At a special Homecoming event for students, four Law’93 classmates shared their advice on what students should do while studying at Queen’s Law to prepare for career success. The panel, made up of alumni who hold top positions in different types of careers, was moderated by fellow Law’93 grad, Professor Art Cockfield. “It’s great privilege,” he told the audience, “to introduce these people who have made an impact not just in Canada but all around the world.”

The panelists were: 

• Jin Choi, Managing Director & Head of Asia, Genii Capital, Seoul, South Korea;
• Sheila Colman, VP, Legal and Corporate Secretary, Lundin Gold Inc., Vancouver;  
• Emily Steed, Executive Director, Global Financial Crimes, Morgan Stanley, New York; and 
• Frank Walwyn, Partner, WeirFoulds, Toronto. 

Jin Choi, former Law Students’ Society President, says, “I always intended to go into business; law for me was a way to do it.” He went on to work in Toronto, Hong Kong, Tokyo and then to Korea, where he started a small private equity firm in 2005. His company buys real estate in big cities around the world – Paris, London, Brussels – and once owned Bell Canada’s Eastern Canada headquarters. “I source and underwrite the deals, and even though I’m technically no longer a lawyer I’ve done more law now than when I was practising because I spend all day dealing with law firms and tax firms.” 

What’s his main recommendation for law students? “Network and broaden your base; that’s really the key,” he said. “Alumni can help you so much. It's incredible.” 

Sheila Colman agreed. “You are coming from a school that really has a strong sense of community and you are joining a profession in which there is lot of collegiality,” she told students. “Leverage the school and leverage the profession.”

Colman experienced her first taste of being an in-house counsel during her articles when she accepted a secondment to work with one of her Bay Street firm’s clients. “It let me see practice from the other side and is a really great way to learn how clients use the product that law firms generate.” 

Following in-house stints at Labatt and with a uranium mining company, she joined Lundin Gold as one of its first three employees in 2015, when it just acquired what is now considered the highest-grade gold deposit being developed in the world. From her Vancouver base, she frequently travels to the Quito, Ecuador office of the company that has grown to 1,300 staff, and to its mine site located deep in the jungle on the border of Ecuador and Peru. 

Competitive mooting was Emily Steed’s favourite part of law school and piqued her interest in being a criminal prosecutor. After working in an Ontario Crown office for a few years, she completed an LLM, and initiated a series of meetings with lawyers in areas related to criminal law, asking such questions as “What do you like about your work and what do you not like?” Realizing an interest in financial fraud compliance issues, in 1997 she joined Toronto firm Heenan Blaikie, where she worked with Joseph Groia to defend Bre-X geologist John Felderhof in a case involving the biggest mining scandal in Canadian history. For the past two decades, she has worked in the U.S., and is now part of the Financial Crimes Group of a New York bank, helping them prevent and detect money laundering and corruption. 

“I think it’s just really important to try to be a little bit thoughtful about who you are and what you like, and really try to pursue things that feel authentic to you,” she said. “You're going to succeed at work that you enjoy.”

Frank Walwyn learned that lesson, too. While initially he was set on a corporate law career, at his Bay Street firm he soon became fascinated with litigation. For over 15 years, he has been practising multi-jurisdictional litigation in cases that can involve parties in six different countries. Many of the new files are products of worldwide bribery and corruption scandals. As co-chair of his firm’s Caribbean Practice Group, he travels to that region regularly. It’s in those offshore countries, now called International Financial Centres, where many businesses around the world set up holding or parent companies because of the favourable tax regimes.

“Your Queen’s law degree is transportable and opens doors all over this world,” he said. “We learn how to be lawyers at Queen’s and as Canadians, we are viewed and respected as the go-to people for balanced, rational advice.” 

For more sage career advice from the Law’93 panel, watch their discussion.