Two recent grads clerking at Canada’s highest court

Mathew Good and Michael Perlin, both Law ’09, at the Supreme Court of Canada

Add two new names to the list of Queen’s Law graduates whose academic achievements have earned them clerkships at the Supreme Court of Canada. Mathew Good and Michael Perlin, both Law ’09, have spent the last year gaining experience they will find invaluable to their future careers in litigation, with Good working for Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Perlin for Justice Rosalie Abella.

Good and Perlin began their clerkships in 2010. Both were Law Medallists (third and second highest standing in their class respectively) and well suited to the role. Good had been published in Advocates’ Quarterly and the Alberta Law Review; Perlin had won the Dean’s Key. Before coming to Ottawa, both graduates spent a year clerking for provincial appellate courts, Good in B.C. and Perlin in Ontario.

“The first hearing is the one that leaves the greatest impression,” Good recalls, “with the counsel all arrayed at the tables, the clerks sitting nervously on the side of the room, when the door opens and ‘La Cour’ – The Court – files into the courtroom in their robes, it is an impressive sight.”

Perlin and Good were introduced to the dynamics behind the bench, providing them with experience in the full spectrum of advocacy in cases of national importance. For Perlin, the experience of clerking at the Supreme Court is quite dissimilar from the Court of Appeal for Ontario, where he completed his articles.

“At a provincial appellate court, a law clerk is often exposed to far more cases than a clerk is at the Supreme Court of Canada,” he says. “I would say that the Court of Appeal experience is broader. The Supreme Court experience is more concentrated on discrete areas of law and issues, allowing a clerk to focus on particular interests.”

While it was their skill and academic accomplishments that secured their positions at the Supreme Court, it was Good’s and Perlin’s backgrounds at Queen’s Law that made them effective once they began clerking. Not only were the professionalism and analytical skills they had been taught important, but the School’s academic environment also proved invaluable.

“It’s what made me willing to speak up and share my opinion with both judges and other clerks,” Good says. “Queen’s Law fosters an environment of open discussion and respectful disagreement, and that has served me well.”

With their clerkships almost behind them now, both Perlin and Good expect to build their careers in litigation. Good in particular is planning to use the heightened sensitivity to the crucial aspects of advocacy he has learned at the Supreme Court when he returns to Vancouver and joins Hordo Bennett Mounteer LLP to practise in class actions and civil litigation . “The time at the Court has prepared me to deal with the legal questions and decisions that must be made when prosecuting a case,” he says. Now it is time, as he puts it, “to learn the practical aspects of practice.”

Perlin echoes that assessment. “I can’t stress enough how wonderful an experience a judicial clerkship offers. You spend a year (or maybe more) with access to the judicial decision-making process that is unique for a person at this stage of their career. You have an opportunity to engage with a judge or judges on questions surrounding the development of the law, advocacy and the legal profession. You really only have a few chances early in your career to do this. I would strongly encourage anyone who is interested in clerking to pursue it.”