Passion, vision fuel niche lawyers
CHANTAL SAXE
Douglas Jack wishes he could
say he carefully planned to end
up where he is today.
But the Fergus, Ont., lawyer
who recently brought his thriving veterinary law practice to
Borden Ladner Gervais’ Waterloo office admits a niche legal
practice wasn’t on his mind
when he was called to the Bar
in 1985.
“I would like to tell you that it
was a thoughtful and a considered decision but that was
not the case,” he said. “It is absolutely best described as something that I stumbled upon.”
With more than 25 years of
experience and one of just a
handful of full-time veterinary
lawyers in the country, Jack says
he hit the career jackpot. “It’s
been an extraordinarily interesting and satisfying professional
career. I love coming to work
each and every day.”
Establishing a niche practice
can be rewarding, professionally
and personally. But whether you
stumble into a specialty or
answer your calling, there are
lessons to be learned from those
who have gone where few lawyers have gone before.
Montreal lawyer Ann Soden
practiced commercial real
estate law for more than 10
years before she hung up her
shingle and steered her practice
into the uncharted waters of
elder law.
Soden had embarked on her
legal education with dreams of
pursuing her passion for social justice and community development.
“However, I got a job with a
large firm in my first year and
left all of my good intentions
aside,” she said. “I lost sight of
my original vision.”
When the bottom fell out of
the commercial real estate market, Soden set out on her own.
Three months later, a request to
sit on the board of a regional
seniors association reignited
her passion.
“I set out to find out what
was going on in Canada [in
elder law].”
There was no field of law or
professional association of lawyers dedicated to the growing
number of aging clients with
particular needs, interests and
challenges—so she set out to
establish them herself.
Now considered a pioneer in
the field (in 2007 she was desig-
nated avocate émérite by the
Bar of Quebec for her development of the field of elder law in
Canada and Quebec), Soden
isn’t surprised to find herself
where she is today. “I loved
older people from the time I
was little. I could sit for hours
listening to their stories. It is
absolutely my calling.”
When Toronto lawyer Sara
Cohen was studying at Osgoode
Hall Law School, she gobbled up
any courses that had to do with
reproductive technology law.
After her call to the Bar in 2007,
she went the big firm route,
practicing commercial litigation
for a few years.
It took the birth of her son in
2010 for Cohen to “take a step
back to look at life.” With some
trepidation and a lot of research,
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