What Was Your Path into Law and onto the Bench?
Sharing my story presents me an opportunity for sober reflection on my journey so far and my path into the future. I was born and raised in Nigeria, the fifth of six children of my parents. My parents loved education and sacrificed significantly to ensure that their children had university education.
I decided to be a lawyer when I was a little girl. My mom was my role model. She was an elementary school teacher and helping children develop their abilities was a calling for her. Her philosophy was every child deserves education, and nobody deserves to remain hungry. She was the kindest, most generous and most hardworking person I know, and she helped a lot of children, parents, and people in general. My mom must have passed those genes to me because, even as a child, I was keenly aware of some situations I wished I could meaningfully help.
The seed to use law to help people was planted in the 1980s when I started watching a TV legal drama series called “Matlock”. I was fascinated by the courtroom, the trials, and how the lawyer while helping his clients identified the real perpetrators and resolved the cases. I developed a passion for the law.
My journey since then has been a very eventful one, with significant challenges and major successes, and filled with a dynamic and diverse cast of characters. I digress here to acknowledge my very supportive family, my champions and mentors, my local communities and the unseen one that directs my path. My story will be incomplete without acknowledging them. I have been very privileged to have amazing Canadian men and women who believed in me very early on, took me under their wings, and let me fly with them. I remain profoundly grateful to all of them.
I studied law in Nigeria and practiced law in Africa with one of the biggest international law firms in the country at the time. I was privileged to be involved in high profile cases early on in my career. My curious mind and adventurous spirit took over at some point and I decided to get an international LLM to enrich my knowledge and broaden my worldview. While I obtained admissions in highly ranked universities in United States of America and Canada, the most attractive to me and most fitting with my law practice, was University of Calgary’s (U of C) thesis-based combined program in Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law. I accepted U of C’s scholarship offer and came to Calgary in 2004.
Opportunities came and I took them without overthinking the personal costs to me. A significant one was the special case Ph.D in law program. I received my LL.M in 2007 and started the Ph.D the same year. When I realized that a Ph.D in law requires a few years to complete, I obtained the equivalent Canadian LL.B certificate from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). The NCA certificate is the first step towards a bar call and law practice in Canada.
In between my LL.M, Ph.D, and NCA certificate, I had my two lovely children. My baby boy and I wrote my LL.M thesis in the law library in U of C, although he slept through the entire writing process. My baby girl came along a few weeks after I wrote the Constitutional Law exam for NCA when I was in the Ph.D program.
With my NCA certificate, I worked as a research associate at Bennett Jones LLP before I articled with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG). For the next few years, I was in full-time law practice with BLG while completing my Ph.D studies, teaching law courses as a sessional instructor, raising a young family with two small children, and giving back to my local communities. I completed my Ph.D in 2014 and became the first person to obtain a Ph.D in law from the U of C law school.
I became a partner in BLG in 2017 where I maintained a diverse commercial litigation, arbitration, and regulatory law practice in a broad range of sectors. I wrote the Arbitrators’ exam, became a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and was accepted on the roster of the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre.
My curious mind and adventurous spirit took over again and I desired to serve the public in more impactful ways. I applied and was appointed a part-time Board member of the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Shortly thereafter, I was appointed Chair of the EAB. Given my Chair role, I wrote an exam and obtained certification in governance (the Chartered Director designation) from McMaster University.
I spent the rest of my legal practice years as a full-time lawyer, part-time instructor at the law school, part-time arbitrator, and part time adjudicator. I authored some law textbook chapters and articles, and frequently spoke at professional conferences. I was humbled by the acknowledgement from my peers through the Young Women in Energy inaugural Award, the Women in Law Leadership Award, and the Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Medal (Alberta) Award.
I continued to give back to the legal and other local communities, volunteering with several organizations including the Legal Education Society of Alberta, Pro Bono Law Alberta, Calgary Legal Guidance, Alberta Regional Advisory Committee of the Advocates Society, the Canadian Bar Association, and Boards of not-for-profit organizations. I spent rewarding time mentoring law students including Internationally Trained Lawyers, young lawyers, and women.
