I could say it started with mock debate teams in Grade 7, on Ms. Katyal’s class, when I played the defence lawyer in English class.

Or in Grade 8 geography, when I played an Indigenous human rights lawyer in Ms. Blackburn’s class.

Or when Mr. Grover introduced Aristotle and John Locke in Grade 12 and went on at length about the legal philosophy courses at McMaster, I decided I wanted to follow in his footsteps and explore the McMaster humanities program.

Or was it when I watched Annalise Keating have an anxiety attack before arguing at the Supreme Court (girl, same)?

But it is much more complex. Or maybe much more simple. I do not know.

At McMaster, I was enrolled in electives like art history, classics, anthropology and linguistics.

So began my western doctrination.

I found myself marveling at Odysseus and his giant wooden horse, and somewhere between writing essays on Mesopotamia and debating whether Rome or Greece had the best government, I realized this wasn’t my path.

At UTSC, there were neoliberal thinkers, feminists, Marxists, socialists, Tamil civil rights activists, Black activists, queer activists, international students, and even Hong Kong and Tibetan activists. There was a seat at the table for everyone. Well, except the right-wing activists. Somewhere in all that chaos, I realized I was meant to take a different road.

It wasn’t until my Model UN internship in New York that something clicked. I sat with law students who weren’t chasing Big Law or trying to be the next Harvey Specter or Barack Obama. They actually thought they could change the world. I found refuge in an international space where there was genuine concern for humanity, the planet, and global issues.

Law school introduced me to people who were pioneers in niche areas of law, including my international treaty arbitration professor and dissertation supervisor. Networked with a couple of Technology and Law PHD candidates (btw, this was before ChatGPT went public). 

(1) I understood THAT the landscape of law was changing.

While studying law in the UK, my cousin was convicted of manslaughter by an all-white jury at just sixteen and sentenced to a mandatory ten years. I kept thinking about whether things could have been different with better defence counsel. Could the evidence have been interpreted differently, considering he was a drunk minor acting under his uncle’s instructions? Could a case for automatism have been made?

(2) I understood THAT even though law was changing, the outdated systemic injustice faced by minorities was not.

I wrote my 10,000-word law school dissertation (again post chatGPT) on the judicial interpretation of a Dharmastric concept, focusing on Dharma, understood as cosmic law, duty, and righteous conduct, rooted in the Sanskrit dhr, meaning to uphold. I explored MY own religious and cultural understanding of law and justice, helped me broaden my perspective beyond the Western doctrination.

(3) I understood THAT there is a cosmic understanding to law. 

Getting a taste of Big Law and Bay Street finance showed me that law doesn’t exist in a bubble. Legal reasoning, statutory interpretation, and stare decisis are constantly influenced by money, risk, and economic reality. sometimes just as much as the law itself.

(4) I understood THAT, yep, money actually does matter.

AND to answer your question, Why the law? 

I don’t know, I’m just a girl.