606 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
the law was important to fulfilling that role, so too was her ability to assess
the specific situation and make a sound, reasoned and decisive determination,
often on an urgent basis. Of course, skillful advice and negotiation do
not always resolve a dispute, and Jasmin did not hesitate to advocate for her
clients before the courts or arbitral tribunals. One of her early cases at Koffman
Kalef remains a leading Canadian case on the law of frustration.5
During PLTC, Jasmin helped organize what would be a fateful pub crawl.
Articling students caroused from the Elephant & Castle to the Blarney Stone
and all stops in between. Somewhere along the way, Jasmin met her future
husband, Joe McArthur. Joe was clerking at the Court of Appeal at the time
and would go on to article and practise at Blakes. Jasmin and Joe spent their
first decade together busily building their practices at their respective firms,
while taking in everything British Columbia had to offer. They added to
their family first with the birth of Kate and a few years later with Grace.
Kate and Grace became the centre of their lives.
In addition to the all-encompassing roles of mother and lawyer, Jasmin
took on positions such as family chronicler, soccer club “mom-ager” and
official prankster. In whatever spare time she can find, Jasmin is often
found completing detailed photobooks recording the family’s year in photos
with deliciously cheesy captions to boot. April 1 is one of Jasmin’s favourite
days of the year. Whether it is Oreos with toothpaste replacing the white
stuff, Pringles containers filled with carrots for a “special treat” or a wall full
of Voldemort’s face, Jasmin never goes halfway.6 Everyone else in the
household knows to hesitate before opening doors or eating anything prepared
by Jasmin on April Fools’ Day. Attempts to rein in her mischief to the
traditional morning of April 1 have been fruitless. Consider this fair warning
to her judicial colleagues.
Starting in 2011, Jasmin began sitting as a non-bencher adjudicator of discipline
and credentials hearings for the Law Society. There she witnessed
the wide variety of lawyers who found themselves before those panels. All
are in a situation where their professional reputation and, in some cases,
their ability to practise law are at stake. While the public interest was of
course paramount, Jasmin strived to apply the law to other lawyers with
empathy, practicality and fairness. She brought a similar approach to her
work in the Access Pro Bono clinics and the CBABC/WLF Women Lawyers
Mentoring Committee.
In the fall of 2015, Jasmin was elected to the first of three terms as a
bencher of the Law Society, and she quickly took on a number of significant
responsibilities, first as chair of the Equity and Diversity Committee and
later as chair of the Discipline Committee. In that capacity, she was called