As for the Bench, the people around me saw me in the judiciary before I imagined it. I received comments from lawyers and non-lawyers telling me that I should be a judge. A couple of family friends would not stop calling me “Her Lordship” despite how many times I lectured them that I was not. What made up my mind to attempt the Bench path was when the Federal Minster of Justice published a news release in September 2020 stating that Canada is “committed to achieving the goal of a judiciary that reflects the diversity of the Canadian society” and urged “members of historically under-represented communities to consider applying for judicial appointments including Black and racialized Canadians…” Someone I respect argued that, for the goal of diversifying our judiciary to be achieved, historically under-represented Canadians need to step up and put their names forward. I decided to answer that call and to contribute to our judiciary to best of my ability.
I extend my gratitude to the organizers and nominators of the Madam Justice Project. It is indeed a privilege and an honor to be featured alongside the distinguished women judges in the project gallery.
What Experience in Your Legal Career Best Prepared You for Work on the Bench?
All of my legal career experiences, and my lived experiences as an African-Canadian first-generation immigrant black woman, cumulatively prepared me well for the Bench. My graduate education, up to Ph.D level, gave me a deeper substantive knowledge of the law and how to use it positively for the common good of the society. It also honed my critical thinking, analytical, research, and writing skills. These experiences gave me the opportunity to learn from, and be mentored by, the best in the legal industry in Canada and internationally. They significantly developed my natural traits including perseverance, resilience, goal-oriented, team spirit, strong work ethic and dedication to the law. I had opportunities to interact and learn from the wider public and communities with which I had little or no life experience. The experiences broadened my worldview and my desire to keep learning, appreciating and respecting the rich diversity of cultures, ideologies and unique perspectives in the Canadian society.
My journey also afforded me the opportunity to experience the human side of the law. Those experiences equipped me with more humility, patience, compassion and empathy, better communication and human relations skills, the commitment to treat every person appearing before me with dignity and respect, and to actively listen to, see and hear them. My experiences also impressed upon me the value of cultural humility and responsiveness, and the need for creating a safe presence for all litigation participants to effectively participate in the matters that bring them to the justice system.
What Advice Do You Have for Counsel Who Appear Before You?
My colleagues on the project gallery have provided profound wisdom that I need not rehash. I will simply add that counsel should be the best lawyer they can possibly be, in terms of knowledge, character and reputation. I also encourage counsel to go the extra mile in making justice efficient, and the process fair, for all participants in the litigation, even if nobody is paying them for it. The extra mile is not crowded. The extra milers, who persevere to maintain fairness and protect judicial impartiality, are remembered.
What Do You Wish the Public Knew About the Justice System?
First, the Justice System is working extremely hard, with limited resources, to ensure access and timely justice, and to enhance public confidence. The Justice System is also attentive to potential barriers to effective participation, such as language and other cultural factors. I urge litigants to highlight any such potential barriers and any significant cultural factors early in the process to allow time for proper consideration and to avoid delays and inefficiencies.
Second, while the Justice System strives within its capacity to accommodate the needs of all litigants, there are circumstances that require appropriate measure of firmness. This is to ensure the prevention of abuse of process or improper treatment of other participants, and to ensure a proper balance between upholding the right of parties to be heard, the efficiency and integrity of the process, and maintaining an atmosphere of dignity, equality and order.
Finally, the Justice System belongs to all of us and each person has a role to play in achieving the desired common goals. Each person can be a leader within their small areas of control, where they can take meaningful action and make a positive difference. Therefore, I urge the public to undertake small acts of self-leadership in their participation in the Justice System, such as striving towards early resolution of disputes, meeting scheduled timelines, providing and requesting only relevant and material records, providing required disclosures, maintaining civility to opposing parties in and outside the courtroom, and maintaining respect for the presiding justice and all staff.