Advocacy-Matters-Winter-2024

What were the main challenges you faced transitioning from a
foreign-trained lawyer to practicing in Canada?
MK: The main challenges I faced were (1) my own lack of knowledge about the local legal market; (2) my
own difficulties integrating into the local culture; and (3) the local community’s lack of familiarity with and
recognition of foreign credentials (at least where I was from).
CC: Getting my foot in the door was certainly the biggest challenge. If you weren’t attending one of the
schools from which a law firm recruited, you were ineligible for the first step in their process. Things have
changed over the last 10 years, but there’s still room for improvement.
VM: I found the entire NCA [National Committee on Accreditation] process, which assesses the legal education
and professional experience of individuals who obtained their legal credentials outside Canada,
to be a serious roadblock to practice as it took a long time to get through the exams and the cost was
also prohibitive. The timing of the NCA process is also not coordinated with the timing of provincial bar
exams.
Are there specific areas of law or legal skills where you believe
foreign-trained lawyers bring a unique perspective?
MK: A comparative legal perspective is very helpful both because the fundamentals of legal reasoning
might be more apparent to those with that perspective (because those fundamentals are the same
among different systems) and because one has a default alternative manner of addressing particular
legal problems.
OO: Internationally-trained lawyers bring a wealth of much-needed diversity of experience, knowledge
and approaches to the legal industry. On an academic level, most internationally-trained lawyers have
had to take core legal courses more than once to get where they are.
OO: It contributes to building a foundation for what is hopefully a life-long career. The more people appreciate
the diversity you bring to the industry and rely on it, the better a lawyer they will make and get.
Being merely “othered” with not much more helps no one.
CC: Diversity and inclusion, in my view, should be as important for foreign-trained lawyers as it is for
those trained in Canada—it enriches us all by bringing varied perspectives to the workplace and to the
work we do for our clients.
Have you encountered any misconceptions or stereotypes about foreign-trained
lawyers in Canada, and if so, how do you address or challenge
them?
VM: Yes! I think people assume that foreign-trained lawyers are not as qualified as lawyers trained in
Canada, which is so far from the truth. Especially when it comes to securing articling experiences, I have
heard stories of lawyers being passed over because people are worried about language challenges or
quality of the work, more generally. I have been extremely fortunate to have a degree from an internationally
recognized law school and to come from a country that most Canadians are very familiar with.
But for those who don’t have the same advantages, I have tried to assist on a personal level by mentoring
and assisting people with making contacts in the legal community.
OO: Most people bring their cultural competencies to the workplace, along with attendant biases and
misconceptions. I used to think if you didn’t address them, your life would be easier. I don’t necessarily
challenge; I educate. I need people to understand that being an internationally-trained lawyer doesn’t
mean you got a lower quality of education. Above all, I tell people: When in doubt, ask the person concerned
what works for them.
If you could time travel, what advice would you give your past self when
you were just starting your journey to practice law in Canada?
Why is diversity and inclusion important for foreign-trained lawyers in
Canada?
VM: How could it not be? Clients come from all different types of backgrounds and having lawyers who
can not only understand the differences, but may also have personal knowledge of significant cultural
practices or events, can be critical to ensuring appropriate representation in some cases. Especially as a
family lawyer, when we’re dealing with the substance of people’s most personal relationships, if there is
a cultural or other difference that may have an impact on a resolution or the ability to move the case forward,
then having lawyers who can navigate those issues with sensitivity can result in a better outcome
for the whole family.
CC: Is ‘stop and smell the roses’ too corny? It’s sometimes hard to appreciate how much fun this job is
when you’re working long hours in high-stress situations in your first few years, but this job really is a lot
of fun and it only gets better as time passes. But if you take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned,
how much you’ve grown, the challenges you’ve overcome over the last year, month, day – some days
even the hour – it’s encouraging to see that progress and it pushes you through the tougher moments.
VM: I think my only advice would have been to give myself a bit more grace when it came to the culture
shock that I experienced. Although Toronto is very diverse, as a Black person moving from Washington,
D.C. to Toronto, it was also a shock to no longer see many people who looked like me.
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