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Nasha Nijhawan (LLB ’09) didn’t plan on becoming a lawyer, even during her first year of law school. Instead, armed with an honours bachelor of science degree with a major in physiology from the University of Toronto, she was considering pursuing medicine or a master’s in public health, so she could focus on health care policy. “I knew I could apply to do an MPH if I had a law degree,” she says.

After second year, a summer job at litigation boutique Paliare Roland Barristers in Toronto changed everything. There, Nijhawan worked with “awesome female mentors. I got hooked on litigation and realized that it gave me an adrenaline rush and that I was suited for it.”

“I got hooked on litigation and realized that it gave me an adrenaline rush and that I was suited for it.”

In third year, Nijhawan turned her focus away from policy and toward the practical aspects of the law, taking the criminal clinic, labour arbitration, and civil procedure courses. Since her mother, a family doctor and feminist, had sparked an early interest in women’s health issues in her daughter, Nijhawan relished Professor Jocelyn Downie’s health care ethics course, which examined access to reproductive health care.

Planting the seeds

After graduation, Nijhawan moved to Toronto, where she was hired by Paliare Roland and worked on class action litigation. Because her family had lived in Halifax until she was eight, then moved to Toronto, she was nostalgic about returning East with her partner and their daughter, who is now four.

In 2014, Nijhawan joined Pink Larkin’s Halifax office, where she met fellow lawyer Kelly McMillan, who is from Prince Edward Island. There, the pair began a pro bono project representing Abortion Access Now PEI in the challenge to Prince Edward Island’s abortion policy. At the time, neither could have envisioned that on January 4, 2016, they would launch Nijhawan McMillan Barristers.

Nijhawan had always wanted to open a business, but her “escape fantasies” during the demanding first five years practicing law were along the lines of a burrito truck on the beach in Hawaii or a bakery in downtown Toronto’s underground PATH pedestrian walkway. Her own law firm? It wasn’t on her radar then, but the idea soon began percolating. “I really love practicing law, and ultimately I couldn’t leave it,” she says. “Slowly and in stages, launching my own firm seemed possible and like the obvious thing to do.”

‘Two unapologetic feminists’

Nijhawan McMillan Barristers’ Twitter account bio describes the firm as a “litigation boutique in Halifax with a special interest in equality issues. Run by two unapologetic feminists who love the law.” Although Nijhawan says that’s “100 per cent true” – while at law school, she was awarded the Muriel Duckworth Award for raising consciousness of feminism in the legal community – they take on all kinds of cases. In fact, her primary practice is police discipline (she’s legal counsel for the Halifax police union).

“To leave an established firm to run your own, you trade one set of challenges for another.”

Just over two months into building a law firm from scratch, there are naturally moments of anxiety. “To leave an established firm to run your own, you trade one set of challenges for another,” says Nijhawan. “You worry about keeping the lights on and that the work will dry up.” She and McMillan currently have no staff at their Maitland Street office, which the two furnished and decorated themselves (they also designed the website).

Although becoming self-employed has involved a steep learning curve, becoming business partners has been seamless. “Kelly and I were colleagues first, then we became friends,” says Nijhawan. “When we did the pro bono work on the PEI case, we got to know each other’s strengths and how well we worked together. We have the same vision and complementary personalities – when I’m anxious, she’s calm, and vice versa.”

They also have diverse practice areas: Nijhawan specializes in criminal law and civil litigation, with a focus on professional discipline, employment law, and commercial disputes, while McMillan focuses on employment, human rights, administrative, and Aboriginal law and has a particular interest in appellate advocacy.

Halifax and Schulich Law homecomings

Moving back to Halifax was pivotal for Nijhawan, who valued the career opportunities that were available in Toronto but was not as excited about living there.

“I always wanted to come back, and I feel like I’m home,” she says. “Opening our own firm has let me exercise all of the creative and entrepreneurial parts of my personality while still developing as a lawyer. I feel so grateful to do this with an awesome colleague in a community that I love and I’m committed to making better. I’m also lucky to have a spouse who has never once questioned my commitment to my career or doubted my potential.”

“Opening our own firm has let me exercise all of the creative and entrepreneurial parts of my personality while still developing as a lawyer.”

Another perk of being both a lawyer and a boss? Nijhawan made sure to negotiate a “canine clause” in her office lease that says she can take her seven-and-a-half-year-old long-haired German shepherd, Rosetta, to work with her every day.

She’s also enjoying returning to her alma mater in a new capacity. On March 1, Professor Joanna Erdman interviewed Nijhawan and McMillan about “The Mechanics of Feminist Lawyering” at a lecture hosted by the Dalhousie Feminist Legal Association. And on March 24, the business partners will discuss their PEI case during Law Hour.

While the lights have stayed on at the Maitland Street office, Nijhawan isn’t sure she’ll stop having anxious moments. “Running our own firm is terrifying,” she says, “but it allows us to practice the way we want to.”