McGill Law in the time of COVID-19

For the first time, the Faculty of Law carried out the majority of the 2020–2021 academic year away from McGill’s campus. As the pandemic pushed everything from classes to events to extracurriculars online, students, professors, and staff came together remotely to ensure the Faculty’s vibrant intellectual life continued during a most uncommon year. Through creativity, hard work, empathy, and the magic of Zoom, the McGill Law community proved up to the challenge.

Défis et réconforts

L’adaptabilité et l’ingéniosité ont été à l’ordre du jour tout au long d’une année inusitée.

Les défis se sont présentés même avant la semaine d’orientation à l’automne, a déclaré Beatrice Courchesne-Mackie (1), présidente de l’Association des étudiant.e.s en droit de premier cycle (AÉD) en ’20-’21. Afin de faciliter l’engagement et l’interaction au sein de la nouvelle cohorte, l’AÉD a su créer un groupe Facebook dédié dès la fin de l’été pour partager des ressources, informations et mèmes.

L’adaptation virtuelle s’est poursuivie au cours du semestre, avec des évènements phares tels que les soirées Coffeehouse et les Mardis Mokas livrés de façon hebdomadaire et dans des circonstances nettement moins susceptibles de provoquer des plaintes de bruit. Au-delà de ses classiques, l’AÉD a organisé des soirées Trivia, des évènements d’artisanat et des cours d’exercice aux deux semaines sur Zoom. Avant la période d’examen d’avril, ils ont même envoyé des colis de bien-être aux étudiant.e.s.

« Malgré les défis, nous avons été à la hauteur, déclare Courchesne-Mackie. L’exécutif de l’AÉD a fait preuve de beaucoup de créativité pour garder vivant l’esprit communautaire. Je pense également que certaines des innovations que nous avons dû apporter, étant donné la nature virtuelle des choses, se sont avérées incroyablement bénéfiques et seront reconduites dans les années universitaires à venir ».

L’Association des étudiant.e.s de cycles supérieurs en droit (GLSA), présidée par Atagün Mert Kejanlıoglu (2), a été confrontée à des défis similaires. Le taux de participation aux activités virtuelles était souvent faible, peut-être un symptôme de la fatigue numérique, et la création d’un sentiment de communauté s’est également avérée difficile, notamment pour les étudiants internationaux, qui constituent une grande partie des cohortes LLM et DCL.

Cependant, la tenue d’évènements sur Zoom a permis à la GLSA d’organiser un panel sur les opportunités de carrière avec des personnes détentrices d’un DCL œuvrant hors Québec. Son colloque annuel, organisé sous le thème « Le droit et la ville », a permis à un nombre record de 80 personnes sur cinq continents de présenter leurs recherches au cours de deux jours! Le séminaire Doyen Maxwell et Isle Cohen en droit international a eu lieu au cadre du colloque.

« Nous avons certainement ressenti le manque de présentiel. C’est la rencontre entre les gens qui fait que notre colloque annuel est si spécial, et cela nous a rappelé notre impatience de retrouver nos collègues au Pavillon Chancellor-Day », explique Kejanlıoglu.

À la lumière de ces défis, la Faculté a fait tout son possible pour faciliter le succès des membres de son corps étudiant, près ou loin du campus.

La Faculté a déployé des « espaces flexibles » dans certaines salles de classes pour le travail individuel ou en petits groupes, disponibles sur réservation. Les étudiant.e.s se sont montrés enthousiastes quant à la possibilité d’avoir un espace de travail autre que celui de leur domicile.

La Faculté a par ailleurs offert du financement pour combler certains coûts technologiques imprévus engendrés par l’apprentissage à distance, que ce soit des webcams, des microphones, des batteries d’ordinateurs portables ou des forfaits internet plus performants.

Student wellness in the face of global uncertainty

The Faculty’s Local Wellness Advisors, Shrabani Debroy (3) and Heleen Loohuis (4), faced the particularly difficult task of providing virtual support and guidance to students who were watching a global tragedy unfold as they juggled their studies.

“It was scary at first because we needed to adapt very quickly and nobody knew how this pandemic would play out,” Debroy confides. The second LWA position was made possible by a gift to the Faculty.

Students reported struggling with increased depression, as well as loneliness, loss of motivation, and anxiety. The uncertainty and instability that came with COVID-19 were also difficult, with students wondering how the pandemic might affect their careers. Some students had trouble keeping up with academic work due to Zoom fatigue, Debroy explains.

Despite these heavy challenges, Debroy shares that she is extremely proud of students for doing their best to succeed academically during such a collectively challenging period.

“Law school is hard enough in normal times, and some of our first-year and graduate students moved to Montreal during a lockdown. They barely had a chance to make friends, yet managed to get through the year during a global pandemic. That is resilience!”

Similarly, the Student Affairs Office (SAO) was tasked with adapting to students’ needs remotely. Advising services transitioned to virtual platforms with a multitude of time slots each week. The SAO engaged with students by holding several photo contests, asking them to share recipes or photos of their pets to receive small prizes such as McGill Law face masks.

The SAO also launched a podcast, Ask the SAO, featuring conversations with professors, staff, student representatives, and even Minister of Justice & Attorney General the Hon. David Lametti, BCL’89, LLB’89. It also created two charming team videos to lighten the mood and connect with students.

“Even in the midst of the pandemic, we strove to sustain our engagement with 1L students to ensure an enriching, memorable and ‘true to life’ start to law school,” says Nancy Czemmel (5), past Manager of Student Affairs (now with the Schulich School of Music).

The legal field beyond the pandemic

The pandemic also came to bear on students’ professional intentions. A number of students who had summer or articling positions lined up in 2020 saw their offers rescinded or had their start date pushed back. Meanwhile, the sudden shift to remote work at most law firms heightened others’ concerns about their ability to build rapport during virtual interviews as part of recruitment processes.

As a result, the Career Development Office (CDO),whose resources were significantly expanded in 2019thanks to the generosity of the Class of ’93, organized a series of workshops and events around themes like virtual networking and job searching in turbulent times.

“With some guidance and reassurance, and no small measure of their own determination, students were able to bounce back and adapt to the new reality,” says Sophie Roy-Lafleur (6), BCL/LLB’11, Director of the CDO. Roy-Lafleur adds that prioritizing students’ mental health became crucial to the CDO’s advising approach, a practice the team intends to continue beyond the pandemic.

Alumni also provided support for students from a distance. Ahead of McGill24 in the winter term, dozens of graduates, ranging from the class of ’66 to the class of ’20, generously submitted notes with words of encouragement and reflections on what helped them navigate through difficult situations during their time as a student or in the early stages of their career.

The appetite for a McGill legal education has not been dimmed by the current crisis. Indeed, Acting Assistant Dean (Admissions & Recruitment) Brittany Williams (7), BCL/LLB’19, reports that applications to the BCL/JD program this year increased by more than 25 percent and the Faculty welcome yet another exceptional cohort of students in September. It will be in the past when people are reading it.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has had a profound, and in many ways disparate, impact on the McGill Law community. While it may yet take some time for the full scope of this impact to become clear, there are already many lessons that can be drawn from the experience of the past year, whether it be an increased use of technology in teaching, a heightened emphasis on student wellness, or a general appreciation of the importance of human connections. Clearly, the 2020–2021 year is not one that will soon be forgotten.