Lisa Haydey , JD Class of 2025 Gold Medalist in Law

What do you wish you knew/ been told before your first day of law school? 

Practicing law can be incredibly people-centered and service-driven. If you love to read, write, problem solve, and help people through difficult times, you may find your passion in law! Also, the day-to-day practice of law looks very different from the content of first-year classes: don’t let your 1L experience be the deciding factor in whether law is the right path for you.

What is your favourite memory of Robson Hall? 

Meeting some of my closest, lifelong friends at Robson Hall is a memory I’ll always treasure. From collaborating on projects to supporting each other through challenges, those shared experiences made law school truly meaningful. Listening to Professor Irvine’s lectures is a close second!

What one piece of advice would you give to a new law student or person considering going to Robson Hall? 

My advice to a new student would be to uplift your peers, advocate for and support one another, and choose teamwork over competition. The relationships and values you build in law school can carry forward into your legal practice. We have the power to begin shaping the kind of profession we want to be a part of when we graduate!

Meanwhile, the boxy pile of concrete still stood as it has for 52 years, with Professor John Irvine pacing its halls preparing his lectures, while other faculty and staff popped in and out on occasion, all masked and waving greetings, relieved to see actual people in-person. Dr. Richard Jochelson, once installed as the new Dean, became a stalwart fixture in the big corner office. And things began to change.

Looking back over 2021, here is a list of significant evidence of changes coming to Robson Hall with related UM Today stories, heralding a bright future:

Answering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #28

1. Formation of the Truth & Reconciliation Action Team 
2. Passing of the mandatory upper-year course, “Indigenous Methodologies and Perspectives” 
3. Hiring of alumnus Marc Kruse as Indigenous Student Support Coordinator
4. Ongoing updates to Law course calendar to reflect commitment to CTA 28 on a course-by-course level 
5. Call for applications for an Indigenous Professor (please share job posting)
6. Development of a new Indigenous Clinical Experience 
7. Improved 1L orientation to include CTA 28 and legal ethics content
8. Hosted a second session of the Indigenous People and the Criminal Justice System workshop for practicing bar plus 40 law students 
9. Sponsored about 30 students to attend the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice’s Indigenous Peoples and the Law conference

See UM Today Stories:

• Faculty of Law introduces new Indigenous Student Support Coordinator
• Faculty of Law takes major steps to answer Call to Action 28
• Faculty of Law to offer new mandatory Indigenous course

Expanding Clinical Learning Opportunities, Business Law, and Bilingual program

1. Increased investment in the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic
2. Developing Room 113 (former storage room) into a new clinical space
3. Expanding the Desautels Centre for Private International Law to include blogs, case reporter, peer reviewed journal, conference and paper sponsorship and student support
4. Passing of a concentration in Private Enterprise & the Law
5. Passing of a concentration in Access to Justice Bilingual program
6. Expanding the University of Manitoba Community Law Centre (UMCLC)
7. Addition of a net year’s worth of four full-time staff forming a clinical team of instructors and professors

See UM Today Stories:

• Faculty of Law moves forward with plans for Desautels Legal Research Fund
• Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic goes virtual
• Legal Help Centre unites law students, alumni for common goals
• Achieving access to justice through language
• Access to Justice French Endowment Fund established to help train law students

Hiring new professors and staff

1. Two new professors were hired in the spring
2. In addition to the new Indigenous Student Support person, a new Admissions Officer was hired in the summer
3. Two new instructors were hired this fall
4. The search for the Mauro Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice has concluded and will be announced in the new year
5. It goes without saying but bears repeating that the Faculty appointed a new Dean of Law, Dr. Richard Jochelson, who took office on July 1, 2021.
6. The Faculty also appointed a new Associate, JD Program, Dr. Virginia Torrie, with Dr. Donn Short continuing in his term as Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies

See UM Today Stories:

• Faculty of Law welcomes Assistant Professors Martine Dennie and Katie Szilagyi
• An essential service: Robson Hall’s Admissions and Financial Aid office
• Familiar faces form new team at faculty of Law Dean’s Office
• Running down a dream of law school

 Administrative, Building, and Community Improvements

1. Four classrooms have been prepared with videoconferencing capabilities in anticipation of a partial return to in-person teaching and learning
2. Faculty council has completed an initial study of bylaws and is preparing them for modernization
3. Despite Labour Action and pandemic, the Faculty successfully preserved the schedule for Winter term to keep students on track for graduation and timely commencement of articles
4. Forging of strong links with the Law Society of Manitoba with announcements coming 
5. Ongoing provision of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) seminars with more planned for next term

