Victoria Weir was adamant that she did not want to be a lawyer. Growing up, when her family’s lawyer and judge friends told her they knew she would be a lawyer, she refused because law seemed boring. Victoria was born and raised in Winnipeg and is a very community-minded person. She has always volunteered with community organizations around Winnipeg, like Art City and the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. When it came time for Victoria to choose a career path, she chose business. But life has a funny and sometimes harsh way of pushing you in the right direction.
During Victoria’s time in business school, she was diagnosed with cancer. Her illness forced her to take a break from school and also made her think about what she wanted in life.
She had chosen business because of outside pressures, like the pressure of financial stability. Living through cancer inspired Victoria to reconsider her choices and start letting her values and inner desires guide her.
After recovering from successful cancer treatment, Victoria enrolled in a Family Social Sciences program at the University of Manitoba. But life, again, intervened. Partway through the program, its requirements and home faculty were changed, making it a bad fit for Victoria. In need of a new plan, she began working with a the Spence Neighbourhood Association in Winnipeg in youth programming and it was life changing. She discovered her passion for listening and responding to the needs of her community, but as an outreach worker, there were limits to her ability to effect change. She finally realized that a law degree would give her the power to do what she was meant to.
During her time in law school, Victoria worked in clinics whenever she could. This work confirmed that she was on the right path to her goal of effectively advocating for her community. Despite this, the outside pressures of a new call to the bar crept in and she decided to try working at a firm. She articled in criminal defense and later worked in civil litigation, and conducted human rights investigations. Victoria felt lucky to work at great firms and really cared about her clients, but did not enjoy the adversarial aspect of litigation.
When a job came up at CLEA, the Community Legal Education Association, Victoria did not think she would be lucky enough to get it. But she did and it is the perfect job for her. Victoria is now a Coordinator of CLEA’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Project. In this role, she provides public legal education to businesses and communities across Manitoba. Victoria leads outreach initiatives and coordinates community-based and virtual workshops relating to sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination in the workplace. Victoria’s job combines aspects from all of her schooling and previous work. Her legal education and human rights work have given her the tools to share with the community. Her knowledge from business school helps her to better understand the workplace dynamics aspect. And her work with community organizations helps her to better understand the groups and communities she works with.
Victoria enjoys the intellectual challenge that taking complicated legal concepts and boiling them down into one to two hour presentations brings. She also likes the challenge of making these concepts accessible to the general public. She is passionate about trauma-informed legal practice and lets it guide her interactions day-to-day.
Victoria also loves the people she works with and the collaborative and supportive environment she works in. Her organization prioritizes work-life balance and checks in often to make sure she is not overwhelmed. Feeling empowered in her work allows Victoria to help people in her community feel empowered to know their rights and equip them with information that they can spread further into the community.
Victoria might make less money now than she did working for a firm, but she also does not work the same long hours she used to. When she factors in things like paying for parking downtown, her clothing and dry-cleaning budget and the cost of gas and commuting (she currently works from home), her income really is not that different now. Victoria thought the financial impact of changing her career path would be difficult, but it has been surprisingly easy. Her general well-being has benefited greatly from the change. Getting to be home with her dog all day certainly is a factor in that!
Victoria empathizes with students and other lawyers who are not happy in the traditional ways of lawyering, but don’t know about other options. Victoria does not regret the time she spent trying out a more conventional job to see if it was the right fit for her, but is also glad that she listened to her heart and body and took a chance on an opportunity that seemed like a better fit. If something does not feel right and you are yearning for a different experience, keep looking to see what is out there and jump on interesting opportunities when they present themselves. A legal education can open a lot of doors, but you need to knock on them. Once Victoria realized this, she accepted what family friends had always told her and became not only a lawyer, but an advocate for the community she has always cared so deeply about.