896 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
McLachlin and Justices LeBel, Cromwell, Abella and Brown of the Supreme
Court of Canada. The B.C. bench and bar have been exceptionally generous
and supportive by sponsoring many scholarships and student awards, and
attending the ceremonies in which they are given.
We have competed at the highest level in national moots, with TRU fielding
teams in the Bowman Tax Moot, the Jessup International Law Moot, the
MacIntyre Trial Advocacy Moot, the Wilson Moot and the Kawaskimhon
Moot, along with the Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada and the
National Sports Law Negotiation Moot. Our teams have won top prizes in
many of the moots in which they have competed, including a first-place
award at the British Columbia Law Schools Competitive Moot. Here again,
members of the B.C. bar have offered invaluable assistance as volunteer
coaches and mentors.
In February 2016, a grant from the Law Foundation of BC helped us
launch the TRU Community Legal Clinic. It began as a part-time clinic, with
six law students participating in a Clinical Practice Course. Over the past
five years, the clinic has become a full-time operation in an office in downtown
Kamloops, with six employees and up to a dozen students participating.
We have gone from opening 29 files in our first semester to opening
roughly 150 new files per semester. In total, we have assisted almost 2,000
clients.
Since TRU Law opened in 2011, we have succeeded in helping our graduates
launch careers in law and other fields. Every year, between ninetyfour
and ninety-nine per cent of students known to be seeking articles
report securing them within nine months of graduation. Our students have
landed positions in private practice, including with well-known regional,
national and international law firms. They have obtained clerkships in trial
and appellate courts across Canada, and have found jobs with government
employers, non-profits and corporations.
We have had the pleasure of watching many of our earliest alumni
develop in their careers, taking on larger files, opening their own firms,
completing graduate degrees or serving in public office. Many graduates
moved back to the larger cities from whence they came. But many have
chosen to stay in Kamloops or ventured to more remote areas of British
Columbia and Alberta.
Ten years on, we still feel like a new law school, filled with promise. And
we hope to continue developing as rapidly in our next decade as we did in
our first.