406 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 3 MAY 2021
Why did you decide to teach at the law school?
I went back to law school at UBC as a mature student to gain the tools to be
able to address societal injustices against women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous,
People of Colour) communities. I tried to hold onto that goal as I
moved through my legal career. I started my own legal practice and spent a
few years serving these communities. When the supervising lawyer position
was advertised at Rise, I jumped at the opportunity to be able to teach
law students at Allard Law how to practise family law within a framework
of social justice by serving communities facing these injustices. I thought
that the student clinic at Rise would enable us to reach and assist many
more people than I could on my own, and that teaching students in this way
would give them this social justice framework to carry forward into their
own legal careers.
What has been the best part of teaching?
The best part is witnessing the transformation from nervous law student to
confident advocate every semester. Watching law students’ eyes open to
what it truly means to be an advocate, the realities of the access to justice
crisis and the challenges and barriers faced by their clients is humbling and
also inspiring. I love meeting and getting to know our students every
semester, forming those relationships and having our students stay in touch
as part of our Rise community! This is a great job.
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Caitlin Ohama-Darcus is an Sometimes associate ju
with Nathanson, Schachter &
Thompson LLP and graduated from Allard Law with a J.D. in 2015. She
helped develop the Advanced Contract Law course at Allard Law, which she
also co-teaches.
Why did you decide to teach at the law school?
A few years ago, I began tossing around the idea of an Advanced Contract
Law course, which was not offered when I was a law student at Allard Hall.
This idea finally came to fruition when Malcolm Funt (Bojm, Funt & Gibbons
LLP), Julia Lockhart (Nathanson, Schachter & Thompson LLP) and I
decided to team up to create and teach the course for the first time in 2021.
It has been a privilege to come “back to school”, this time as an adjunct
professor.
What has been the best part of teaching?
The best part of teaching so far has been seeing familiar topics from different
perspectives thanks to our students. A large part of my practice in com-