Canadian Lawyer 4Students

Fall 2011

Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training

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BY HEATHER GARDINER New kid I t may have taken more than 30 years, but Canada fi nally has a new law school. On Sept. 6, the faculty at Th ompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., opens its doors. Along with law schools at the universities of British Columbia and Victoria, TRU's will be the third in the province. Anne Pappas, the new law school's founding administrator, says Kamloops is an excellent location, noting British Columbia needed another law school. "B.C. per capita — population wise — having only two law schools is under- servicing the province. Th e community exposure is going to be very diff erent from UVic or UBC and I think it's going to lend a really good balance," she adds. In the town of about 80,000, accord- ing to Statistics Canada's latest count in 2006, dean Chris Axworthy hopes to in- crease the number of graduates who stay to work in Kamloops and other small communities in B.C. "We really need to give students the idea that there's another option than a big law fi rm to consider," he says. TRU will need to ensure stu- dents learn the skills they need to prac- tise in a smaller community, he explains. As part of his long-term plan, he hopes to encourage lawyers in smaller regions to mentor students so they can see what life is like in those areas. As a lawyer, Pappas understands that recent graduates may not want to start on the block Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops is the first new Canadian law school in over 30 years to open its doors. their own practice in a small town, but she believes once they have families they might seek more of a life balance and move back. And she's confi dent TRU's Faculty of Law will prepare them for this transition. Most of the students who have been accepted into the program's fi rst year are from British Columbia, mainly from the Lower Mainland, says Axworthy. Initial- ly, TRU was not in a position to advertise the law school as it had to get approvals from the provincial government and the legal profession, he adds, so there really weren't any recruitment eff orts. Howev- er, in the years to come Axworthy plans to visit colleges and universities outside of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island to attract students from a wider range of communities. To help them bring in those students, Axworthy says the law school needs to develop a curriculum that will assist stu- dents in going back to their communi- ties to practise. "We have to ensure our students make that transition from law school to private practice as smoothly and as eff ectively as possible." In reach- ing out to those communities, Axworthy also hopes to connect with First Nations. He says TRU is already in talks with ab- original groups, which he hopes will help spread the word to students and assist the school in ensuring the curriculum is responsive to their needs. At least one faculty member comes with extensive aboriginal law experi- ence. Janna Promislow has worked for Ontario's Ministry of Aboriginal Aff airs and represented aboriginal clients in the Northwest Territories. She most recently taught at UVic's law school and will be teaching constitutional law in the fi rst year at TRU. She says having a law school at TRU will be a great opportunity to make legal services more accessible for the aboriginal communities in the sur- rounding area. But Axworthy recognizes the diffi cult task associated with encouraging aborig- inal students to apply to law school. "One challenge for aboriginal students is that aboriginal cultures are non-confronta- tional and tend to be focused on dealing with disputes in such a way that it heals the community, the perpetrator, and the victim. Th at's not the way the law works. Th e law works on an adversarial model; lots of confrontation, lots of confl ict, lots of blame. And so from a cultural point of view there are some issues there," he says. "So you have this legal culture, which is in many ways quite foreign for aborigi- nal students, and we have to fi nd ways to bridge those gaps and to incorporate ways and principles of aboriginal justice into our curriculum." He acknowledges the eff orts of other law schools in trying to accomplish this, but he wants it to be a real focus at TRU. Tuition may also be an issue. As it stands, it will cost a student $16,800 per C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS F all 2011 27 * DIAMOND AND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS

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