NEWSLETTER

SEPTEMBER RECAP

The Humber Legal Association had an inspiring start to the school year, hosting two events and having many more in the works. Our first event was our first general meeting which occurred on September 14th. There were many students who were introduced to the HLA and had the opportunity to voice their opinions about what they were most looking forward to. Our presentation covered such topics as our history, values, the events that we have planned for the semester, our peer tutoring program and merch. The event ended by playing a game of kahoot that challenged club member’s legal knowledge, where the winner won a $25 Starbucks gift card. 

On September 28th, the HLA hosted their first guest speaker event. Serra Pecino is a Career Matchmaker and Director of Legal Recruitment at Hays, a British multinational company providing recruitment and human resources services across 33 countries globally. Serra provided insight and advice on resume writing, applying for roles online/building your online presence and/or profile, interview tips/tricks, offer negotiation, legal industry hiring trends and more. Two Princeton Review LSAT textbooks were also given away at the event. 

GUEST SPEAKER EVENT

The guest speaker for October will be Aram Simovonian and will take place on October 11th. Aram is a professor of the Paralegal Bachelor’s Degree program at Humber College. He is also a lawyer who has over 8 years experience mainly as litigation counsel for various law firms. Additionally, Aram is a contributor to the Journal of Paralegal Access to Justice, a journal that aims to further the role of paralegals in advancing access to justice in a diversity of areas. Being himself an alumni of the Paralegal degree program, Aram has the unique experience of being both a student and professor at Humber. After achieving his undergrad, he received his LL.B abroad at the University of Birmingham in England and also has a Masters of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School. Aram will provide insight and advice on all things related to Humber, the law school experience and practising in law.

MOVIE NIGHT

The HLA is thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our first movie night in October! The date is yet to be determined but will likely take place sometime at the end of the month. We will watch “My Cousin Vinny”, the 1992 courtroom comedy starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. Come join us for a night of funny legal jokes and lots of popcorn!

HLA TUTORING PROGRAM

The Humber Legal Association is proud to announce that they are beginning a new tutoring program for students in the Paralegal Studies Bachelor program! In its most basic form, the Peer Tutoring Program’s objective is to provide help for those who may be struggling in their courses with easy access to their peers who, with oversight, will provide guidance and advice to the tutees in a more formal setting than the standard classroom.

Tutors who choose to be involved with the HLA Tutoring program may be provided with CCR credits that can form an important aspect of their co-curricular development during their post secondary journey. The HLA is also planning on offering tutoring services in a hybrid format, both online and in person in order to accommodate as many people as possible. 

As of today, the program start date is currently undetermined as its development is still a work in progress. More information will be revealed over the coming semester, so if you are interested remember to stay in touch with us either through social media or in person for updates on the Tutoring program! We are excited for the potential that we know this program has, and hope it not only ensures connectivity within the paralegal program but also to provide those who apply with essential skills they may feel are lacking. 

Thank you for reading,

Humber Legal Association Executive Team

WELCOME!

The Humber Legal Association is proud to announce that we are back for the 2023/24 school year at Humber College. For the first time in the club’s history, there is a brand new executive team at the forefront of the HLA. This new leadership consists of a diverse range of people that represent different years and programs at Humber, in addition to a brand new position made specifically for the HLA tutoring program.  

EXECUTIVE TEAM

PRESIDENT

Maria Rausch Lima is the President of the Humber Legal Association. She is in her third year of the Paralegal Studies Bachelor Degree program at Humber Lakeshore. After she graduates, Maria’s career goal is to go to law school. 

Maria wanted to become the President of the HLA because the club has helped her connect with peers who share her interests, in addition to helping her learn more about mooting and legal issues. She hopes to continue this tradition while also expanding the club’s reach like never before. Outside of school and being president of the HLA, Maria enjoys reading books, listening to music, travelling, learning new languages and going to concerts. 

VICE PRESIDENT 

Vitaliy Ostapov is the Vice President of the Humber Legal Association. He is in his third year of the Paralegal Studies Bachelor Degree program at Humber Lakeshore. The two areas of law that he enjoys studying the most are Medical Malpractice and Construction/Urban Planning and Development Law. 

Vitaliy’s prior experience as the Director of Internal Affairs at Youth for Worldwide Education is what led him to become the new Vice-President of the HLA. He hopes to work tirelessly to assist the Executive Team in continuously improving the potential of the student run club. Aside from school, Vitaliy writes music, works as a Line Cook at Cactus Club Sherway, plays chess, goes on hikes, listens to 90’s hip-hop and plays basketball. 