Mental Health supports and initiatives

1. Ongoing – Student Counselling Centre services have provided two imbedded counsellors for law students to have one-on-one counselling appointment (virtual). When SCC counsellors were not, available, students were connected with Empower Me for virtual counselling support.
2. A Mindfulness presentation given virtually by Dr. Thomas G.W. Telfer of Western Law was part of the 1L Orientation on September 3.
3. A “Mask and Learn” lunchtime talk with Professor Brandon Trask took place September 14 on the topic of protecting one’s mental health as a lawyer. The in-person event featured tips for law students to carry into practice to guard their mental health and help reduce the overall stigma of mental health issues in workplace.
4. A Presentation by Shannon Daniels (therapist for MB Justice) and Carolyn Reimer (MB Crown Attorney) occurred October 22 over Zoom. Discussion was regarding general risks faced by law students and lawyers regarding mental health issues and stress, how to recognize the signs of stress and trauma, how stress/trauma impact your work, how to deal with stress, the competitiveness of law, imposter syndrome and how to deal with same.
5. Rebecca Bromwich, EDI manager at Gowling joined us via Zoom on November 23 to give a Mental Health First Aid presentation. This was an overview for students, staff and faculty of the basics of mental health, how to notice mental health issues in others, what to do/not do to provide assistance to someone who experiencing a mental health crisis.
6. Shannon Daniels and Carolyn Reimer returned virtually to give a presentation to Assistant Professor David Ireland’s Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility class at the end of term on December 10. Assistant Professor Brandon Trask moderated class discussion. The presentation included practical pointers for law students and lawyers to deal with stress and vicarious trauma related issues. 

Celebrating Accomplishments of Faculty, Students, and Alumni

1. In addition to online teaching, many professors have continued to publish their research throughout the pandemic
2. Students have persevered, competing in moot competitions online, and taking part in extracurricular academic and career-related activities to their benefit
3. We have been increasingly reaching out to our alumni to see what kind of impact their legal educations have had on their careers and their communities

See UM Today Stories:

Professors

• Law professors engage in cross-Canada collaboration on law and disability case book
• Supreme Court of Canada cites law professor’s book in key Human Rights Case
• UM Law Students’ Associate Dean (JD) behind globally-recognized law review
• New book fills gap in research on perpetrators of genocide
• Law Faculty members share knowledge in plain sight and plain language
• Law professor’s accessible first book earns global attention, local award nomination
• Law professor wins Law of Work best paper prize
• COVID and the Constitution

Students

• An education with impact
• What makes you stronger
• Shawn Singh and the President’s Student Leadership Program
• WFP: From the streets to the courtroom
• Manitoba Faculty of Law teams shine at fifth annual Canadian National Negotiation Competition
• Moot News: Team Manitoba takes 3^rd place in National 2021 Sopinka Cup
• Mooting Matters
• Manitoba’s Gale Cup Team places third after decade-long shutout
• Rising to the Charter Challenge
• Celebrating Faculty of Law class of 2021 graduates

Alumni

• Living with law and art
• Memories of Robson Hall
• Delightful conversations and stirring memories: Law Homecoming 2021
• Faculty of Law alumna turns class assignment into TV script
• Alumnus creates scholarship for Black Law Students
• New scholarship fund to honour UM Law alumnus Darius Maharaj Hunter
• Faculty of Law congratulates Professor Emeritus Philip H. Osborne

Below are glimpses of some of the students featured in the interviews. Please click their hyperlinked names to enjoy their full stories on Instagram.

Juris Doctor Class of 2021

Student leader Daphne Comegan, credits her undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice and a job working for Cree lawyer and Robson Hall alumnus, Kenneth B. Young [BA/67, LLB/73] as inspiring her to pursue a career in law. In her interview, Comegan advises future law students to, “Do the readings, manage your time accordingly, most importantly take care of yourself.  Love yourself. Heal yourself. Be kind to yourself.”

Suraj Lakhi came from a business undergrad degree with an interest in tax law but discovered a love of property law in Lord John Irvine’s class. Lakhi advises students to, “Be yourself, don’t try to fake being someone else. You were accepted to law school for a reason, so this is the opportunity for the world to see the real you!”

MBA representative and student leader Braeden Cornick deviated from his path to becoming a professor to pursue law instead, where he found an affinity for advocacy. He admonishes future students, “Don’t sit back and let opportunities and chances that Robson is offering come to you. Go and get them from day one and you won’t regret it.”

Moot competition star Amber Harms had come to law school seeking to become a knowledge worker and was transformed by courses offering practical experience including mock trials and negotiations. Advising future law students to make the most of law school, she says, “Make good friends and more importantly, good impressions. Take advantage of every educational and social opportunity that you can fit into your life, and you’ll have an amazing 3 years.”

Master of Laws, Class of 2021

Meghan Menzies [JD/2012] initially practiced in the area of Human Rights and Environmental Law before moving to the University of Manitoba Student Advocacy Office in 2016. Currently serving as the UM’s Human Rights and Conflict Management Officer, she returned to her Alma Mater at Robson Hall to complete an LL.M., graduating this year. Menzies’ thesis was on “The Right to Access to Justice: Expanding the Court’s Protections Against a Complex Law.”

Master of Human Rights, Inaugural Class of 2021

Fortunate enough to have spent her first year of the brand-new Master of Human Rights program in person at Robson Hall, Cara McCaskill counts being able to get to know her classmates as one of her favourite memories. “The members of this initial MHR cohort are some of the most passionate, dedicated people I know, and it has truly been a privilege to be inspired by them,” she says in her Instagram interview.

Coming from a background in politics and human rights, the biggest lesson she learned in this program was resilience. McCaskill advises future MHR students that “The opportunity to gain specific knowledge related to your chosen area within the discipline of human rights is an invaluable resource if you’re wanting to go out into the world and advocate for human rights on any scale. Once you’re here, make the most of your time, it goes by so fast and is over before you know it.”

