It’s been a few weeks since my last post, and much has happened since then. Let me start with some of the highlights.

One of the appealing things about studying law is that it’s always relevant. Not only does the law touch virtually every aspect of our lives, it’s not static. For example, you may have heard about the Ontario court’s recent decision concerning the constitutionality of several prostitution laws. Well, this triggered some real interest in my small group. It just so happens that our criminal law professor, Janine Benedet, knows a great deal about this topic. We organized a lunchtime discussion and invited Professor Benedet to speak. About 100 students came! It was a great opportunity to apply what we’ve been learning, and to really think about this weighty and topical court decision.

Another highlight was the Canadian Bar Association’s mentorship meet-and-greet. Each year the BC chapter matches interested law students with practicing lawyers. I signed up for this in the second week of classes, so I can’t for the life of me remember what I put down for areas of legal interest (in the second week I was interested in everything). But I’m pretty sure I won the mentorship lottery! My mentor is a young and successful civil litigator who works for a great firm.

I had a bunch of questions for my mentor, and she had really useful answers. Allow me to pass along some of her wisdom! Grades matter, but so does being a well-rounded person. If you didn’t study something in law school, that doesn’t necessarily preclude you from practicing in that field. With that said, some things are easier to learn on the job than others: take classes on trusts and procedure, if possible. The legal profession gets a lot of flack, but there are plenty of genuinely happy lawyers.

While there are more highlights I could regale you with, my main focus as of late has been first-year law. It’s a ride! The workload is exactly what I thought it would be: a challenge. The material is very interesting (which is great!), but there’s lots of it. I sometimes think there’s no end to the amount of time and energy I could put into things, if I had endless amounts of time and energy. Needless to say, there’s been some adjusting. But we’re more than half way through the first semester and, for the most part, I’m enjoying this ride.