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR

Cassaundra Kelly is the Social Media Coordinator/Communications Executive of the Humber Legal Association. She is in her fourth year of the Paralegal Studies Bachelor Degree program at Humber Lakeshore. Cassaundra has a law clerk diploma and has 4 years experience working as a law clerk. Her career objective following her graduation from Humber is to become a Law Professor. Cassaundra has extensive experience with social media, and is currently a social media influencer and model. In her off time Cassaundra is a full time mother to her 6 year old daughter. She also enjoys hiking with her dog, reading books, watching history documentaries and anything to do with art/art history.

OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE 

Eric Shatosky is the Operations Executive of the Humber Legal Association. He is in his second year of the Criminal Justice Bachelor Degree program at Humber Lakeshore. The area of law he is most passionate about is criminal law and topics revolving around the rights and experiences of incarcerated people in Canada. After graduating from Humber, Eric aims to go to law school. 

Aside from school, Eric enjoys reading and going for walks around Toronto. He is also a regional advocate for The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, where he works in solidarity with federally incarcerated people in prisons designated for women to utilise redress systems effectively and create positive impacts and systemic change.

VICE PRESIDENT OF TUTORING 

Anamika Singh is the Vice President of Tutoring for the Humber Legal Association. She is in her fourth year of the Paralegal Studies Bachelor Degree program at Humber Lakeshore. After Anamika graduates next year, she plans to go to law school where she aims to study in her favourite areas including Criminal, Employment and Disability law. 

The world of law has captivated her for a multitude of reasons, but Anamika’s experience volunteering at free medical camps in Kenya stands out as the primary experience that fueled her interest in law. Outside of school, Anamika enjoys spending time with her Maltese pup, reading law articles and watching horror movies.

FALL GENERAL EVENT 

The Humber Legal Association’s first general event will take place at 7 pm on September 14th at the Ignite K building located on Lakeshore campus. Every student is welcome to come to this event, regardless of whether they are a current member of the club or not. This event will serve as a general introduction to what the HLA represents and hopes to achieve for the upcoming fall semester. Rather than it just being solely a presentation from the HLA board, we are hoping for a more collaborative conversation amongst everyone there with the goal of maximising the potential of our student run club. Pizza, cookies and drinks will be served as well. See you there!

FIRST SPEAKER EVENT 

The Humber Legal Association’s first guest speaker will be Serra Pecino, who will be on campus September 28th. Serra is a Career Matchmaker and Director of Legal Recruitment at Hays, a British multinational company providing recruitment and human resources services across 33 countries globally. Serra will provide insight and advice on resume writing, Applying for roles online/building your online presence and/or profile, Interview tips/tricks, Offer negotiation, Legal industry hiring trends and more.

HLA TUTORING PROGRAM

The Humber Legal Association is proud to announce that they are beginning a new tutoring program for students in the Paralegal Studies Bachelor program! In its most basic form, the Peer Tutoring Program’s objective is to provide help for those who may be struggling in their courses with easy access to their peers who, with oversight, will provide guidance and advice to the tutees in a more formal setting than the standard classroom.

Tutors who choose to be involved with the HLA Tutoring program may be provided with CCR credits that can form an important aspect of their co-curricular development during their post secondary journey. The HLA is also planning on offering tutoring services in a hybrid format, both online and in person in order to accommodate as many people as possible. 

As of today, the program start date is currently undetermined as its development is still a work in progress. More information will be revealed over the coming semester, so if you are interested remember to stay in touch with us either through social media or in person for updates on the Tutoring program! We are excited for the potential that we know this program has, and hope it not only ensures connectivity within the paralegal program but also to provide those who apply with essential skills they may feel are lacking. 

Thank you for reading,

Humber Legal Association Executive Team

In honour of the HLA turning two years old this year, we are looking back at all of the events we have hosted and all of the connections that we have made.

To celebrate the Association, we will be hosting a guest speaker event as well as a general membership meeting/networking night where we will announce the new Executive Board for the 2023-2024 academic year.

This will be the first handing off of the club from its founders to the new generation of the HLA, so we hope that you are able to attend!

ISO: Executive Board Members

We are taking in applications for Operations executive and communications executive. We have outlined the roles below. If you feel that you could be a great fit for either of these please send your resume and a cover letter to humberlegalassociation@gmail.com

Note: you must be enrolled at Humber for the 2023-2024 academic year to qualify

in honour of the HLA turning two (2) years old this year, we are looking back at all of the events we have hosted and all of the connections that we have made.

