Education Lawyer
How would you describe the current stage or most recent stage of your career as an Education Lawyer?
At the current stage of my career, I work as Senior Legal Counsel at the Toronto District School Board, with a practice focused on caring and safe schools (student discipline, school safety), human rights, and administrative decision-making. Before moving into this role, I built my career through a mix of private practice, human rights and equity work within a school board, and advocacy for students and families navigating complex school-related disputes. That path has given me a fairly rounded view of education law, not just from one side of the table, but from several. In simple terms, an education lawyer helps schools and education institutions make decisions that are fair, lawful, and workable in real life. That can involve advising on student suspensions and expulsions, human rights accommodations, parent complaints, privacy issues, staff matters, school safety, and the interpretation of legislation and board policies. A big part of the work is helping decision-makers understand both their legal authority and their legal limits, especially when the issues involve children, families, and public accountability.
My day-to-day work usually involves giving strategic legal advice to principals, superintendents, and senior leadership, reviewing incidents and records, interpreting legislation and policies, helping manage risk, and supporting responses to sensitive matters before they escalate. I also draft legal opinions, help shape internal processes, and work on files that may involve tribunals, litigation, or other formal dispute-resolution mechanisms. In many ways, the work sits at the intersection of law, policy, governance, and people, which keeps it intellectually demanding and very practical. This career path fits me because education law is not just about rules on paper. It is about how institutions treat people, how fairness is built into decision-making, and how students can continue to access education safely and meaningfully. I enjoy that balance of advocacy, judgment, and public service. It is one of the few areas of law where the legal analysis is rigorous, yet the outcome can also shape day-to-day life in an immediate way.
What was your first ‘real’ job after graduating?
After completing my undergraduate degree, I went on to law school. My first “real” role after law school was as a support worker at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, which I held just before beginning my articling term as part of the licensing process with the Law Society of Ontario. That role was not something I found randomly. It was the result of a path I had started building during my undergraduate studies at McMaster, where I volunteered at the clinic. That experience turned into summer law positions while I was in law school, and over time, I developed strong relationships and a reputation for reliable work.
When I finished law school, those relationships translated into the opportunity to step into a more formal role at the clinic. The work itself was hands-on and grounded. I was supporting clients who often navigated difficult legal and personal circumstances, particularly those tied to social systems. It gave me early exposure to client advocacy, file management, and the practical realities of how the law operates outside of textbooks. That experience was foundational. It shaped how I approach legal work today. It reinforced the importance of clarity, empathy, and problem-solving, and it gave me a front-row view of how legal decisions impact real people. It also set up my articling experience and, ultimately, my transition into education law, where those same skills remain central.
How did your ideas about career options evolve from the time you entered first year university to your final year and beyond (and what influenced those ideas)?
When I started my undergraduate degree in sociology, I did not have a clear career path in mind. Law was something I was aware of, but it was not a firm plan. At that stage, I was focused more on progressing through school than on a defined end goal. That began to change through a combination of volunteering and an experiential education course. Throughout my undergraduate years, I took on a number of volunteer roles, partly out of interest and partly because I saw it as a way to explore different possibilities. The turning point was an experiential education placement that allowed me to connect my academic studies in sociology with practical work at a legal clinic. Around the same time, I also secured a summer position at a personal injury law firm. Those experiences gave me a clearer sense of what I did and did not enjoy. The contrast was useful. I realized that I was more drawn to work that operated in a service-oriented, community-facing context rather than a purely private, profit-driven model. Just as importantly, the experiential course required reflection, which forced me to critically assess those experiences rather than just move through them. By the end of my final year, I had a much clearer sense of direction.
Looking back, I also have a more candid understanding of what shaped that trajectory. I was raised in a family of educators and, over time, gained access to networks in education and social services. Those environments were familiar to me, and they made certain opportunities more visible and accessible. In some respects, my career path was influenced by recognizing and leveraging those advantages. What I would emphasize to others is the importance of understanding your own positioning. Everyone has some combination of access, exposure, and constraints that shape what feels possible. Being deliberate about identifying your advantages, whether through relationships, environments, or experiences, can help you make more strategic decisions about your career. At the same time, pairing that awareness with meaningful experiences, such as volunteering or hands-on placements, ultimately turns that potential into direction.
What advice would you give to the next generation of current students about how to make the most of their time in university?
The most practical advice I would give is to treat university as more than an academic exercise. The degree matters, but the experiences you build alongside it are what will actually shape your direction. For me, volunteering was one of the most valuable parts of my time in university. It is often framed as something purely altruistic, but in reality, it is also one of the most effective ways to develop your own skills and judgment. It allowed me to test how I think, communicate, handle responsibility, and operate in real-world environments that are not structured like a classroom. It also exposed me to people, professions, and pathways that I would not have encountered otherwise. Whether you have a clear idea of your career path or not, volunteering serves a purpose. If you know what you want to do, it gives you an opportunity to start building relevant skills early and to understand what that work actually looks like in practice. If you are unsure, it becomes a tool for narrowing your interests by showing you, in a very direct way, what fits and what does not.