Ashley Haller likewise counts being able to form friendships with fellow students among her favourite memories. Having studied communications and political science, Haller saw the M.H.R. program as a great way to channel her passion for meaningful social change. Overcoming imposter syndrome was one of her biggest lessons, and she advises future students to get involved, but to also take care of themselves. “Burnout is really common for those in the human rights field, so take rest when you need it.”

Please follow @umanitoba_law and @umanitobamhr on Instagram to read the full interviews with more of the remarkable J.D., LL.M., and inaugural graduating class of M.H.R. students in our Faculty of Law Class of 2021.

Though he hadn’t recently been in touch with any law school alumni, the BC Ministry of Attorney General’s announcement of his Q.C. designation prompted a classmate to get in touch and talk about getting together with the pockets of Robson Hallers in the Vancouver/Victoria area. A conversation with an old friend, Acting Dean David Asper, Q.C., directed Nitikman to the Faculty’s 2020 Homecoming recording that featured Jack London, (another) Q.C., who was dean when Nitikman was a law student. This brought back memories that Nitikman was compelled to share.

Speaking by phone from Vancouver in early January of 2021, his voice rises with the excitement of a first-year law student when he recalls his first impressions arriving at Robson Hall in the fall of 1982. “The first thing that happened is, I walked in down the hall and saw this gold medal thing there and I saw my uncle’s name: it said I. Nitikman. And I thought, Oh, crap. Now I got some big shoes to fill here. I’m in serious trouble.”

Under (No) Pressure

Big shoes to fill: Joel Nitikman’s great uncle Israel won the Gold Medal for Law in 1929.

Israel Nitikman [LLB/1929] was Joel’s father’s uncle, who had become a famous judge in Manitoba. Joel’s own uncle, Phil Schacter [LLB/68] had attended Robson Hall and was a well-known criminal prosecutor in Winnipeg. To top it all off, Joel’s mother, Shelley Nitikman was a Robson Hall grad, class of 1972. “So I was pretty nervous about the whole thing,” he said.

Though he grew up in Winnipeg’s North End (and later Tuxedo) and spent summers at Falcon Lake, the family moved to Vancouver when he was about 12 when his father, an accountant and close friend of Israel Asper’s [LLB/57, LLM/64], was promoted. Nitikman majored in mathematics and graduated with a BSc from the University of British Columbia in 1982. Wandering across UBC campus one day during his final year, he found himself having second thoughts about his chosen career as a mathematician. “I realized I wasn’t smart enough,” he said. “I thought, oh my god, I’m going to graduate in eight months. What the heck am I going to do?”

He spotted a sign outside a physics lecture theatre that said “LSATs being written today.” Only knowing what that was because his mother was a lawyer, he walked in, deciding on a whim to try it out. Despite not having registered or studied for the test, Joel convinced the test administrators to let him in.  “They looked at each other like I was nuts,” he said.

He wrote it and got accepted at the University of Manitoba, his mother’s alma mater. During his first week of law school, he found himself in conversation in the Common Room with other 1Ls talking about their LSAT experiences. “What prep course did you take?” someone asked him. Nitikman had no idea what they were talking about. “I don’t know. I didn’t take one,” he recalled telling them. “They all looked at each other like I was completely bonkers. I was the only one in first year who hadn’t taken an LSAT prep course. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”

Later in life, Nitikman ended up teaching part of the LSAT preparatory course. The humour of the situation is not lost on him.

The impromptu start of Nitikman’s law school career set a precedent for how his time at Robson Hall unfolded: making split-second, impulsive decisions that altered his life in ways he would never have imagined. As he related his favourite moments, some major impressions stood out.

Learning Curve

To this day, Nitikman remembers the welcome address Dean Jack London, Q.C. gave to his first-year class at a time when law school was portrayed in Hollywood films as a cutthroat environment where the norm was to tear others down to get ahead, as demonstrated in The Paper Chase. That didn’t fly at Robson Hall, especially under London’s governance. Thirty-eight years later, Nitikman still remembers him telling the class on orientation day, “Look at the person on your left, look at the person on your right. In three years, all three of you will still be here and you will all graduate.”

Robson Hall’s resident British Lord, Professor John Irvine, made a huge impact on the future tax lawyer. “He taught a course called personal property, kind of an obscure topic that very few lawyers ever deal with,” said Nitikman. “Actually, I deal with it all the time.”

Nitikman found the case-based course to be a good introduction on how to read and analyze case law. He also found both the subject matter and the professor to be lots of fun, recalling how Irvine would come to school wearing hip-waders from his farm, speaking with an English accent which the North-Ender had never heard before. “It was all very interesting, and the process of legal analysis kind of suited me.”

His complete and utter inability to gauge his understanding of the law bewildered Nitikman throughout law school.  Exiting his Criminal Law exam, he swaggered with confidence: “I said to somebody, ‘They’re going to have to invent a grade higher than A-plus, because I did so well on that exam.’ I think I ended up getting a C in the course.”

“And then when I walked out of my administrative law exam, I went to the professor and said, ‘You have to let me re-write this. I don’t know what happened. I know the material, but I just had some brain aneurysm in the middle of this exam. I’m sure I failed. I know this material, you have to let me write this again.’ And he said, ‘Well, let me mark the exam and we’ll see how it goes.’ I ended up getting an A-plus.”

