I am grateful to have been recognized by CLG; this gratitude, however, is tinged somewhat with resentment, as I am left wondering why it has taken CLG so long to acknowledge my overall wonderful-ness. I won’t say that I am humbled, an expression I don’t understand (is there anything less humble than saying how humble you are?), and, anyways, my grotesquely inflated yet somehow eggshell-thin ego won’t allow this. I’ll also spare you the ‘this organization allows me to give back’, which seems to me suggests that otherwise, and in all other areas of one’s life, you simply take.

But, I am sincerely grateful to CLG, as an organization and an idea, because it reminds me that law, and being lawyer, is fundamentally a service activity. We lawyers are lucky because we have an opportunity to be of service, and – even better yet – use our somewhat esoteric knowledge for the benefit of others and, more generally, in aid of our democratic society. For me, that has been a privilege and a blessing. Perhaps you too have had this experience; it is the afternoon before your evening shift, and you are wondering, oh why do I do this, I could just as easily go home, and in my case, ready the barcalounger and scroll through my PVR’d collection of Darryl Sutter post-game press conferences. But after the shift, I feel better, grateful, maybe also struck once again at the sheer random luck involved in all of our fates, and, most of all, aware that helping others is the purest, (only?) satisfaction being a lawyer can give.

Alan Hunter said it best when he said that CLG, and those who assist it, are ‘standing up for Canada’. I could not agree more; I am grateful there is an organization like CLG which advocates, informs and supports those who may not otherwise be in a position to do so. So, I give thanks to CLG, Marina and Kim, their staff (especially those persons who triage and prepare client matters) for giving effect to the law’s true purpose, and giving me a (sometimes not-so-gentle) once-monthly reminder why I became a lawyer.