving non-profits. I met a lawyer who’d made a career shift to law in his 40s, the first example of this I’d seen. It gave me pause.
I sat in my office on July 1, 2001 working but also considering my next option. The work was good but not great, relentless (I was working on a public holiday), and a bit boring. I was coming up on 35. Surely there was more than this. I surfed the web - Googling not yet a verb - seeing how I could use my exit package. Two options emerged: MBA with a non-profit focus or a law degree. Both would lead me to the non-profit sector. The designations would set me apart from those with more extensive non-profit experience, putting me in more senior roles.
“Hmmm.” I thought. “An MBA is only one year; law is three. I’d like a big break from work. I will choose law.”
That fall, I wrote the LSAT and applied to schools. I wanted to be away from Toronto and aimed for the University of Victoria, BC. What could be wrong with a school with lower tuitions ($4500/year), a co-op program, small class sizes, an Indigenous focus, and a progressive faculty? And, of course, views of ocean and mountains!
I was accepted and spent three idyllic years at UVIC. I enjoyed the advantage of being older with solid work habits, a bit of money, and the knowledge I was opening up many new doors. One of those doors, practising law, is the one law schools focus on. They hold schmoozy/boozy events with big law firms where students are dazzled by shiny swag and the promise of large salaries. That was never my goal. I decided though to get called to the bar, not wanting to close a door so clearly in front of me.
Before practising, candidates must complete an apprenticeship called articling. Securing articles was a source of anxiety for law students even in 2005, although more so now. I applied for positions in Toronto where I owned a condo and intended to return. As an older applicant, I knew I wouldn’t be the workhorse many firms wanted. I was interviewed in a few places but it was only Iler Campbell where the fit was right. They offered me a position.
After articling, Brian Iler hired me on as a lawyer. I wasn’t quite working within the non-profit sector as I’d imagined, but along-side organizations trying to make the world a better place.
In the past 15 years, I’ve carved a niche working with non-profit and co-op housing providers that are building and sustaining safe, affordable communities that reflect the diversity of our world. I deal daily in what I affectionately refer to as messy human drama or the crazy shit that happens when people live together. It’s rewarding work and I know I’m lucky.
Students now pay as much as $35K each year for three years at the University of Toronto (about $10K at UVIC still). Like many, if I graduated law today, my debt load would force me to article and then work 18 hours/day in jobs that would leave me emotionally cold and mentally and physically exhausted. There is no space for a new lawyer to do the kind of work I do.
We have a broken system. We need to find ways to fix it.