From the Osgoode Alumni Profile Series
This year, Obiter will be sharing alumni profiles, courtesy of the Osgoode Alumni Office. You can access the full collection of these profiles through your MyCareer account
MyCareer > Resource Library > Alumni Advice/Virtual Career Panel: Osgoode Alumni Profiles combined…
Regularly, the Osgoode Alumni Association reaches out to graduates to build this collection of alumni profiles. These short biographies, in Q&A format, show the range of careers and variety of paths that alumni have taken.
Obiter is pleased to make these available to you. Sharing these profiles builds on our own efforts to reconnect with Obiter alumni, and to share their stories with you.
For this first installment of the series, in collaboration with the Osgoode Alumni Office, we are happy to share the story of Paul Renwick, an Ontario Court Justice.
My advice to anyone seeking a career in law: don’t ever let others determine your value or how far you can go. Find a way to succeed. Take courses that you like AND courses which challenge you and your thinking. I took Business Associations, Commercial Law, and Estates, even though I knew I would only ever practice criminal law. This made me a more well rounded legal thinker. You never know where you will end up in 20 years and what educational gifts you will receive if you don’t move a little outside your comfort zone.
Can you describe your career in one sentence? After prosecuting for 22 years, I became a judge.
What’s your favourite aspect of your career? Having a role in the development of our common law.
What has been the most challenging? The writing involved in decision-making.
Can you tell us about your career path? I had a difficult time even getting into law school. I persevered. I convinced a reluctant undergraduate professor to write a letter on my behalf. It was my first argument. After law school, I had difficulty finding an articling position and accepted a job at a small civil firm. I wanted to be in the Crown Attorney’s Office but it didn’t work out. I took a job as a traffic court prosecutor upon my call to the bar. It was the only way to enter the prosecution service without having articled there. I thought it would take about a year to become a criminal prosecutor because I was now in the system. I ended up doing that paralegal role for almost four years before getting hired as a criminal prosecutor. Similarly, when I applied to become a judge, it took me over four years and 8 applications before I got an interview. Luckily the first interview was my last.
Over the coming months, Obiter will continue to share graduates’ stories with you. If you are an Osgoode graduate who would like to contribute to this project, please contact Anita Hermann, Director, External Relations & Communications, at alumni@osgoode.yorku.ca