“I gave myself one year to see if I liked law school, and after 1L, I have never looked back.”
Lucy Yuan participated in the Allard Law History Project Student Survey in 2016. The Project intends to track Ms. Yuan's career and build upon this historical record in the future. Her responses as a student are below:
Why did you choose to do law?
I wanted something where I could be constantly challenged intellectually, where I could solve problems and hopefully do something that gives back to the community. So I gave myself one year to see if I liked law school, and after 1L, I have never looked back.
What do you hope to achieve in your career?
I hope to do something that gives me continuing satisfaction. Going into a job that I love, working with great colleagues, providing a service for people who need help, being continually inspired by the people I meet, balancing work with a fulfilling life ... if I can get to this point, I will be more than happy.
Describe your most memorable class or professor.
I had the pleasure of taking four courses taught by Bruce Wayne MacDougall. From first year Contracts, I was enchanted by his intelligence, his breadth of knowledge on every business law topic, and especially the examples he came up with in class. Those came in handy in later, more challenging courses like Secured Transactions.
Other memorable classes include Liz Edinger's Creditors Remedies, Emma Cunliffe's Evidence, Joe Weiler's Sports Law, Ben Goold's Torts, and Mary Liston's Law and Literature seminar.
What was the most challenging thing about law school?
One of the most challenging aspects was staying positive in the articling job hunt. Everyone who has gone through the same process tells you it will all work out in the end, but it was difficult at times to believe that the right job for you exists out there, especially as your peers secure positions before you. Though in the end, everyone else was right all along; finding the ideal firm for me was worth the effort.
What has been your best experience in law school?
Representing UBC at the Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada in Toronto in both 2L and 3L and finding the perfect union of my love for hockey and my interest in getting more oral advocacy experience.
A close second is captaining the law Ultimate frisbee team to an intramurals championship and finally winning the coveted UBC REC Champion's Shirt.
How do you think the law or the legal profession will develop over the course of your career?
I hope to see the legal profession become more diverse over the course of my career, to accommodate the views and experiences of people of differing ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, genders, orientations, and religions. I hope to see more engagement between practitioners of different backgrounds, and more diverse representation in both partnership and in judgeship.
*If you are a current student at the Allard School of Law and would like to participate in this initiative, please contact us for more information.