Queen’s Legal Aid students, shown discussing a case in 2018 with Review Counsel Jana Mills, Law’92, serve approximately 900 low-income clients annually, developing skills to hit the ground running as lawyers. (Photo by Greg Black)
Queen’s Legal Aid students, shown discussing a case in 2018 with Review Counsel Jana Mills, Law’92, serve approximately 900 low-income clients annually, developing skills to hit the ground running as lawyers. (Photo by Greg Black)

(This story is the fifth in a five-part series celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Queen’s Law Clinics in downtown Kingston.)

“Working as a lawyer is just as much about law as it is dealing with people, from managing clients and their expectations to negotiating with opposing parties,” says Mike Adamek, Law’17. “Handling my own client files at Queen’s Legal Aid (QLA) gave me the confidence to hit the ground running as a practising lawyer.”

Now a lawyer with the Ottawa personal injury firm Badre Law, Adamek spent all three of his law school years helping real clients with real legal problems as he worked in “fantastic tight-knit teams.” 

At QLA, he was a student caseworker, a group leader, and the resource and outreach coordinator. Under the supervision of clinic review counsel throughout that time, he and his student colleagues provided a broad range of free legal services to low-income residents of Kingston, Napanee and surrounding areas, and to Queen’s University students. 

QLA students represent clients before a wide variety of decision-makers from criminal court to Small Claims Court, and from hearings before the Social Benefits, Social Security and Human Rights Tribunals to the Landlord and Tenant or Criminal Injuries Compensation Boards. 

During the first half of his first year, Adamek did his work from the Queen’s Law building. Then, in January 2015, Queen’s Legal Aid co-located with the other four Queen’s Law Clinics to a central location in downtown Kingston. 

“The new location bolstered the image of the clinics as a truly professional environment that matched the high-quality service clients were already receiving from staff and caseworkers,” recalls Adamek, who went on to split his articles between QLA and the Queen’s Business Law Clinic. 

At the time, long-time Senior Review Counsel Sue Charlesworth, Law’81, was on leave to work in Iqaluit as defence counsel for the Legal Services Board of Nunavut. “When I left in mid-September 2013, QLA was ensconced on the fourth level of the Queen’s Law building. The Business Law Clinic and the Elder Law Clinic had small rooms in the basement of the law school, and the Correctional Law Project (now Prison Law Clinic) was in an office downtown,” she recalls. 

“When I returned in 2015, it was to a huge space on the top floor of the LaSalle Mews building in the heart of downtown Kingston at the corner of Princess and Bagot Streets. Instead of two lawyers for QLA, there were eight clinic supervisors and six staff co-located, because of the addition of the Family Law Clinic. 

“There was a whole new energy from the students, staff and even the attractive space itself,” continues Charlesworth, who was appointed to the Nunavut Court of Justice in 2018. “Being able to associate closely with other teacher-lawyers, think about different ways to supervise law students, and work creatively with a new expansive database for client work and supervision made the bumps and grinds of getting used to new co-workers very worthwhile.”

In 2015, the person who would become her successor, Blair Crew, then a review counsel with another law school clinic, first saw the Queen’s Law Clinics office while visiting a former student serving as a QLA Review Counsel. “Far from the image of a student legal aid clinic being in a cramped space in the back of a law school or in a converted old house, I was immediately struck by how much the QLC offices had the design and feel of a mid-sized law firm,” he recalls. “Now that I have come to Queen’s, this image corresponds for me to the kind of work the students do at Queen’s Legal Aid. I feel the QLC space presents a very professional image for clients.”  

For Anu Lalith Kumar, Law’19, the greatest advantage of the co-location was being exposed to even more areas of law. “Each clinic caters to a different demographic in the community,” she says. “The co-location of the five clinics ensured students had a minimal level of exposure to some aspect of all the other clinics. Whether this exposure was through seeing other clinic’s clients in the waiting area, hearing students discuss their visits to a penitentiary or aspects of their files, such exposure is incredibly helpful to law students who are exploring the various types of law and trying to determine what types of legal jobs they wish to pursue.”

Lalith Kumar, who is now articling with the Ombudsman of Ontario, adds that the co-location also opened her eyes to the importance of having and maintaining relationships with peers who practise in different areas. “There would be times a client of one clinic would also have need for the legal services offered by a different clinic, or clinics,” she explains. “Being able to work in an environment where five distinct clinics shared one space taught me the importance and value of maintaining collegial relationships in the legal field and local bar.”

Not surprisingly, the highlight of Lalith Kumar’s QLA experience was the people she collaborated with extensively. “The opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with review counsel and our fellow caseworkers was invaluable,” she says. “Although we had independent carriage of files, through frequent interaction and consultation on our files, we all had the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences. 

“QLA also provides a fantastic opportunity to get first-hand experience with the local bar in Kingston,” she adds. “Student caseworkers were able to interact with lawyers, justices of the peace and adjudicators on a regular basis to develop working relationships with them and expand our professional network.” 

Her Law’19 classmate, Isabella Mira, came to an important realization through working at the clinic: “You don’t have to have all the answers; you just need to have the dedication to your clients and the drive to seek out those answers,” she says. “This makes the day to day practice much less intimidating, regardless of what comes through the door.”

She also discovered that the “positive, balanced and team-oriented work environment,” fosters success. “This was an invaluable asset when applying for articling positions, and ultimately choosing the law firm I work and thrive at,” says Mira, now a student-at-law with a full-service business law firm Wilson Vukelich LLP in Markham, Ontario.  

The practical skills she developed made her feel more poised, she says. “The experience gave me the immense confidence and reassurance that, after making the substantial investment that is a law career, I could make a successful transition from law student to lawyer.” 

Jordon Bond, Law’21, is on that journey now. After volunteering with QLA in first year and working there full-time last summer, he learned how to conduct legal research and draft legal submissions, how to effectively communicate with clients, and how to advocate for her clients through written and oral submissions.

This experience proved helpful in the fall when he went through the on-campus interview process for jobs in Toronto firms next summer. “My experience at Queen’s Legal Aid was not only an excellent talking point throughout my interviews, but it also displayed to potential employers my ability to balance a caseload of files on top of my schoolwork,” says Bond, who is currently a group leader enrolled in Clinical Litigation Practice for academic credit. “Everything I learned at QLA provides me with confidence entering my career, as I will have already had years of experience working with clients and doing different legal work by the time I graduate.” 

Bond’s QLA highlight so far has been assisting a client who had been denied benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program and was appealing that decision. “I was able to conduct this client’s initial intake interview, collect supporting documentation, draft written submissions, and appear for the client at a hearing in front of the Social Benefits Tribunal,” he says. “After several months of hard work, this appeal was granted, and I was able to see firsthand how the work QLA does can make a difference in people’s lives.”

Of the five Queen’s Law Clinics, Queen’s Legal Aid is the largest with more than 80 students serving approximately 900 clients annually. It’s also the oldest clinic. As it approaches its 50th anniversary in 2021, Director Blair Crew makes the same observation as his predecessors: “QLA students display tremendous dedication to obtaining positive results for our clients.” 

Read the stories on the Family Law Clinic, the Elder Law Clinic, the Business Law Clinic and the Prison Law Clinic.  

The Queen’s Law Clinics gratefully acknowledge the support of Legal Aid Ontario, the Law Foundation of Ontario, Pro Bono Students Canada, the Class of Law’81, the United Way of KFL&A, and alumni and industry sponsors. 

By Lisa Graham