“So that only goes to show you I had absolutely no idea about what was going on,” he said.

Real Life Lessons

One of the most important lessons Nitikman learned at Robson Hall arose from a conversation he had with Professor Cameron Harvey, who was Associate Dean Academic at the time, and who taught – then as now – Agency and Partnership law. Nitikman challenged Harvey on the necessity of closed book exams, which nearly all law courses at the time had. “I said, ‘Explain to me why this needs to be a closed book exam. In real life, when I’m sitting in my office – if I ever get to be a lawyer – it’s not going to be a closed book exam. I’m going to have law books on my shelves. Somebody will come in and ask me a question, and I’ll be able to look at the book. So why do we have to write closed book exams? That makes no sense.”

Nitikman recalls Harvey’s answer thus: “He said, ‘Yes, that’s true. But when a client comes in to see you, they expect you to have a certain amount of fundamental knowledge right off your fingertips. They don’t expect you to say, ‘Oh, I don’t know the answer to that. Let me look it up.’ If there’s some obscure random question, yeah, that’s okay. But if it’s some basic question about the law, you can’t always say to them, let me look that up. They’ll look at you like you’re an idiot, like you’re not even a lawyer. There’s a certain amount of fundamental basic knowledge that clients will expect you to know, right off the top of your head. And if you don’t know that, you can’t come across as somebody they can trust to be their lawyer.’”

Nitikman was floored. “That’s a great answer,” he told Harvey. “Why didn’t somebody tell us that in first year? Why did I have to wait ‘til third year to learn that?”

“And that was 35 years ago, and it stuck with me ever since. I tell that to my students, and I tell that to my juniors, and I say, this is the lesson I learned 35 years ago, and it’s a good lesson. It’s been true all these years and I’m passing it on to you. That was maybe one of the most important conversations I ever had in law school.”

Thirty-five years after law school, Nitikman’s own advice to pass on to current-day Robson Hallers is this:

For first-year students: “You get assigned homework almost every day in law school, you have to read a chapter, you have to do this, you have to do that. My own advice to new first year students is: don’t go home. This was my personal rule. Don’t go home until you’ve finished your homework that day. Because it doesn’t matter if it’s midnight, or 1am. Because if you leave it till the next day, you got more homework, and then you leave that and you say, oh, I’ll do it on the weekend. By that time, you got five days of homework and it becomes impossible.”

For all law students: “You know that the first part of the word of lawyer is law. And yet, I found over the years, and I don’t know quite why this is, that many lawyers don’t want to practice the law, they’re not interested in law. They want to do big deals, they want to negotiate business arrangements, or do anything other than practice law. But that’s not what we’re here [for]. You want to do that, go get an MBA. Which is fine. But there’s no point in being a lawyer, if you’re scared to deal with the technical aspects of the law. So my own recommendation is, study hard in law school, learn as much law as you can. Because that’s going to be the foundation for whatever you do as a lawyer.”

The Gold Medal Story

As a matter of priorities, Nitikman never went to his law school convocation at which he was supposed to have been presented with the Gold Medal for receiving top marks in the Law Faculty graduating class. Again, he had no idea where his marks stood. He was bent on seeing Europe for the first time in his life. “I’d never really been anywhere,” he said. “I’d never done anything except go to school. So when I graduated from law school, I went on a Contiki trip to Europe for two months.”

He was in Austria boarding a tour bus when he got a telegram from his mother saying, “You won the gold medal. There’s going to be a celebration. Come back right away.”

Needless to say, Nitikman did not cut his travels short, and speculates he may be the only Gold Medalist in Robson Hall history who didn’t show up for convocation.

A Quality Education

This is not at all to say he didn’t appreciate his time spent at Robson Hall. In 1993, when accepted into New York University to do a Master of Laws degree in US tax law, he was once again beset with the same jitters he arrived with at Robson Hall in 1982. “Oh, crap, I am in serious trouble,” he recalls saying to himself. “There were people there from Harvard. There were people there from Yale. There were people there from Boston University, which has one of the strongest undergraduate tax programs in the US. There were people there from Europe. And I walk in and I’m from Robson Hall in Winnipeg.”

As it turned out, he was fine. “The education I got at Robson Hall, stood me in good stead,” he said. Despite low Maclean’s magazine rankings, a small library, and the U of M not having as much money as the University of Toronto, for example, Nitikman said, “I always tell people, it doesn’t matter. You go to Robson Hall, you’re going to get an education that’s going to put you up there with Harvard and Yale, and Boston. And you can take my word for it, because I’ve been there. And I always thought that the education I got there has stood me in good stead for almost 40 years.”

A Final Winnipeg Moment: “Who is your favourite Asper?”

The thing about Winnipeg is that everyone knows everyone. A quintessential part of Winnipeg is the Asper family, and a quintessential part of Robson Hall is any number of Asper family members who either obtained their law degrees from the Faculty, taught there, or have worked with U of M Law graduates. That includes the Nitikmans.

When he was a kid, Joel’s family spent summers at Falcon Lake where his parents were friends with Babs and Israel Asper. The families were close, and in his impish way, Acting Dean David Asper wanted to ask our illustrious alumnus “Who is your favourite Asper?”

