THE ADVOCATE 605
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
In addition to his growing accounting practice, Nazir was elected city
councillor and eventually mayor of Flin Flon. Pat worked in the local
school. The extra scrutiny of living in a small town and having one parent
working in the school and one parent the mayor did not seem to ruin Jasmin
in any. While she excelled at school, she was often singled out for being
an overly social force in the classroom, even being assigned to the closet in
one frustrated teacher’s attempt to temper her non-stop socializing in class.
At Flin Flon’s Hapnot High, Jasmin engaged in student council and was part
of a string of successful Hapnot volleyball and basketball teams.3 Jasmin
graduated with a scholarship to McGill University and, with her sister in
tow, moved to Montreal, where Jasmin pursued her bachelor of commerce
and Suffia her bachelor of science. Pat and Nazir would eventually hit what
some parents consider the “daily double”: one lawyer and one doctor.
Jasmin fully embraced Montreal during her time at McGill. In addition
to her dedication to her studies, Jasmin took full advantage of the Montreal
nightlife, often dancing the night away with her many new friends.4 McGill
also marked the beginning of Jasmin’s futile efforts to push a cool nickname
for herself. Perhaps unfortunately, despite her best efforts, the nickname
never caught on. In any event, with her appointment to the Supreme Court,
“Jazzy J” J. sounds not only somewhat redundant but also perhaps not that
judicial.
For law school, Jasmin travelled to the other end of the country. Jasmin
arrived at the University of Victoria in 1991. Her only other visit to British
Columbia had been for Expo 86 with her family. As with McGill, Jasmin
jumped right into life at UVic Law with enthusiasm.
Between her second and third years of law school, Jasmin spent the summer
in Vancouver with what was then the mid-sized firm of Ferguson Gifford.
By the time articles came around, Jasmin was asked by some of the departing
litigation partners of Ferguson Gifford to join them at their new firm Webster,
Hudson & Akerly (now Webster, Hudson & Coombe). Jasmin stayed with
Webster, Hudson & Akerly for two years, practising in the areas of professional
negligence, insurance defence and general commercial litigation.
In 1997, Jasmin moved to Koffman Kalef to focus her practice more on
commercial litigation. In that practice, Jasmin acted for commercial clients
ranging from large institutions to small- and medium-sized businesses. Jasmin
learned the practicalities of the court system from working for her commercial
clients and developed strong negotiation skills in resolving as many
disputes as possible without final resort to the courts. At Koffman Kalef, she
was frequently called on to provide guidance on legal issues arising in the
solicitors’ corporate and commercial practices. While keeping current with