Putting law into motion

Michael Fenrick. (Nick Pearce Photo)

Michael Fenrick had extra reason to be anxious at exam time this year. Also on his mind was the all-important phone call from his wife, Eden, who was about to deliver their first child. As he sat writing his finals, Faculty of Law staffer Gwen Verge was holding his cellphone in case.

Thankfully, the phone remained silent, and shortly after exams were complete, Isadora Fenrick was welcomed into the world. Mr. Fenrick’s newborn daughter will be joining him at convocation and then making the journey to Ottawa in September. That’s where her father will be spending the next year clerking for the Honourable Justice Marshall Roth-stein, one of the nine justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.

“It’s an opportunity that you don’t ever get again,” says Mr. Fenrick, who will be researching legal precedent and preparing bench memos to help inform Justice Rothstein’s decisions. “I’m hoping to gain some real insight into what it takes to facilitate legal decision-making on some of the country’s biggest legal issues.”

Law is a family affair for Mr. Fenrick—his father is an international law expert and part-time faculty member at Dalhousie—but it was a volunteer experience at a legal advocacy office in Vancouver that showed him first-hand how lawyers can play a significant role in public life.

During his time at Dalhousie, Mr. Fenrick has had the opportunity to serve as student coordinator for the university’s chapter of Pro Bono Students Canada, a program that pairs students in all three years of law school with local non-profits that can benefit from legal research and advocacy.

After his clerkship is complete, Mr. Fenrick hopes to enter private practice. “My goal is to be a really good lawyer at this point,” he explains. “I want to put the law into motion and to deal with the daily challenges and difficulties that the field represents. But no matter what area of litigation I do, I want public interest work to be part of my practice.”