The other piece, which is often overlooked, is reflection. It is not enough to accumulate experiences. You need to take the time to assess what you are learning from them. What did you enjoy, what challenged you, what felt natural, and what did not? That process is what turns experience into direction. Finally, be intentional about your environment. Pay attention to the people you meet, the networks you are entering, and the kinds of opportunities that become available to you. University is one of the few periods where access is relatively open. Taking advantage of that access thoughtfully can have a lasting impact on where you end up.
What skills or knowledge learned in your university courses have you found most useful in your career?
The most useful knowledge I carried forward from university came from my sociology degree. It fundamentally shaped how I understand both the law and the people affected by it. One of the core ideas I was taught is that individual issues often reflect broader social dynamics. That way of thinking has been directly applicable in legal practice, particularly in education law and human rights. Many of the matters I deal with are not just isolated incidents. They are connected to institutional structures, historical context, and patterns of impact that are not always immediately visible. Having that systems-level perspective allows me to assess issues more accurately and give advice that is not just legally correct, but practically informed.
That same training is also valuable in building arguments. In human rights work, for example, understanding discrimination requires more than identifying a single adverse event. It involves analyzing how different groups are affected, often in ways shaped by history, policy, and social conditions. A sociological lens helps ground those arguments in context and evidence, rather than relying on assumptions or surface-level analysis. More broadly, sociology developed my ability to think critically about how systems operate, how decisions are made, and how outcomes are distributed. That has been directly transferable to administrative law and institutional decision-making, where the focus is often on whether processes are fair, reasonable, and responsive to the realities of the people affected. In practice, that foundation has made my legal analysis more rigorous and, just as importantly, more grounded in the real-world impact of decisions.
What was the sequence of job types for you after completing your undergraduate degree? For example, did you take survival jobs, or full-time jobs on a short-term contract? Did you immediately start an ongoing full-time position? Did you participate in gig work, consulting work, or entrepreneurship? Or was your first step further education?
After completing my undergraduate degree, my first step was further education. I went directly into law school rather than entering the workforce in a traditional full-time role. I was in a position where I did not need to take on survival jobs during that transition, which allowed me to be deliberate about how I spent my time and the types of experiences I pursued. During law school, my work was a mix of volunteer roles, short-term opportunities, and modestly paid positions that were closely aligned with my interests. That included tutoring, delivering small lectures, and participating in pro bono work supporting students facing expulsion. These were not conventional full-time roles, but they were intentional. Each one was chosen to build experience in education law and advocacy, even at an early stage.
After graduating from law school, I took on a short-term role as a support worker at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic while completing my licensing requirements with the Law Society of Ontario. That role was transitional and directly led to articling, a required step toward becoming a lawyer. Articling itself was structured and time-limited, but it was critical in developing my practical legal skills and preparing me for independent practice.
Once I was called to the bar, I moved directly into entrepreneurship by starting my own private practice. That was my first true full-time, paid role. It involved a significant learning curve, but it also gave me autonomy to focus on a niche area of interest. Through that work, I secured project-based funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario to run an education law program in Hamilton in partnership with a local non-profit. That experience helped generate further opportunities, expand my practice, and position me within the education sector. From there, the progression became more structured. My work led to an opportunity to serve as a Human Rights and Equity Advisor within a school board, and ultimately to my current role as Senior Legal Counsel at the Toronto District School Board. In retrospect, the sequence was not linear in the traditional sense. It was a combination of further education, targeted short-term roles, entrepreneurship, and then transition into more formal institutional positions. Each stage was relatively focused and intentional, aimed at building toward a specific area of practice.
Did you get involved in any on-campus clubs, associations, or leadership roles? If so, how do you reflect on that experience?
Yes, I was involved in a number of on-campus and community-based activities during my undergraduate years, although my involvement was more targeted than all-consuming. In my first year, I volunteered with a homework club run by a local non-profit organization. Over time, I became more involved and eventually served as its president in my later years. I was also engaged with the Social Science Society, participating in first-year programming and broader faculty initiatives. In addition, I had the opportunity to work as a teaching assistant for a first-year sociology course, which was a meaningful leadership experience in an academic setting.
At the time, I would not have described myself as someone deeply embedded in campus life compared to some of my peers. However, in hindsight, those experiences were significant because they pushed me to develop skills and step outside of my comfort zone. Some of the more social aspects of those roles did not come naturally to me, but engaging in them helped build confidence, particularly in communication and leadership. By my final year, that growth was evident. The transition to a teaching assistant role required me to lead, facilitate discussions, and engage with students in a structured way, and I approached that with a level of confidence I would not have had earlier in my degree. Just as importantly, those experiences created lasting relationships. Many of the people I met through these roles remain part of my network today, and I have seen the same pattern with peers whose strongest professional and personal connections were formed through similar involvement. Looking back, these opportunities were less about the titles and more about the exposure, skill development, and relationships they offered.
Which degree(s) did you complete during your education, either at McMaster, or at another institution? Please add any degree program details you think are relevant to understand your academic path (e.g. specializations, minors, post-graduate certificates, etc.)
- BA (Hons.) Sociology – McMaster University
- LLB – City St George’s, University of London
