Black representation in the Canadian legal community is growing. Queen’s Law students and alumni saw proof positive as the Black Law Students’ Association (BLSA) of Canada held its 29th annual conference on February 13-16 in Quebec City.
“It was a great experience to see tangible representation from throughout the country,” says Nigel Masenda, Law’20, President of the Queen’s Law chapter of BLSA, one of about 200 attendees at the event.
The weekend featured workshops, panel discussions, a career fair, and networking opportunities for students and for those who are already in the profession.
What Masenda found especially gratifying were the opportunities to network with Queen’s Law alumni and law students as they do in the Queen’s chapter of BLSA and with those from other schools across Canada. Masenda also appreciated the number of law firms that sent recruiters to the conference. “Students got to speak directly with representatives from recruitment teams, many of which were not black,” he says. “Coming to Quebec City must have been quite the journey for the Toronto firms. Their attendance at the conference showed that they care about reaching out to a variety of students and that they appreciate the underrepresentation of black people in the legal profession and the need to improve it. These are beautiful things.”
Masenda, a native of Denton, Texas, emigrated to Canada when he was 17. Originally, he planned to attend law school in Toronto; then he discovered Queen’s Law. He felt himself drawn, among other factors, by the school’s first-rate academic program and by the fact “the alumni network is, bar none, the best in the nation,” as he says.
Once here, Masenda involved himself in BLSA-Queen’s in the winter term of his first year after being invited to do so by the 2017-18 president, Stella Gore, Law’18, (who’s now with the New York office of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP).
Like Masenda, Abiola Akinyemi, Law’22, came away from the Quebec City conference feeling empowered. “There is an African proverb that says, “Each one, teach one.” Coming together as a collective at BLSA imparted knowledge that I wouldn’t otherwise have received. I left the conference reignited with the passion and confidence to take on the challenges of the legal field.”
Both Akinyemi and Masenda have high praise for BLSA, and will continue their involvements for the remainder of their time as students and then going forward.
“I hope one day I can provide someone with the knowledge and information that I’ve received. I've taken it as my duty to give to those what was given to me in order to promote excellence within the community,” says Akinyemi.
Masenda, who will begin articling in August at Stikeman Elliott LLP’s Toronto office, intends to continue “giving back” when he becomes a Queen’s Law alumnus. “My goal is to do more and more for BLSA and the community each year. Underrepresentation in the legal profession didn’t occur in a vacuum and ameliorating it can’t be fulfilled in three years,” he says.
BLSA-Queen’s has had a busy year staging and taking part in a variety of special events. Most recently, on January 29 the group collaborated with BLSA chapters from other law schools, the Muslim Law Students’ Association, and Miller Thompson LLP to host at the firm’s Toronto offices a panel discussion titled “Diversity in Practice.” And on February 2, BLSA-Queen’s helped kick-off Black History Month by taking part in a special evening that also included members of the Queen’s Black Academic Society, African & Caribbean Students’ Association, and members of the Kingston community.
— Ken Cuthbertson