Keeping Tabs February 2019

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Q. What is your year of call?
A. 2012 in Ontario and
2014 in B.C.
Q. What is your greatest fear in practice?
A. The spectre of missing a deadline or limitation
period is something that I think we all fear.
Q. Which word do you prefer: litigator or advocate?
A. The term litigator is certainly used more often, but I think advocate best captures the work that
we do inside and outside the courtroom to organize, refine and present our clients’ cases.
Q. What is your favourite take out cuisine?
A. Pizza and beer.
Q. If you weren’t a lawyer
what would you be?
A. I think I would have wanted to
be a professor or teacher.
INTERVIEW
In conversation
with Kyle Ferguson,
Gudmundseth Mickelson LLP, Vancouver
Compiled by Carlo di Carlo, Stockwoods LLP
Q. Which living lawyer do you most admire?
A. There are so many lawyers that I work alongside or against that I admire, so rather than singling
out one of them, I will go a different route and pick Beverley McLachlin. She was the face of the
Supreme Court for a generation, and the clarity of her jurisprudence from all levels of court on
which she served continues to resonate here in B.C.
Q. What is your favourite case?
A. Whenever I revisit Roncarelli v. Duplessis, I am struck by Justice Rand’s eloquent articulation of
the limits on government action and the exercise of discretion. His cogent explanation of the rule
of law continues to apply to situations faced by our clients.
Q. Why did you become a litigator or advocate?
A. I didn’t go into law school with a fixed idea of my intended area of practice, but after being
exposed to litigation while summering at a law firm after my first year of law school, I was hooked.
Q. What is the latest non-legal book
you’ve read?
A. Tommy Orange’s There There.
Q. Which talent would you most like to
have?
A. I wish I could sleep on planes!
Q. What do you like most about your practice?
A. I enjoy the process of learning the ins and outs of our clients’ businesses or circumstances,
organizing their sometimes complicated facts in a way that can be presented to
the court, and figuring out how the law responds to their legal issues.
Q. From whom have you learned the most about the practice of law?
A. The senior lawyers that I work with, Stein Gudmundseth, Q.C., Howard Mickelson,
Q.C., Andrew Gay, Q.C. and Lisa Martz. They are incredibly generous with their time
and are a daily source of wisdom, advice and opportunities.
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