After my undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science and Philosophy, I went directly into Law. It was 1953. I was 20 years old when I entered and 24 when I graduated.
Law school was tough. We got the usual speech from the Dean. Look to the left and look to the right because the person next to you may not be here next year. And he was right. We started with 90-odd people, only one female way back then, and less than half graduated. But our education was excellent.
Professor Scott, who eventually became a dean, was an expert in constitutional law. He was also a poet. He was also one of the people who drafted the manifesto for the CCF, the party that later became the New Democratic Party. He was brilliant. He was tough, and he was demanding. You didn't need to agree with him. But you needed to articulate the reasons why you didn't.
There were so many stars on the faculty. I've frequently recommended to young people to follow Law, even if you don't know for certain that you're going to practice, just because it is a superb education. It teaches you how to reason. Lawyers start by identifying and defining terms and then reasoning in a logical way. It shapes your mind.
After graduation, I went to a small firm of three people when I joined them. And by the time I retired 30 years later, I was one of the senior partners and there were about 90 lawyers. One of things I found enormously pleasing is that for every case I temporarily became an expert. Every case was a learning curve. If it was about concrete, I had to learn the compressive strength of concrete, and what a slump test is. You can’t cross-examine a witness if you don’t know these details.
Following retirement, I’ve worked as what I’d call an administrative judge in British Columbia where I sit on a tribunal hearing cases involving the medical profession. I think my Law degree shaped the way I think. And I was also fortunate after graduating to join a firm where the senior partner took me under his wing and mentored me for a couple of years.
I was asked to lecture at McGill in legal subjects and that gave me an opportunity to stress the pragmatic side because, in university, of course you learn academic things. You learn how to look and where to look. The law is always available on your bookshelf – if you're smart enough to keep looking. No, I think the principal value of a law degree at McGill is the extent to which it shapes the mind of a student into thinking in a logical fashion.