Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/398704
Volunteer Profile Vancouver Foundation board member Miranda Lam is a young, energetic lawyer set on proving that there is altruism in the courtroom By Christine Faron Chan p a g e 1 6 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l F a l l 2 0 1 4 Photo: Dominic Schaefer When Miranda Lam was five years old, her Catholic school kindergarten teacher asked her to read a passage from the Bible at church. For the shy little girl, the thought of walking up the steps of the church altar and standing at the pulpit, facing a crowd of classmates and parishioners, left her scared and nervous. Lam's mother, a no-nonsense schoolteacher, saw this as an oppor- tunity to build self-confidence. So for days on end, Lam practised her delivery, reading the passage over and over again, while her mother coached her. When the big day arrived, Lam executed her task flawlessly. "After that," she says, "I thought public speaking was really fun – a great way of communicating with other people." It was, in many ways, a life-changing experience. Lam overcame her shyness and went on to compete in public speaking champion- ships throughout her school years. "Being able to tell a story – that, for me, was the most intriguing part, figuring out a bunch of facts and figuring out a way to convey it in a simple and digestible way," Lam shares. Her talent and enthusiasm for storytelling would become fertile ground for the aspiring litigator. But even as she carefully laid out her career path to law from a young age, some doubted her choice of profession. She winces at the well-intended words of advice from her Grade 6 teacher. "[She] said to me that I shouldn't become a lawyer because good people don't become lawyers," Lam recalls. "She said, 'You should become a teacher. Your mother's a teacher, I'm a teacher. Look around you – you enjoy and admire teachers. You should be a teacher.'" Not one to back down from a challenge, the young Lam was more resolute than ever to prove her teacher wrong: good people could be lawyers. Fast-forward 25 years and Lam, just shy of 40, is at the top of her game. A partner in the litigation group of McCarthy Tétrault, she's a force to be reckoned with in the boardrooms of corporations and non-profit organizations. She's a rising star in Canada's law com- munity, has authored numerous legal articles and publications, and is a sought-after speaker on class action issues, investigations and dispute resolution processes. So how has Lam managed to dispel the stereotypes of her pro- fession that her Grade 6 teacher warned her about? She takes a refreshing approach to her work: "To me it's a privilege [being a One Good Lawyer