Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
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22 F a l l 2 0 1 4 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 s t u d e n t s R andy Campbell sits at the front of the class, usually without neighbours. "I like to feel like it's just me and the professor," says the University of New Brunswick law student of his spot in the lecture hall. "Nothing to distract me." Wearing a collared shirt and grey dress pants, the 32-year-old sits with exceptional posture, typing his notes into prepared case brief templates. Campbell fi lls each box from issue to reasoning before moving on to the next, keeping pace with the lecture. While his classmates succumb to temptation at lulls in the lecture, Campbell's screen does not waiver from the notes. No Facebook. No Buzzfeed. Campbell, who is entering second year this fall, chose law school very intentionally a er an 18-day solitary retreat sea kayaking around Prince Edward Island. A er years of working in outdoor education and wilderness therapy in British Columbia and Northern Ontario and freshly 30 years old, Randy returned to his home province to contemplate adulthood with an inkling to make a change. "I did it to refl ect on the past and to choose a future," he says. " e journey marked a transition between my childhood and adulthood." He travelled with a compass of sorts: notes from a dozen adults he admired on what they expected from adults in their community. "I was essentially just paddling alone on the ocean, looking at the waves and the wildlife and letting my mind wander." A er 18 days of isolation, Campbell chose to pursue law with the understanding the legal and political systems are key to protecting the environment he cherishes. He is keen to practise law to advance environmental rights as well as other causes from commercial to aboriginal. For Campbell, the 18 days of silence and break from human contact was a cinch. It was a mere primer for a 40-day solitary excursion last summer on St. Peter's Island, Randy Campbell has a discipline and focus that's remarkable even in a law school full of high achievers. BY TED FLETT * the prize Eyes on