To celebrate the Association, we will be hosting a guest speaker event as well as a general membership meeting/networking night where we will announce the new Executive Board for the 2023-2024 academic year.

This will be the first handing off of the club from its founders to the new generation of the HLA, so we hope that you are able to attend!

Upcoming Events

Guest Speaker: Melanie Henriques

Melanie is a paralegal partner at the employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP. Melanie represents employees and employers with respect to: wrongful dismissal, constructive dismissal, workplace harassment, human rights complaints and employment contracts. She has appeared before the Ontario Small Claims Court, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Landlord and Tenant Board, Financial Services Commission of Ontario and the Licence Appeal Tribunal. 

Melanie has an incredible wealth of knowledge that she will be sharing with us on February 22nd, 2023 at 7pm on Zoom (link to be posted on our carrd), so mark your calendars and get your questions ready! 

General Meeting & Networking Mixer Event

The HLA will be hosting its second ever general meeting and networking event for the first time in person! 

The event will be held on March 8, 2023 at 7pm on Lakeshore Campus in the Ignite Student Building (k204). 

This will be an amazing opportunity to meet and network with other students. There will be icebreakers, team building exercises, and the HLA Board will be announcing their successors. 

There will also be pizza. Free Pizza. 

First and foremost, HLA hopes their members had a great start to their semester and are excited to be part of HLA 2022's events.
 

HLA  would like to thank all of those that have been there since the start of this club which started exactly a year ago. We started this club with 20 members and we are now over 200 members. We have students from every campus and several programs which makes it more exciting. It has been a full year of fun and educational events. It has also been a great way to connect with other students since classes were mostly online and there were not many opportunities to meet our peers. HLA is glad that we were a part of your journey of networking with other students, professors, legal professionals and others. With that being said, HLA looks forward to your continued support.
 

HLA is very excited to say that for this year not only will we continue to have special guest meetings and hot topic conversations, HLA would also like to announce that we were invited to participate at the Osgoode this year!

Thursday, November 11 at 7 PM, HLA once again presents Joey Galinsky to further discuss law school tips and have any of your law school-related questions answered. Joey is also the Co-Founder of Law School Life & Beyond and is a 2017 Humber graduate from the Paralegal Studies Program.

Wednesday, December 1, Humber Professor Jasteena Dhillon, will be joining HLA and discussing her experience in International Law and her involvement with the United Nations.  

HLA has also partnered with The Princeton Review.
Discounts can be up to 15% for self-paced and up to $400 off instructor-led classes!

➡LSAT PREP
➡MOCK LSAT'S
➡& MUCH MORE! 

Thursday, October 7th at 7:00 PM HLA presents Italian & Canadian international certified lawyer as a guest speaker, Caterina Licata. Licata has worked on a few Italian Mafia cases that may possibly be discussed in the event. Licata now works in corporate law, real estate and family law.

Jeff graduated from Osgoode Law School and was called to the bar in 2000. After this, Jeff pursued a career on Bay street for more than a decade before eventually starting his own firm, Spark LLP. Jeff will be discussing the benefits and obstacles of creating your own firm as well as his own experiences as a lawyer in Toronto.

Humber Legal Association would like to wish a good & relaxing reading week to those students that have their reading week from October 24th to October 30th.

Guest Speaker Q&A with a legal professional, Daniel Pallag. In this meeting, Pallag will talk about his experience working in the legal field and have your questions answered about possible legal career pathways. Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at 7 PM! 

HLA has recently partnered with The Princeton Review.
Discounts can be up to 15% for self-paced and up to $400 off instructor-led classes!
 

➡LSAT PREP

➡MOCK LSAT'S
➡& MUCH MORE! 

Do not forget to sign up for HLA's future merchandise in the link below:

 HLALINKS.CARRD 

July Upcoming Event

Erin Thomas is a Crown Attorney that will be joining Humber Legal Association on Thursday, July 22 at 7 PM. HLA will be hosting a Q&A event with Erin to talk about her experiences as a Crown Attorney. HLA recommends their members to have their questions ready for Erin and to join HLA in this event.

A Message to the Humber Legal Association Members

Dear Humber Legal Association members,

As we enter into July and begin the second half of the summer semester, we hope our members are enjoying the summer heat while staying cool.

The Humber Legal Association(“HLA”) has recognized the ongoing discoveries at the former residential schools across Canada and therefore has also recognized the Indigenous land. Humber College is located in the lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, also known as       “Adoobiigok [A-doe-bee-goke],  the “Place of the Alders” in Michi Saagiig [Mi-Chee  Saw-Geeg] language.