The answer was another story.

“When I was younger,” said Nitikman, the smile in his voice clearly audible, “I was a very competitive table tennis player. I played in tournaments and I won. I won the Manitoba Table Tennis Championships in my age group a couple of times.

“If you looked up the word competitive in the dictionary, Izzy’s name was there. It didn’t matter what you were doing: waterskiing, mixing drinks, it didn’t matter: he wanted to win, and it didn’t matter who his opponent was.

“One day we were in the basement of his cottage at Falcon Lake, and we were playing ping pong. And I was maybe 10 years old.

“I was pretty good at ping pong, relatively speaking. You know, at 10 years old for Falcon Lake and Winnipeg. And I beat him because he didn’t know how to play and I did. He was apoplectic; I thought he was gonna have a heart attack. I was scared. He was so mad.”

But when Joel’s father died, the elder Asper gave the eulogy at his friend’s funeral, which made a lasting impression on the 17-year-old Joel. He gave “a very mature eulogy, praising my father and talking about my father and what a great guy he was and how he had been so smart. I compared the two Izzys between what I had seen when I was 10, and what happened when I was 17 and I thought, ‘there’s more to this man than meets the eye.’ So when he died, I deliberately and very purposely went back from BC to the funeral to mourn Izzy because of the close connection between our families. But basically to honour him for having given such a warm eulogy at my father’s funeral. So I guess I would say Izzy is my favorite Asper. But Babs was certainly the nicest Asper for me.”

Law Faculty communications staff interviewed the kindly professor to learn more about the impact he has had on so many alumni over the years, and to understand cryptic old yearbook photo comments about hay and horses. In a voice Irvine complained resembled a “well-dined” Sir Winston Churchill, Irvine kindly divulged the tale of how he crossed the ocean by boat from England and stayed in Winnipeg for half a century.

Beginnings

John Irvine was born at Leamington Spa near Stratford-upon-Avon and Coventry. He grew up in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, “a very attractive town” full of greenspace, fields, woods, and a ruined castle in its centre. He went to school locally, and at age 10, got a scholarship to attend Warwick School, which is now 1,106 years old and that, according to Irvine, “doesn’t seem to have really produced anyone of particular fame or notoriety in that period of a thousand years plus, except the poet John Masefield [1878-1967], who was expelled for constant absenteeism after a couple of weeks.”

At age 17, Irvine had a choice of attending either Oxford or Cambridge Universities, and chose Oxford because his particular college, Lincoln, “looked a little bit cozier with its medieval rather than classical architecture.”

There, he studied law, because he had no idea what else to do. He had no family background or connections to the legal profession, but chose law over being a school teacher. Law seemed interesting, so he gave it a try – and “got stuck” which seems to be a theme in his life, he mused.

Irvine’s original intention was to practice law but he stopped just short. “Qualifying for the Bar in England is very peculiar,” Irvine explained. “You don’t have to have a university degree at all…. All you have to do is join an Inn of Court, eat a number of dinners in the great hall of one of these four Inns of Court…and be recorded as having been present at such and such a dinner there on such and such a night…it is rather nice. Slightly reminiscent of the dining hall of Hogwart’s.” Then, there are a few exams and voilà – you’re a barrister.

Irvine joined Gray’s Inn but stopped eating dinners about one or two short of the number required to practice law, and instead decided he wanted to see America. So he sailed by ship to Connecticut and was a lecturer for a short while at the law school there.

Getting Stuck at Robson Hall

At the time, teaching at North American law schools was a “good gig” for young British legal scholars, so he set about writing letters to deans at various Canadian law schools, including Dean Cliff Edwards at the modern incarnation of the Manitoba law school which was about to open its new building, Robson Hall, on the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry Campus.

“He was a man of great energy, vision and principle,” said Irvine of Edwards. “He was also a very kind and decent man. He was the very embodiment of a gentlemanly scholar.”

Professor Irvine in his first year of teaching at Robson Hall. Photo, Faculty of Law Yearbook, 1970-71.

Edwards, who in the late 1960s, had been on the lookout to fill the brand-new law building with good legal educators, seemed to have a system of contacts all over the world. Having received Irvine’s letter requesting an interview, he told the young scholar to go and see his colleague Sir Otto Kahn-Freund, a leading legal scholar at Oxford at the time. Over “a great deal of tea and cakes” in Kahn-Freund’s chambers at Brasenose College, they talked for hours about British Birds after which – according to Irvine – Sir Otto proclaimed, “You’ll do,” and sent him off to Winnipeg.

Irvine once again came by ship, this time to Canada in 1970, and taught for 4 years. Missing his family, however, he went back and tried teaching at the University of Birmingham for a year but the pull of personal loyalties and the fact that he couldn’t earn a living wage there, brought him back in 1975 and he has been rather “agreeably stuck” ever since.

Changing Times

Irvine has noted key differences from decade to decade since he first started teaching, the primary of which is that women now form more than half the law student body. “The first one or two were very brave,” said Irvine. “There was a new spirit in the faculty and women have made Robson hall a much more civilised place,” he said.

