Queen’s Legal Aid (QLA) students are learning from more experienced practitioners than ever before. Jodie-Lee Primeau, who started with the organization as one of two lawyers in an acting role, is its third review counsel. Her hiring is just one key development in QLA’s expansion of services supported by additional funding from Legal Aid Ontario.

“Advocacy and meaningful access to justice were the pillars of my criminal defence practice,” says Primeau of her previous job. “In both my career and my community, I was very fortunate to have strong advocates as mentors.”

At Queen’s, she draws upon her own courtroom experience, as well her background in theatre and her work with Toastmasters International, to advise student clinicians. “As Review Counsel at Queen’s Legal Aid, I have done my best to mentor and provide learning opportunities to our student caseworkers so they can become stronger advocates and consequently increase meaningful access to justice for our clients, who are some of the most vulnerable people in the community.”

In her time with QLA, Primeau has participated in several new initiatives. She developed an advocacy forum that allows students to meet and work on trial advocacy, public speaking and negotiation in a structured but informal environment. In addition, she has helped develop Community Legal Education outreach programs, where students give back by visiting local community groups and making presentations about legal issues that contribute to vulnerability.

Senior Review Counsel Sue Charlesworth, Law’81, says having Primeau as an additional lawyer is having an impact. “For many years, we did not actually advertise our services because we were almost always at full capacity and would have had to turn potential clients away. Having a third review counsel has allowed us to increase our community outreach and public legal education as well as increase our active files.” One example is QLA’s course, Clinical Litigation Practice, which has increased in size from 18 students per year to 24.

Other changes QLA has undergone recently include moving off-campus to co-locate with other Queen’s Law Clinics and changing its database to time management software. “Jodie-Lee has brought a fresh perspective on our processes,” says Charlesworth about her colleague’s contributions. “Her energy and enthusiasm have been a big help to the clinic.”