HLA will be reflecting on the mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples and educating ourselves further on the History of Canada's colonization. While many of us were aware of the horrific treatment of Indigenous children in these “schools'', HLA was disturbed and heartbroken to see just how many children suffered.

HLA encourages and fully supports those that have the responsibility to change the school’s curriculum, and that they do such immediately. Young students should be learning about the true Canadian history rather than learning and glorifying those that colonized Canada.       Young students should learn about the colonizers removing young Indigenous from their culture and destroying their lives by placing them in the former residential schools hours away from their reserves, with absolutely no contact with their families. The school’s curriculum should also teach that the colonizers did not intend to help the Indigenous but rather instead decided to take these young peoples’ lives and say that they were “missing”. Only years later to find all of these young people buried under former residential schools. 

HLA also hopes that in the future, those that have the responsibility will stop destroying Indigenous land and be held accountable for their actions.

In order to further recognize the role of Indigenous peoples in their own land, HLA will be linking below resources and places to donate to should anyone be interested in supporting Indigenous Peoples this July First.

Furthermore, the importance of Pride doesn’t end with June, we at the Humber Legal Association celebrate the LGBTQ+ year-round and recognize the significance of their contribution, the absolute right to love and the importance of recognition and support. We share this message now at the end of Pride to symbolize our ongoing support not just in June but year-round. To this end, we will also be posting links to resources regarding the LGTBQ+.

We appreciate our members' ongoing support and will continue to make the HLA a safe place or everyone to discuss the law together.

Sincerely, 

The HLA Executive Team

Upcoming Events 

"WhoJudgesTheJudge", Criminal Defence Lawyer, TEDx Speaker, Jordana Goldlist will be joining Humber Legal Association on June 10th at 6:00 PM via Zoom. In this Q&A event with Goldlist, she will be speaking about her experiences as a criminal defence lawyer and many other relevant topics that will interest future legal professionals. Apart from being proudly tattooed and nationally recognized in "The Best Lawyers in Canada" for work in Criminal Defence, Goldlist is also a Youth Mentor that is heavily involved in the Toronto community. 

Join HLA on May 27th at 7 PM for a quick Legal Trivia! Everyone loves a good Kahoot so why not join HLA? It is a great way to test your legal knowledge and network with other students. 

Co-Founder, Editor and Writer of Law School and Beyond, Joey Galinsky will be joining Humber Legal Association on June 24th, at 7 PM. Galinsky is a Humber Alumnus that graduated from Humber College's Paralegal Studies in 2017. He is currently at UofT Law and set to graduate in 2022. Galinsky will be talking about the transition from College to Law School, his experience and answer any doubts you may have about law school.

Updates and Upcoming Events For Summer

Hello Members!

We hope that you are enjoying your summer so far! The Humber Legal Association

Club (“HLA”) is proud to present you with opportunities and informative events

this summer including: guest speaker events with legal professionals, discussions of

legal hot-topics, online game and movie nights, and a textbook exchange planned for

late August-early September. We will keep you updated on the events primarily

through email and on our Instagram; you can find these links in our Linktree.

Newsletters will be sent to your inbox bi-weekly, please ensure that you check your

emails regularly or at least semi-often!

Our Upcoming Legal Discussion Event Topic: Mandatory Vaccinations

On Thursday, May 20th 2021 at 7pm, HLA will be hosting another discussion via Zoom

on the “Mandatory-Vaccine” issue. 

Please join us for the event and share your

opinions, perspectives and ideas on the topic. Information about the issue can be

found in the google doc folder we have prepared for you, should you wish to research the issue before our discussion.

You can join the meeting using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83296308248 or

by using our Linktree. We hope to see you there!

Make sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on upcoming events and opportunities!

HLA Social Media and Events Link: https://linktr.ee/humberlegalassociation

 MAID Discussion

Come join us on

Date: April 1, 2021

Time: 7 pm

Location: Discord

We will be discussing the changes made to the MAID law. Come join us and share your opinions, perspectives, and ideas.

Use our Linktree to join the discussion. See you there!  

Linktree Link: https://linktr.ee/humberlegalassociation

Click here for general info about MAID law

New official club recognized and under the auspices of Ignite

A big big thank you!

We’re a club all about discussing the current Canadian legal climate, our rights & new laws, hosting debates, and much more!

We have a large array of events planned that will help students, provide networking opportunities, offer chances to win prizes and more. 

You don’t want to miss out! Check our Social media regularly, by using the link below, for updates and announcements.

Link: https://linktr.ee/humberlegalassociation