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young person. "I felt very deeply a need to give back." After working with at-risk youth in Harlem for a couple of years, she was looking for new challenges and new ways to give back. She opted for law school. Instead of trying to change atti- tudes and policies from the outside, she reasoned, "I could be sitting at the tables inside the buildings and voicing my opinion on that side of the wall." She enrolled at the law school at Dalhousie University in 2003, impressed with the school's tradition of community service and its Indigenous Blacks & Mi'kmaq (IB&M) Initiative, which helps students from those under-represented groups. Not surprisingly, she became a co- ordinator of Dal's pro bono program, which matches community organiza- tions with student volunteers willing to do legal writing and research. "Emma was then, and is now, just an excep- tional person," says Dal professor Archie Kaiser, the program's faculty adviser, "because of her energy, her commit- ment to public service, her creativity, and her ability to relate to a very wide spectrum of the community. She's one of those people I call comprehensively competent," he adds. "She's just able to do everything in an exemplary manner." Graduating in 2006, Halpern articled with Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Yar- mouth, a small town at the western tip of the province. Looking for oppor- tunities to volunteer, she approached Bain with an idea she had explored in a research paper at law school — bringing restorative justice to the schools. A grant from the Law Foundation of Nova Scotia allowed Halpern to devote the next two years to launching the program in local schools. "It just seemed like the natural fit," says Bain. Students are trained as facilitators to root out the causes of behaviour problems, absenteeism, or bullying and to find solutions short of traditional suspensions and expulsions. "It was Emma's vision that youth are the experts on youth" says Bain, and the results have been astounding — one school reports an 82-per-cent drop in student suspensions. The program has expanded to more than 20 Nova Scotia schools, says Bain, NEW EDITION ONTARIO SMALL CLAIMS COURT PRACTICE 2012 MR. JUSTICE MARVIN A. ZUKER Ontario Small Claims Court Practice 2012 includes new cases and the latest amendments to the rules and forms of Small Claims Court in Ontario. BONUS OFFER FOR STANDING ORDER SUBSCRIBERS: INTRODUCING PRACTICE ADVISOR FOR ONTARIO SMALL CLAIMS COURT PRACTICE Get Practice Advisor free with your standing order subscription to Ontario Small Claims Court Practice 2012. Emailed to you every three months, this service includes the most up-to-date information affecting practice in Small Claims Court. who credits the early intervention for reducing the number of young offenders referred to the main restorative justice program. Halpern took more direct action to help a homeless teenager she encoun- tered. Finding no shelter or services for him in Yarmouth, she invited him into her home and helped him to find a job. He's now 21 and living on his own, but Halpern considers him part of her family (she met her partner, Dartmouth lawyer Andrew Trider, in law school and they have a four-year-old son, Isaiah). Her next project was a 2009 report she co-authored on the need for a co-ordinat- ed system to provide pro bono legal advice and services across Nova Scotia. Last fall the project received three years of startup funding. Halpern, meanwhile, took on a new role as equity officer at the NSBS. She sees the job as another way to help the com- munity and build bridges — in this case, between students and young lawyers from diverse backgrounds (including IB&M graduates) who are trying to get a foot- hold in the profession and the people who make the hiring decisions. Nova Scotia has emerged as a leader in promoting diversity. The barristers' soci- ety was the first in Canada to collect data on the number of women and members of minority groups practising law, and a mandatory professional development course being introduced in 2012 includes cultural awareness training. Halpern continues to do volunteer work on the restorative justice and pro bono initiatives — she calls them her "hobbies" — and plans to stay put in her adopted province. She's determined to "never let go of my core beliefs and my core commitments to social justice and equity and change," she says. "And this is going to sound terribly cheesy, but [to continue] thinking consciously about doing what I can every day to try to improve the situation in this world for as many people as possible." Coming from Halpern, it anything but cheesy. sounds ORDER # 983595-68019 $94 Hardcover + CD-ROM approx. 1140 pages August 2011 978-0-7798-3595-9 Annual volumes supplied on standing order subscription Practice Advisor available upon request on standing order subscription Multiple copy discounts available AVAILABLE RISK-FREE FOR 30 DAYS Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order online at www.carswell.com Shipping and handling are extra. Price subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com JAN UARY 2012 19