"It's valuable to step into somebody else's shoes and
learn about their lives," says Chris Muir, an associate
at Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb, whose civil litigation
practice focuses on commercial contract disputes. "You
enrich your own life."
If that's the case, then Muir's life is undoubtedly
enriched. In addition to serving on the roster as duty
counsel for Pro Bono Law Ontario, she is a volunteer
with Lifeline Syria, a nonprofit that connects private
Canadian sponsors with Syrian refugees. Muir
volunteers at their Refugee Support Program legal
clinics, usually with a family member who is already
in Canada and needs help filling out refugee paperwork
for relatives abroad.
"The woman I was working with at first is the daughter
of a Syrian couple, who were in Aleppo and then fled to
Turkey," she says. "She would like to bring them here as
refugees but she can't afford to be a private sponsor."
That paperwork completed, Muir was already thinking
about her next case, and an upcoming Saturday clinic.
"I'll sign up as often as they have clinics," she says.
"It's just a Saturday and then you spend another couple
of weeks working with them to perfect the applications."
For Muir, the time commitment is negligible. What she
sees are people in crisis and a set of skills she can
offer. "They put a personal face on the news headlines
to me," she says. "In any form, volunteering gets you
into the community the way your legal practice doesn't
necessarily do. I think for everybody it's important. It
exposes you to people and issues that you wouldn't
otherwise be exposed to."
Chris Muir
FLIP YOUR WIG 19
