My mentee Candace Cho wrote this article for publication entitled PRACTICING LAW OUTSIDE THE BOX, and I am publishing it with her permission:

Most lawyers would not be surprised with the 2007 American Bar Association survey cited in The Happy Lawyer, which found that 55% of lawyers are not happy with their careers. Indeed, in British Columbia, out of all women called to the bar in 2003, only 66% of them were still practicing law in 2008, and only 80% of their male counterparts remained practicing.

Therefore, one can conclude that many lawyers are leaving the practice of law because it makes them unhappy, and out of the people still practicing law, many of them are practicing unhappily. What a frightening state of affairs that we must confront within ourselves as we contemplate our own happiness as lawyers!

I made the conscious decision 5 years ago that in order for me to be happy as a lawyer I would have to practice law “outside the box”. This was not surprising because I have never fit neatly into any stereotype or personality matrix in which society would have me categorized.

My decision to go out on my own to practice law came out of the 2009 financial crisis. I was not hired back as an articled student, and no one I wanted to work with would hire me as an Associate. After dealing with the disappointment and despair of being consistently rejected for jobs that I thought I wanted, I realized that my entrepreneurial spirit and need for autonomy would have never allowed me to be happy if I worked as an employee for someone else. I wanted to be able to have the creativity to create my own brand (Onyx Law), set my own hours, choose my own clients, and ultimately have the freedom to practice law and become the lawyer that I aspired to be according to my core values of integrity, competence and passion for justice.

Armed with my business degree and a keen interest in and working knowledge of estate litigation, I decided I wanted to build a niche practice in estate litigation as a sole practitioner, running a virtual law practice (i.e. I rented office space from a law firm once a week to meet clients and get my bookkeeping done), all while practicing out of the comfort of my parents’ basement and wearing pajamas the other four days of the week.

With dogged determination, I approached my now mentor of 6 years, Trevor Todd (who is a leading estate litigator and regular columnist of the Verdict) to forge a mentorship referral relationship that would ultimately allow me to achieve my goal of building a successful estate litigation practice. Trevor and I worked out an unusual but practical arrangement of me paying him a mentorship and referral fee in exchange for his mentorship and referral work. In one fell swoop, I was able to secure a regular source of quality work in estate litigation and the mentorship support to be able to actually run the files. Thanks to Trevor’s tutelage over the years in estate litigation, negotiation, business practice, client management and tactics to deal with opposing counsel, I was given the perfect supportive environment to blossom as a lawyer and business owner while practicing law under my own brand of Onyx Law.

The mentorship and business relationship that I was able to forge with Trevor has been completely symbiotic. It has allowed me to develop into the lawyer I want to be, and build the kind of practice that gets me excited to go to work. It has also allowed Trevor to be reinvigorated after 42 years of practice to still love the law and to profit from having consistent junior support in his practice without ever paying the overhead associated with having an employee.

Forging the mentorship business relationship with Trevor quickly gave me more work than I could handle on my own, so I moved into an office-sharing arrangement where I hired my first paralegal to support my practice. A year later, another lawyer mentor of mine, Judith Janzen, approached me to join forces to make Onyx Law into a boutique family law and estate litigation law firm that would be known for its good work, and for inspiring young lawyers to stay in the practice of law by providing them with effective mentorship and a supportive work environment. Today, Onyx Law Group is a bustling boutique law firm that has mentored and brought into the practice of law 4 lawyers, and is a firm of happy lawyers and support staff (at least on most days!).

But “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, as aptly put by Jack Nicholson’s deranged character in the movie, The Shining. While I loved practicing law at Onyx, and truly enjoyed my life as a lawyer, I still had other goals and aspirations for my life. My husband and I had the joint dream of taking a year off to travel and volunteer in Latin America – to see the world and to serve the less fortunate, and we both worked hard to make this dream come true last year. I affectionately coined our year off as my “non-sabbatical” because a sabbatical implies that you stop working at your normal job during your time off. Such was not the case for me because I was remotely managing my practice and Onyx as a firm, working closing with my Associates, support staff, and Judith the entire time I was away. I leveraged technology by having remote access to the server, and maintaining regular contact via email and Skype conference calls with the firm, and with some clients. I also participated in mediations via Skype throughout the year to successfully settle many matters, all with my Associates and Trevor in attendance. I worked, on average, about 10 to 30 hours a week remotely, the entire time I was in Latin America.

