Inquiring minds want to know

 By Christine Murray

The month of February was spent querying lawyers across British Columbia on precisely this question.  Knowing how diverse and talented the legal profession is, it is not surprising that there were impressive and varied responses received.

While Christine worked at Starbucks for years during school, which provided a wonderful experience in dealing with people, it is far less interesting than most:

• “I was a professional percussionist and performed with orchestras around Canada, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.” — Craig D. Young, Dwyer Tax Lawyers, Victoria

• “I was stationed in Northern Alberta with the RCMP and each summer I worked as a Rodeo Cop.” — Garry F. Benson, QC, Benson Law LLP, Kelowna “I played the role of “Diet Coke Dave” in a Diet Coke commercial broadcast across Canada.” — Aaron D. Lightman, Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP, Vancouver

• “I was a radio station manager and DJ in Sackville, New Brunswick and interviewed the fifth Beatle Pete Best, Blue Rodeo, Ron Maclean and everyone’s favourite icon Stompin’ Tom Connors.” — Mark Norton, Hart Legal, Vancouver

• “I was an Army officer in the Canadian Forces for nine years, and participated as a United Nations Peacekeeper in Rwanda.” — Stephanie A. Sieber, McConnan, Bion O’Connor & Peterson, Victoria

• “I was a boring and subdued policy analyst in the B.C. government by day and a wild and crazy Keg waiter by night.” — Tony Wilson, Boughton Law Corporation, Vancouver

• “I was a professional symphony musician with a number of orchestras, including the Victoria Symphony, and twice got to perform with the Moody Blues.” — Heather Fisher, Horne Coupar, Victoria

• “I worked briefly as a ball room dance instructor in Arizona.” — Bill Murphy-Dyson, Cox Taylor, Victoria

• “One memorable job (although I can’t say it was my favourite) was working for an inventory company, going into grocery stores to count stock. I was literally counting beans.” — Andrew Tam, Mulligan Tam Pearson, Victoria

• “I sang opera, was a soloist at a Burnaby funeral parlour, performed in Theatre Under the Stars, and joined a Las Vegas-style show band. My audition song was Kiki Dee’s ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.’ After that I was 

• a flight attendant for Wardair.” — Georgialee Lang, Vancouver, Kelowna, Palm Springs

• “I worked as a wheat farmer in training, masters degree in raising hell and other heavy objects.” — Grant Hardwick, Doak Shirreff LLP, Kelowna

• “I worked as an illustrator in Tokyo and in animation production for Children’s Television Workshop.” — Gale Kim, McMillan, Vancouver

• “I was a Regional Intelligence Officer for Canada Customs (now the Canadian Border Services Agency) and prior to that a Customs Officer working in Niagara Falls at the Rainbow Bridge.” — Nancy Merrill, Merrill, Long & Co., Nanaimo

• “I was (and still am) an actor for a number of years before becoming a lawyer, performing on stages across Canada, as well as performing classical Japanese theatre in Japan.” — Christopher Mackie, Suntok Mackie, Victoria

• “My first job was as a soccer referee on the North Shore.” — Sharon D. Mathews, CBABC President, Camp Fiorante Matthews, Vancouver

• “I served as the third officer on the passenger liner Canberra and I travelled through the Mediterranean during the war of 1967.” — Michael S. Frost, Vancouver

If you had a notable pre-law career, please let BarTalk know for future publications! Thank you to everyone who participated.

Family Lawyer Christine Murray practises at Berge Hart Cassels LLP.

This article was published in the March 2012 issue of BarTalk. © 2012 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.