CLA's Student Program - no joke!
Ever since I got into law school, I’ve heard just about every lawyer joke known to man:How do you know when a lawyer is lying? When her lips are moving.What do you call 100 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.Why won’t sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy.All joking aside, the perception of lawyers and the work that they do is not always favourable. I, like the majority of my fellow students, went to law school to learn how to affect change. I was (and am) interested in working with marginalized groups, in particular women, and improving their access to justice, but didn’t quite know how to pursue that. Fortunately, there are some amazing opportunities with Canadian Lawyers Abroad for law students looking to make a difference.In my first year, I got involved with the Canadian Lawyers Abroad student chapter at the University of Ottawa. I was looking for something where I could not only explore my newfound legal skills, but also network with other like-minded students from my school. What I found was an incredibly dedicated and enthusiastic group of law students looking to educate and inform others about critical legal issues and how to pursue public interest law careers.Earlier this year, I became the Director of Student Chapters for CLA. Part of my role is to coordinate with CLA’s chapters at law schools across Canada, from Victoria to Halifax. Each year, these student chapters host events and activities relating to an annual theme. Our theme this year is Children’s Rights. Our chapters are looking at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and how it works (or not), both in terms of theory and practice. Our chapters are planning some great events on the theme. L'Université de Montréal student chapter is publishing a journal, the University of Toronto is hosting a lecture on the UN Convention, and the University of Windsor is supporting the Body Shop’s “Stop Sex Trafficking” campaign. This is just a short list of the exciting activities that our chapters are planning!
At the end of October, I had the pleasure of meeting representatives from each of our chapters in Ottawa. We came together for CLA-ACE’s student leadership training centering on our theme. We were lucky to have two incredible guest speakers, U.S. political officer and lawyer Elliot Fertik and Beyond Borders co-founder Mark Hecht, talk about our theme and their personal career experiences. From working for the government to starting an organization, there were tons of ideas for students to pursue.In addition to the student chapters, our Student Program includes a Summer Student Internship Program. Each year, we follow a competitive process to select students from each of our chapters to work as summer interns with partner organizations in the developing world or in Canada’s north. To date, over 60 of our students have participated in projects in Ghana, Kenya, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Yukon, to name a few. When our students come back to Canada, they share their experiences with other students at their schools and encourage them to seek similar opportunities. Our exciting new internship opportunities for next summer will be posted on the CLA website at the beginning of December. Watch out for them!Since I started here at CLA, I am continually amazed at what my fellow law students are accomplishing. I am extremely privileged to be involved with such a great network of students across Canada. The next time I hear a stale lawyer joke, I’ll politely smile and nod but think to myself, If you only knew….