My non-sabbatical in Latin America consisted of many different types of rewarding activities, including five months of travelling to the Galapagos Islands, South America and Central America; four months volunteering at VisionFund Ecuador , a microfinance institution in Ibarra, Ecuador; and three months setting up our very own not-for-profit educational institution called “Uno a Uno” in Cotacachi, Ecuador as a Rose Charities Canada project (see our webpage at http://www.rosecanada.info/projects/ecuador-uno-a-uno/ for more information). During the course of my non-sabbatical, I improved my Spanish from only being able to order food to being able to negotiate with the mayor’s office for free space to hold English and tutoring classes for Uno a Uno.

The non-sabbatical year was filled with eye-opening and enriching experiences. The travelling portions were a treat because we were able to enjoy a great diversity of historical, cultural, and nature experiences such as snorkeling with giant sea turtles, touring ancient Mayan and Incan ruins, exploring tropical rainforests and trekking through the Colca Canyon. Volunteering at the microfinance institution exposed us to the developing world in a real and tangible way. We were able to get a glimpse of how the locals lived, and to forge lasting friendships with many of them. It was from this base of knowledge and social network that my husband and I decided to set up Uno a Uno, which will be dedicated to helping to eradicate poverty through the provision of education to the locals. Uno a Uno will be offering classes in English to children and adults, and tutoring help for school-age children to help them attain higher levels of education, given that the majority of Ecuadorians only have elementary school education or less. Our hope is to be able to set up an educational institution that we can eventually replicate in other parts of Ecuador and greater Latin America. We are excited about the potential to make a significant and positive impact to those in need in the coming years.

It is my view that in order for lawyers to be happy in our profession, we must first look inward to determine three questions: 1) where am I? 2) where do I want to go? and 3) how do I get there? The question of “where am I?” is the process of taking stock of where you are at in all aspects of your life, at work and at home. The process of considering “where do I want to go?” involves thinking about what will make you happy according to your values, passions, and goals in life. Finally, the question of “how do I get there?” focuses on charting out a practical plan to take you to the place you want to go. It is this part that involves thinking “outside the box”, to think creatively to see what steps you can take to get you to that happy place. This may involve you taking some calculated risks, and doing a lot of planning and background work, but I can speak from experience that these risks have paid off for me.

Ultimately, you are responsible for your own happiness. If you do nothing to determine what will make you happy, and do nothing to adapt or change your situation to ensure the elements are in place to make you happy, you can hardly be surprised that you are miserable. If you are an unhappy lawyer, I invite and encourage you to take the plunge: to look within yourself, and to think outside the box, because happiness truly is within your reach!

Trevor Todd of disinherited.com was interviewed by four television networks, and one wire service on July 28 last re his opinion re paternity arising from a sensational and macabre murder of a wealthy Asian man who was chopped into over 100 pieces, left a purported love child of only a couple months old , some other children, and a $50 million estate.

The mother had obtained a court order for the production of DNA to compare with the child and the Court so ordered. Trevor Todd was interviewed  and stated that the DNA will be conclusive one way or another as to the child’s paternity. If the child is found to be his child she will share equally with his other children, and the guardian of the child will  receive capital and income to support the child until the age of majority

Here are a couple of excerpts from the various newspapers that reported:

Vancouver Sun, Province, Globe and Mail , National Post and Vancouver Metro:

“Trevor Todd, a Vancouver-based estate litigation lawyer with 42 years experience, said a positive paternity test would entitle the child to her father’s fortune.

“That’s going to be pretty darn conclusive. You can have all sorts of other circumstantial evidence, but it comes to down to blood. It’s 100 per cent,” he said.

“It’s just automatic, nothing to contest. That little rich kid’s going to need a bodyguard,” he joked.”

The Province July 29,2015

Trevor Todd, an estate litigation lawyer, said any other children would share the inheritance equally.

“There’s a number of people, and I see them through my doors, who have secret lives and other families,” he said.

“Everyone’s equal, doesn’t matter where you live in the world. As long as you’ve got the DNA, it’s pretty simple. Dads go around sowing their oats.

The July 19,2014 Economist reports that tests for Alzheimer’s are improving but treatment is still some way off.

RUG companies have got good at treat­ing bad hearts, livers and lungs. They are still lousy, though, at treating ailing minds. That is troubling. Last year, accord­ing to estimates announced on July 15th at the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual con­ference, in Copenhagen, more than 44m people were suffering from dementia. By 2050 that number is expected to triple.

Drug researchers continue to trudge for­ward, ever-hopeful of a breakthrough. But some of the most interesting work report­ed to the meeting concerned not drugs, but tests that screen for the disease-a conten­tious practice, given that no treatment yet exists. Less controversially, other research­ers presented data on habits that seem to delay dementia’s toll.