Another difference within the walls of Robson Hall Irvine notes is that the atmosphere has become more serious. When he first started, “it was more exuberant, and there was more carousing in pubs,” he said in his matter-of-fact way. Irvine recalls the “universal heavy smoking” where students would light up immediately upon exiting the library, and many of the professors smoked pipes.

Finally, Irvine notes that students today are quite different in their collegiality compared to the competitiveness he witnessed in the past. While he notes that students were convivial then as now, in the early 1970s, there was a competitiveness that reached “unpleasant levels but it got snuffed out.” Since then, students have been more fair-minded, Irvine observes.

Best Part About Teaching

After all these years, what Irvine most enjoys about teaching is “that moment when the penny drops,” and witnessing students finally coming to understand legal concepts. He also loves doing the old-fashioned kind of research, finding “hidden things” and getting behind the rules of law.

Professor Irvine’s favourite subjects have always been Torts and Property law. “Anyone wanting to teach law should consider Torts,” he advises, adding that it’s his favourite because it is so diverse and interesting. Property law, especially real property law, is his other favourite, because it is so medieval and curious, and “quite absorbing.”

The Rural Academic

The rural academic: Irvine in 1997, the year of the flood. Photo, Faculty of Law yearbook 1997-1998.

Irvine suspects some of his students and colleagues over the years have thought him eccentric, and indeed, in old yearbooks dating back to his earliest days at the Faculty, students ribbed him – with good humour – about his rural lifestyle. To this day, he lives on an acreage outside of the city with a huge garden and a menagerie of animals. Over the years he has raised six or seven Arabian horses, various cows, poultry and deer, and currently provides housing for a flock of Purple Martins. He also harbours various other birds and monarch butterflies.

“My old mother who passed away just last Christmas at the age of 100, I know what she would say. “Keep your chin up,” she’d say. And the queen, bless her, would say, “Keep calm and carry on.” I think it’s a generational thing you know, they all have these sturdy sayings. It’s good advice but easier said than done in times like this, isn’t it.”

Contagious Cheerfulness

Teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic has posed perhaps the greatest challenges yet for Irvine, yet he carries on. Befuddled by technology, he has muddled through with the help of students, staff and colleagues, and pressed on by pre-recording his lectures and sometimes holding virtual discussions with students using online platforms. His main complaint is not being able to access the library for that hands-on experience of being able to hunt through the text and discover those “hidden things” he so loves.

Currently, Irvine has found encouragement in the “extraordinary resilience of the students” that he has seen, and as parting words of advice, would like to say to students, “this is a kindly faculty. We’re not out to get you or rub in the fact that your work may not be of the same degree of polish and exhaustive detail as has been possible in previous years. You’re carrying a much heavier burden. You’ve got a tougher row to hoe than previous years have had, and my impression is you’re handling it very well and cheerfully. Cheerfulness is contagious and that’s what we need at the moment. I think you’re handling a very difficult situation very well.”

Related media:

• Meet Professor Irvine as he introduces himself to new law students at the start of the 2020 Fall Term.
• Watch Professor Irvine’s Redux Lecture on Tort Law at the Faculty of Law virtual Homecoming 2020.

“It just wouldn’t be fitting to let John’s 50^th year of teaching go by without at least some discussion of snails in ginger beer and the intersection of law and a human toe!” said Acting Dean David Asper, Q.C.. “People melted when they heard John’s voice, and it was a heartwarming moment for our alumni. Equally so, with the publication of Jack London’s book [Serendipity: My path through Life and Law] we were reminded of his contribution to the faculty, and more broadly, to the entire construct of how we discuss reconciliation in Canada today. It was a fantastic event!”

Acting Dean David Asper, Q.C. hosted a virtual alumni event that featured Professor John Irvine and former Dean Jack R. London, C.M., Q.C.

Irvine, who has taught Torts, Personal Property law and Legal Systems to generations of lawyers, kicked off the virtual event with a mini lecture of classic Torts law that every Canadian law student is required to learn. While actually in his office, his virtual background gave the illusion of lecturing from Robson Hall’s Moot Courtroom. Irvine’s manner of delivery makes each case a fascinating story that leaves the listener hanging on every word. Guests had been encouraged to use Zoom’s chat function to communicate with each other throughout the event, and comments appearing during Irvine’s talk shared the mutual joy of hearing his voice and the return of fond law school memories.

Professor – now officially Lord John Irvine – has taught at the Faculty of Law for 50 years.

Having arrived in Canada from the United Kingdom in 1970 to teach at the newly-constructed Robson Hall, Irvine, still a British citizen to this day, was surprised beyond words when Manitoba Law Student Association President Nick Noonan virtually presented him with an actual Lordship certificate. The Faculty included a gift basket of celebratory goodies to accompany the gold-embossed certificate that gave Irvin the honorific title, “Lord John Irvine of Hougun Manor estate, Cumbria, England.” The presentation was facilitated in a socially-distanced and COVID-safe manner with gloved and masked staff on hand near Irvine where he sat in his office.

Former Dean of Law Jack R. London, C.M., Q.C., LL.M., discussed his new book with Acting Dean David Asper, Q.C.

The event concluded with a lively discussion between Asper and London, whose nickname the “Blue Jean Dean” was due to his casual dress and down-to-earth attitude during a time when most law professors were more formal. London had launched his published memoirs, Serendipity: My path through Life and Law on October 15 through McNally Robinson Booksellers. His book is still available to order from McNally’s.

