Australian-Canadian academic, lawyer, and author Dr. Kellinde Wrightson is passionate about helping internationally trained lawyers (ITLs) succeed in understanding and navigating their journey to common law practice here in Alberta. Her own journey led her to writing Decoding Canadian Legal Research, Writing, and Conventions: A Guide for Internationally Trained Lawyers.
After spending 12 years travelling the world for research trips and speaking engagements as an academic, Kellinde undertook her next adventure – completing law school in Australia. The urge to travel again took hold, and in 2011 Kellinde and her family moved to Alberta for a five-year adventure that turned into a longer stay and coming to call Alberta home.
Kellinde’s own experiences navigating the complexities of retraining and then practicing law in a Canadian context sparked her desire to help others embarking on this same path. Her efforts to smooth the road and level the playing field for ITLs have led her to contribute her time and talents in many ways: she is the Executive Director of the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law, Foreign-Trained Lawyers Program and has offered her skills and guidance while serving on LESA’s Board of Directors.
Most recently Kellinde has authored a book – Decoding Canadian Legal Research, Writing, and Conventions: A Guide for Internationally Trained Lawyers – that shares her experiences and advice about how to succeed and thrive as an internationally trained lawyer. Here’s what she had to say about her own journey and her inspiration for writing the book:
When I went through this journey, there was very little out there to explain how it all worked, what the expectations were, what the pitfalls were, and so on. You were given Canadian common law subjects to study and exams to sit, but there was no preparation at all for what came after that. There was an assumption that you would just fit in. That’s always a dangerous assumption. There was certainly no training on Canadian style legal research and writing. The whole articling arm of the pathway to practice was left out of the equation. Articling itself is unknown in many other common law countries, where it has simply been abandoned or was never used. The whole approach to legal education and legal practice here can be entirely new to a newcomer lawyer and so I wanted to explain it and place it in context so that internationally trained lawyers not only learn what they need to learn but also understand why they are being asked to learn it in the first place. It’s all about levelling the playing field. That’s what Decoding aims to do. Explain the myths, fill in the knowledge gaps, break down some of the barriers out there, and, above all, give hope to all internationally trained lawyers that this journey is indeed possible and can be highly rewarding.
If you are an ITL, this book – and the lotus symbol used throughout it – are meant to inspire. As a symbol of strength, resilience, and rebirth, the lotus flower is the perfect representation of the internationally trained lawyer experience. As Kellinde explains it, as an ITL you must have the strength of mind and commitment to undertake the years-long journey to practicing law in Canada, the resilience to overcome the barriers and biases you encounter, and the rebirth of unlearning the way you were first taught to practice law and learning anew the Canadian way.
Kellinde’s advice to other ITLs is to always hold on to hope and to “find others like you, on the same journey, connect with them and learn from them.” Hopefully Decoding Canadian Legal Research, Writing, and Conventions: A Guide for Internationally Trained Lawyers will be one link in the chain of inspiring, productive connections that help many internationally trained lawyers on their journey to Canadian practice.
If you are an ITL looking for additional support, information, and connections, LESA has a number of programs and resources that were designed with you in mind. Here is a sampling to get you started:
- Effective Legal Writing Skills – Watch for resources coming soon!
- Legal Research Skills for Internationally Trained Lawyers – On-Demand Program
- Alberta Family Law Procedures: What Internationally Trained Lawyers Need to Know – On-Demand Program
- Drafting Effective Contracts – On-Demand Program
- Hindsight is 20/20: Civil Procedure for Lawyers in their Early Years of Practice – On-Demand Program
If you are looking for something in particular, and can’t seem to find it, please reach out to us at [email protected]. We’re happy to help connect you to our resources.