It used to be that physical evidence of Alzheimer’s disease could be found in the brain only post mortem This is changing. In the past two years American regulators have approved the use of chemicals which bind to beta-amyloid, a sticky protein im­plicated in the condition. Thanks to these tracers, scans can detect amyloid plaques in the brain of someone who is still alive. Other tests look for the offending proteins in cerebrospinal fluid, obtained from spi­nal taps. And Keith Johnson of Massachu­setts General Hospital reported on scans that detect tangles of tau, another protein involved in the disease. In Dr Johnson’s study, 56 participants who had tau in their entorhinal cortex and temporal neocortex (sections of the brain important to memory) had, over the previous three years, achieved progressively lower scores on a memory test.

Such tests, however, are expensive, so researchers are working to create cheaper, simpler ones-with some success. On July 8th Proteome Sciences, a British company, said it had found ten proteins in the blood that could predict Alzheimer’s. New tests presented in Copenhagen provide further alternatives, searching for dementia in nei­ther the brain nor the blood, but in the eye and the nose.

Shaun Frost of the Commonwealth Sci­entific and Industrial Research Organisa­tion, in Australia, focused his research on beta-amyloid in the retina. He gave volun­teers a supplement containing curcumin, a chemical that binds to beta-amyloid and acts as a fluorescent tag. Dr Frost’s scanner detected the tagged beta-amyloid in the volunteers’ retinas. This correlated closely with amyloid levels in their brains, as re­vealed by scanning. In a separate presenta­tion, a firm called Cognoptix announced data for its own eye test, detecting amyloid in the eye’s lens. And researchers from Har­vard and Columbia universities showed that poor performance on simple smell tests is linked with failing memory.

These tests are promising, but will need more data to confirm their accuracy. A sep­arate, important question is whether, if they do work, they should actually be de­ployed. Even a perfect test cannot prompt good treatment when no treatment exists. Nevertheless, Maria Carrillo of the Alz­heimer’s Association argues that better tests will speed the development of new medicines-patients at the earliest stages of disease might enroll in clinical trials to prevent dementia’s progress. The most re­cent such endeavour, a collaboration be­tween Novartis, a giant drugs firm, and the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, in Arizona, was announced on July 15th.

For now, the most promising data for delaying dementia stem not from drug trials but from studies of behaviour. Yonas Geda and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic told the meeting of new evidence that exer­cise, especially in middle age, helps pre­serve the brain’s function and lowers the risk of subsequently developing dementia. And a presentation by Miia Kivipelto of Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare was particularly encouraging. More than 1,200 Finns, aged 60-77, took part in a randomised trial of specific inter­ventions. These included treatment of car­diovascular problems, and physical and mental exercises. Compared, after two years, with a control group that received health care as usual, these people scored better on memory and cognitive tests.

Eventually, then, researchers may work out how to treat Alzheimer’s with drugs. In the meantime, the best ways to ward off dementia seem decidedly low-tech.

Lawyer Mentorship Evolves Into Sponsorship

Three years after our article, “Mentorship: A Beacon of Hope in the Practice of Law” was published in the June 2011 issue of BarTalk, much has evolved in our mentorship association and in our respective legal careers.

The mentee perspective – The story of Candace Cho

Since 2011, much has changed in my life. I have expanded my business from a sole practitioner practice to joining forces with my past mentor, Judith A. Janzen, to expand the firm and brand that I developed back in January 2010: Onyx Law. Together, Judith and I now manage a busy boutique family and estate litigation firm. We hung up our shingle in April 2012 and have been laughing and practising law together since then.

Professionally, my practice and experience has grown leaps and bounds thanks to the practical mentorship and awesome opportunities that Trevor has generously bestowed upon me. I have been lead counsel on cutting edge estate litigation cases with Trevor happily sitting in the backseat as my cheerleader and have been running many files independently.

Trevor and I continue to meet for our weekly dim sum lunches, and we continue to discuss litigation strategy, marketing, client management, politics, and anything else under the sun that we wish to discuss on that particular day, except now we are often joined by Trevor’s son, Jackson Todd, who is articling with him, and my associate, Janis Ko. The table is more crowded, and the conversation even more lively.

I have been extremely fortunate to have received such generous mentorship, and now have the pleasure of paying that forward in mentoring the members of my team at Onyx, and supporting other young counsel that have sought my advice. It is my firm view that mentorship is the way and the hope of lawyers being able to happily practice law into the future.

The mentor perspective – The story of Trevor Todd

As a forty-year call, watching Candace bloom into the very capable lawyer that she has become has been a rewarding experience that has motivated me to remain practising with renewed enthusiasm, while many of my classmates are in the process of retiring or have retired. I recognized Candace’s talents very early on and have considered myself the coach, mentor, and almost father-like figure to her over literally hundreds of lunches and thousands of emails.

