Allyson Jeffs, a civil litigation lawyer with Ackroyd LLP in Edmonton, used to be a reporter for both the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal, covering the courts and the legislature. “I had more of a baseline legal knowledge as a lay person than a lot of colleagues,” she recalls. “As a journalist, you meet people from all walks of life, and you can absorb and summarize a lot of information in a deadline situation.” Being a writer, too, “really helped.”