Throughout the presentations, alumni posted comments in the platform’s chat function expressing appreciation for their former professors and requesting more such virtual events to be held in future.

Slideshow presentations shown during the event can be seen on the Faculty of Law Alumni page.

A full recording of the event can be viewed on the Robson Hall Youtube Channel.

As Law Society President Ms. Kathy Bueti noted during her remarks given at the Faculty of Law’s 2018 Homecoming Reception on Thursday, September 27^th, it was the first event other than a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) class, to be held at the Law Society’s new offices located on St. Mary Avenue in downtown Winnipeg. Many of the lawyers attending had just spent the day at a very special CPD workshop on Indigenous Law at Sagkeeng First Nation, which had been co-sponsored by the Faculty of Law and the Manitoba Bar Association.

Dr. Jonathan Black-Branch, Dean of Law, who had attended the CPD that day, took the opportunity to share with alumni present, the new directions the Faculty of Law is taking, including ensuring the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #28, which calls upon all law schools in Canada to teach law students about Aboriginal people and the law. Dean Black-Branch also set out for alumni, the faculty’s Values, which consist of Excellence, Understanding, Respect, Openness, Professionalism, and Accountability, and through which the Faculty seeks to train members of the legal profession to be leaders who promote social justice and progress through economy and human rights, and to serve the public good.

Alumni and Faculty members enjoyed visiting with old friends and meeting new, and pouring over old yearbooks to find their graduation photos. Some dared to take a humorous quiz that tested their memories of Latin Maxims, and advice learned from professors in law school. Door prizes of items with Robson Hall logos were given to those brave enough to take the quiz. Several memorable lessons alumni shared included advice from the late Dean Cliff Edwards that, “The history of the Courts of Chancery is not boring,” and that law students should, “Stop whining. Medical students have it way worse.” Some excellent advice one alumnus remembered from Professor John Irvine was that “Laughing is good.” Finally, in response to the question, “What was the most important thing law students talked about almost daily when you were in Law School?” and “What does it seem to be now?” was “Then: Who’s winning at crokinole? Now: How can we make the world a better place?”

Times have indeed changed!

Most notably, it was also the year 81 aspiring lawyers graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Robson Hall Faculty of Law.

In honour of their twentieth graduation anniversary, UM Today tracked down two members of the stalwart group to reminisce about influential historic events, the early days of classroom tech, and the upside of 100 per cent finals.

We caught up with Kevin Dooley, senior counsel at Shell Canada, and Robert Buisson, corporate counsel at Red River College, before their class reunion.

UM TODAY: IF YOU LOOK BACK TO 1998, THERE WAS A LOT GOING ON IN LEGAL HISTORY. DAVID MILGAARD WAS EXONERATED; THE ROBERT LATIMER CASE WAS EVOLVING. DID THAT AFFECT YOUR DISCUSSIONS IN THE CLASSROOM?

DOOLEY: Didn’t the O.J. decision come down?

BUISSON: The big legal story – which unfortunately I think was a precursor of the dominance of American media – was the O.J. Simpson decision. They actually wheeled a TV into the common room and CTV brought their news cameras and watched our reaction to O.J. Simpson being found not guilty. The whole class was on TV. There was an older gentleman in our first year and I remember I looked at him and said “for your generation it was the moon landing, and for us it’s going to be watching some guy get away with murder”. That was a big moment for our year. And the strike.

THE FIRST UMFA STRIKE IN 1995?

DOOLEY: Yeah, our instructors went on the picket line.

BUISSON: We actually continued going to class in people’s apartments and homes off-site. It was a great way to get to know your classmates in an informal setting. The Law Society hosted a few classes which garnered some media attention. There was a lot going on. That, and we saved a professor’s house during the flood of 1997.

DOOLEY: Yes, John Irvine. He had a log house in the country, a couple hundred feet from the river. When we started sandbagging, we just walked to the house. By the time we were done the bloody river was on his doorstep.

BUISSON: We stopped by the law school first because the assistants had made sandwiches for everyone. We sandbagged all day. John Irvine was the kind of instructor you’d do something like that for. He was a really good instructor, a really nice man. A great storyteller, but you learned the legal principles. That was worth my tuition right there. In the end, his house was saved. It didn’t improve my grade any …

DOOLEY: No, not mine either. You’d think he could have thrown us a bone.

IT SOUNDS LIKE STUDYING LAW WAS JUST AS CHALLENGING BACK THEN AS IT IS NOW. CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT HOW YOU RESEARCHED CASES AND DID ASSIGNMENTS? 

BUISSON: We were the first generation that had an inkling of the power of the Internet but we learned old school using books and finding citations that would lead us to cases. The Canadian Abridgment, things of that nature. You’d trace the line of cases by reading other cases and then you’d find that case from 1610 that said exactly what you wanted it to say.

DOOLEY: [with English accent] “Lord Blackwell, as he then was …”

BUISSON: But they did give us access to Quicklaw. I think we were the second or third year to get free access.

DOOLEY: I remember we had substantial libraries. I’m guessing that’s not the case anymore.

