What kinds of legal issues does your business face? For Radha Curpen, a partner at McMillan LLP, this is what she tries to figure out for businesses all over North America. Her career in law was different from most, as it was in the French language in Manitoba and New Brunswick. Along the way, mentors helped her and gave her opportunities through cases that are in both English and French, which paved the way to practice law in more places and fields.

Problem solving – that is how lawyer Bruce McIvor describes his job. To him, that is why people come to lawyers. It is about identifying the problem, the solution, and barriers to the solution. “It’s often not about the law,” he claims. “It’s about relationships” and how legal issues tend to come up when a relationship has failed in some way. That is also something he teaches his students at the University of British Columbia, helping shape the next generation of lawyers.