Why should young lawyers volunteer?
It is well known that lawyers are encouraged to not only provide pro bono services but also to participate in various institutions within the community. As a recent call trying to establish your practice, it may be daunting to think about finding the time (and mental capacity) to take on additional files or to sit on the board of a local organization. Even if your work-life balance is tipping too far to the work side, there’s a good chance we can all eke out a couple of hours per month to support a local non-profit. It’s a good starting point to get used to our lawyerly duty of being contributing members of our community.
Unless lawyers work with a clinic or Legal Aid, they often don’t have clients within the demographic who require services such as The Ottawa Mission. Volunteerism in these types of institutions gives young lawyers the opportunity to learn to communicate with people from different walks of life – a great skill to have in your back pocket. It also helps us to open our eyes to issues in our community we might not be aware of. Maybe it will even encourage you to take on some social justice issues in your practice.
And last but not least, volunteering is fun! The general consensus I got from speaking to my colleagues, especially those who had been on the YLDE Executive for a couple of years, was that volunteering at The Ottawa Mission was one of their favourite events of the year. So not only will it look good on your CV, but it will make you feel good too.
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