THE ADVOCATE 927
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
The Davis children spent their winter weekends skiing at top speed down
the slopes of what was then Tod Mountain. Summers were spent at the
Shuswap and, later, around the family pool in the scorching Kamloops summers.
Athletic titans each of them, they also participated in and excelled at
every sport imaginable. To this day, family gatherings often involve some
form of tournament or sporting event, purportedly for fun, but always with
some kind of competitive edge.
Andrea obtained a B.A. in criminology from Simon Fraser University in
1987. She went on to work in an administrative role for Crown counsel at
222 Main Street, and then as a social worker in youth and adult women’s
corrections in Toronto. After returning to British Columbia, she worked as
a child protection social worker before heading off to law school.
While attending law school at UBC and needing next to no sleep, Andrea
accomplished the near impossible by continuing to work nearly full-time
for MCFD’s Emergency Services. Before graduating from law school in 1993,
she spent a semester at the University of Melbourne, where she made lifelong
friends and established a permanent bond with Australia.
After graduating, Andrea clerked at the Supreme Court of British Columbia
for Chief Justice Esson, Associate Chief Justice Campbell, Justice Dohm
(as he then was) and others. Andrea found her clerkship invaluable; it was
a learning experience that guided her approach to legal issues and advocacy
throughout her career as a lawyer.
Andrea articled at Alexander, Holburn, Beaudin & Lang, where she
impressed everyone with her enthusiasm, tenacity and street smarts. After
her call to the bar in 1995, she remained there as an associate working in
the area of insurance law, quickly earning the respect of her colleagues and
clients. Her mentor at the time still remembers how much he missed her
when she left to pursue child protection litigation and various civil litigation
roles at other firms.
Pregnant with her youngest son, and by then a mother to her oldest son
(a rambunctious toddler), Andrea changed course and joined the advocacy
group at the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union (“BCGEU”)
representing aggrieved workers from diverse professions and backgrounds,
who often suffered from mental health and addiction challenges.
In 2001, Andrea left law and Canada with her boys and their father for
Detroit, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Australia and Hagatna, Guam. While in Guam,
she dipped her toes back into legal waters and worked as an arbitrator on
the United States’ federal “no child gets left behind” legislation, ensuring
that children from Guam were afforded equal access to in-school supports
for disabilities or learning challenges.