BUISSON: Kevin was actually one of the first students to get a laptop. We were like ‘whoa, why would someone bring their computer with them when you could just go to the lab?’ Shows how forward thinking we were.

DOOLEY: Yeah, but laptop batteries weren’t great. Laptops certainly weren’t silent. So after one or two abortive attempts at taking notes I just went back to the pen and paper.

BUISSON: And you couldn’t connect to the Internet.

DOOLEY: No, there was no WiFi. Classrooms weren’t wired for this stuff.

Rob and Kevin's yearbook entries.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW MUCH YOUR LAPTOP COST?

DOOLEY: It would have been certainly over $1,000. I do recall in my last year of law school my total tuition plus books was five grand.

BUISSON: Yeah, I don’t even think it was that high actually. Close to five. Compared to now …

YOUR GRADUATION YEARBOOK MENTIONS THAT BOTH OF YOU DID A LESS-THAN-STELLAR JOB OF COACHING FOOTBALL. WAS THIS AN EXTRA-CURRICULAR THING?

BUISSON: There was a law school match that happened in about June of your second year. You would go for interviews, match with a firm, and then you’d know what your firm was after you graduated. In order to look more like humans we would pad our resumes with volunteer activities. Dooley and I coached a football team together.

DOOLEY: That’s right.

BUISSON: It was good for our resumes I think but really traumatic for a lot of children. A lot of us did stuff like that together. Again, furthering the lifelong relationships and bonds that we made.

DOOLEY: I think that’s a big difference because students today have the craziest life experiences and volunteer experiences. The expectations on them are different than the expectations were on us. They certainly have it harder. Back then you just did whatever you wanted to do during the summer. I was like a guide in costume at Lower Fort Garry. Nowadays you have to have a job in a firm.

BUISSON: Forget articling, you were a very fine blacksmith. No finer blacksmith than Kevin Dooley at Lower Fort Garry, I’ll tell you that much.

DOOLEY: Ah, the memories. Can I go back to that – being a blacksmith?

ABSOLUTELY. ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU’RE FOND OF?

DOOLEY: Making spears, hitting metal, not knowing what you’re doing.

WHAT DID YOU GET UP TO OUTSIDE OF CLASSES?

DOOLEY: I can’t believe the amount of free time we had back then. It was insane. I remember one day we brought our skates and hockey sticks and put them in our locker because we knew we wouldn’t have classes that afternoon. We found the nearest rink and played hockey all night. A lot of our exams were 100 per cent finals. You were supposed to keep up on your reading but you didn’t really have a lot of assignments.

BUISSON: There were no assignments.

DOOLEY: It was all for the money at the end. So, man, we had a lot of time. Now I look at how little time I have in my life. I have none!

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR ASPIRATIONS WHEN YOU GRADUATED, DOES IT SURPRISE YOU WHAT THE OTHER IS DOING NOW?

BUISSON: Oh, I totally thought Kevin would be a corporate shill and I was completely accurate in my assessment. Not surprised at all! Just after law school we both did corporate commercial stuff and had some files with each other. I remember thinking just how good a lawyer Kevin was being a year out. It’s not surprising that he’s now got a pretty prominent role at a very large oil company.

DOOLEY: See, Rob, interestingly enough, was probably the most left-winged person in law school. He taught us all union songs. He would sing them on the picket line! And the irony of it all is when he articled he went to one of the most right-wing corporate law firms. If anybody out there was to smash the unions it would have been that firm. It doesn’t surprise me that Rob is working in the public sector in education. That’s very much where his “bent” was back in the day. What surprised me was that right-wing turn!

BUISSON: In my defense, I was a labour studies student. I learned all about industrial unionism before I went into law school which may have … coloured some of my viewpoints at the time. It’s interesting to know I’m where I thought I would be.

DOOLEY: It shows that people in law school come from all different backgrounds with all different kinds of beliefs and everyone got along really well.

IT SOUNDS LIKE A HIGH SCHOOL CLASS, THE WAY YOU ALL BONDED.

BUISSON: Oh yeah. But with less cliques. The great thing about law school is it’s a tight knit group. Your classmates become your best friends.

DOOLEY: Yeah, we formed really long-lasting relationships. Except it was done alphabetically. You were put in sections based on the alphabet so all of my law school friends have last names from A to L.

BUISSON: It’s absolutely true! There’ll be people at this reunion who I don’t even remember their names because they’re not A to L.

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT YOUR CLASS?

BUISSON: We shared into each other’s big moments. One of our classmates had a baby in her third year and that was really cool. Others got married mid-way through and we attended their weddings. We were there for each other, supportive. You really cared about these people and that’s not something I would ever had prepared myself for or expected going into law school. I went to get an education and I came out with some of my best friends.

DOOLEY: What I can say with absolute honesty is that I moved to Calgary in 2001, and the only thing I ever felt I left behind – which I absolutely regret – are my friends from law school. And I say that without any hesitancy. Those relationships, I’ve never been able to reproduce. That was a level of really understanding people and making friendships that under certain conditions never would exist again. So the only thing I really miss are all those folks I left behind. I still miss them all … I miss you Robbie!

BUISSON: This is uncomfortable.

DOOLEY: I’ll give you a big hug when I see you!

BUISSON: This is getting really uncomfortable.