New lawyers make long journey to be called to the bar
It is a long journey to be called to the Saskatchewan bar. Lorna Cottenden’s path to becoming a lawyer was longer than most.
“For me, my journey has been a little bit backwards. As my father would say if he were still alive: I tended to do a number of things in my life somewhat out of order, but I eventually got to them all,” Cottenden said. Cottenden and Jared McRorie both pledged their oath, as they were called to the bar during their Bar Admission Ceremony Thursday November 29th at the Court of Queen’s Bench in Moose Jaw.
Cottenden has three children and eight grandchildren and didn’t begin university until 1998 when she was 38 years old. Her pursuit of a Political Science degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax was delayed when her husband was transferred to Honduras. Once she completed her undergraduate degree in 2002, she carried on and earned her law degree in 2007. She put off articling while she cared for her aging parents for 10 years. “There just wasn’t the opportunity in my family to go to university after high school, but I knew it was something that I always wanted to do. As with most of us, life gets in the way,” said Cotteden who is 58 years old. “I know my age would surprise some people. I have received some negative comments about that -- even when I was in law school. That’s the nature of the beast and unfortunately, we live in those times.
“I would just encourage everybody to pursue their dreams no matter what. All of us don’t have opportunities at the same time as everybody else does. You have to play your hand as best you can.”
Through her husband’s work as an engineer, Cottenden lived in nearly every province in the country. She articled with Grayson & Company Barristers and Solicitors in Moose Jaw, starting in 2017, and plans to open her own local practice in January called Nelcot Law Prof. “I love Moose Jaw. I love the history and everything about it,” said Cottenden, who comes from a military family and grew up in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. “We’ll retire here for sure.”
Cottenden said that the “ability to speak for people who would otherwise not be able to speak for themselves” is what has her most excited to be a practicing lawyer. “At the end of the day, people want to be heard. They need to be validated and I look forward to be able to do that,” she said.
Jared McRorie was born in Regina and raised in Saskatoon. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy with honours from the University of Saskatchewan and then completed law school there.
Law wasn’t initially McRorie’s planned career path -- he considered medicine and possibly combining his passion for music with teaching -- but he has grown deeply passionate about law and is excited about starting a career in Moose Jaw.
“I certainly feel a sense of profound responsibility,” McRorie said. “I went to school for eight years, I have two degrees, so it’s the end of one long road and the beginning of another.”
McRorie articled with Chow McLeod Barristers & Solicitors beginning in October of 2017 and will continue to work there.
While in law school, McRorie worked for the Ministry of Justice in their Public Prosecutions division which allowed him to work on more than 200 trials in traffic court. He also volunteered with the Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc. “I wanted to do what I could to help people to achieve the greatest amount of rights that they have been afforded -which is substantial in Canada,” McRorie said. “I want to make sure that people are represented properly and ably, and that people have a voice. I want to make sure that people aren’t walked on or trampled under the feet of the state or anyone else with an imbalance of power. Private citizens, there’s only one of them against the truly massive construct that is the state. What I wanted to do was make sure that those people could be heard and ensure that their rights are protected.”
McRorie isn’t wasting any time getting involved in the local law community. He is the incoming governor for the Saskatchewan Trial Lawyers Association. Saskatchewan Chief Justice Robert G. Richards brought greetings from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. The top judge in the province shared an old parable as a piece of advice for the new lawyers to not lose sight of the larger meaning of their work. “There’s an old story about three medieval stone masons who were asked what they were doing. The first mason, without even looking up said ‘I’m making my living.’ The second mason replied, ‘I’m shaping this stone to pattern.’ The third mason lifted his eyes, stood up proudly and said, ‘I’m building a cathedral,’” Richards said. “And, so it is with a legal career, I think. You can bring to the profession a conception of your work that doesn’t go much beyond the idea of earning a living. Alternatively, you can see your role as merely trying to fashion your client’s interest into a winning pattern in file after file. I can assure you, you will do your best work and make your largest contribution to the larger community if you remember that, by being a lawyer, you’re not just cutting stone, you are helping to build and maintain a cathedral. “I have to say that remembering the cathedral is especially important in times like this when the rule of law and the independence of judicial processes is under pressure in places where it once seemed entirely secure.”