From the outset, I raised the issue with her of what happens in several years when she was capable and no longer needed the hand holding of a mentor?

The answer was the evolution of our mentorship relationship into one more of sponsorship – I introduce Candace on a regular basis to senior counsel, give her cases way beyond what most young lawyers would ever get to handle on their own, and otherwise promote her at almost every opportunity I am given.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship has evolved as the eventual consequence of our very successful mentorship relationship and something that can continue into the foreseeable future.

Lastly, there is something great about the combination of young and old practitioners.

Candace is half my age but twice as bright and way more energetic. Our relationship has been completely symbiotic, with each of us growing both professionally and emotionally throughout the process.

I highly recommend the process of mentorship to senior lawyers especially, and suggest to both young and old practitioners to be open to and seek each other out, with the view of mentoring and seriously sharing the senior practitioner’s knowledge and experience as thousands of young lawyers are “drifting” for lack of proper guidance in sufficient numbers.

Trevor Todd has often been quoted by various  media sources pertaining to estate litigation issues, including the Globe and Mail re a Wills Variation case.

Trevor Todd has handled Wills Variation cases for 40 years and is often asked to comment on cases by the media- here is the Globe and Mail article:

Where there’s a will, there’s a way to have it overturned.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered a man to split his late father’s estate, despite the fact the patriarch chose to leave his four daughters out of his will.

One of the women said she’s gratified by the court’s decision, while her brother is “devastated.”

More related to this story

• B.C. Supreme      Court Werbenuk judgement

Such cases are becoming more and more common in B.C., which legal experts say is the most “plaintiff friendly” province in Canada for spouses and children who have been disinherited.

In his ruling, Mr. Justice Randall Wong said the father, William Werbenuk, was “a racist whose will and personality dominated his family.” He said Mr. Werbenuk “resorted to and engaged in harsh and brutal corporal and other punishments.” Mr. Werbenuk, who died in March 2008 at age 86, also demeaned his daughters and made them wash his feet, said Judge Wong.

Mr. Werbenuk named his son, Randall, the sole beneficiary and executor of his will. His estate was valued at approximately $434,000, although the judge noted that did not include farmland in Saskatchewan or a valuable violin collection. He said the exact value of the remaining assets is still uncertain.

Judge Wong said under the province’s Wills Variation Act, Mr. Werbenuk did not take “contemporary moral standards” into account when he excluded his four daughters. The judge said the women attempted to have relationships with their father, despite his harsh treatment, but it was clear he favoured his son.

Patricia Skwarok, one of Mr. Werbenuk’s daughters, said she is pleased with Monday’s ruling.

“It was fair, just and equitable to the family who was in crisis,” she said in an interview.

Ms. Skwarok, a 53-year-old nurse who resides in Penticton, said she wasn’t surprised the judge essentially rewrote her father’s will. She said wills that allow a parent to leave everything to one person at the expense of others should remain a thing of the past.

“In the 1700s and 1800s that was social standard. It is not [in 2010]”

Charles Albas, lawyer for Ms. Skwarok’s brother, said his client was devastated by the decision.

“He says, ‘I feel like I’ve been kicked in the head.’ It’s sad.”

Mr. Albas said he will recommend his client have independent counsel look at the ruling with fresh eyes, but an appeal is unlikely.

“It’s very hard to appeal a case like this because it is based on facts. The trier of facts is Justice Wong and, basically, he heard all of the evidence and decided this was a case where a major variation was called for.”

Rick Covell, who represented Ms. Skwarok and two of her sisters, said such court rulings are more common than the public might think. He said there’s been a “steady stream” of Wills Variation Act cases in recent years.

“It’s not that rare because people will occasionally in their will let their prejudices and biases get away with them,” he said.

Keith Sabey, counsel for the fourth woman, said B.C. legislation is the most plaintiff friendly in the country when it comes to such cases.

“The spouses and the children have the law favour them the most in B.C. if they’re trying to challenge the wills, and probably by quite a bit,” he said.

“The B.C. legislation has a broader base for people who would have standing to bring this kind of claim. In other provinces, my client, who’s an independent adult child who has no financial need … would not have been able to bring this application.”

Trevor Todd, a Vancouver lawyer who has handled several cases involving disinherited children, said such rulings always bring a great deal of media attention.

“If you sit down at a dinner party … you’ll get half the people saying he should be able to leave it to who he wants to, and you’ll get the other half saying, ‘That isn’t right.’ ”