Popular sport plays fun role in life of Canadian attorney

By Tom Kirvan

Among historians, there is a divergence of opinion on the origins of hockey, a sport that continues to captivate millions of players and fans around the globe.

By most accounts, Canada is credited with modernizing and popularizing the sport as we know it today, although some believe that hockey’s beginnings can be traced to a “stick-and-ball” game played on ice in the early 1600s in kilted Scotland of all places.

Wherever the first puck was dropped and whenever the first goal was scored, Winnipeg native Adam Kelso has held a firm grasp on the sport’s cultural importance to his ancestral home in the Canadian province of Manitoba.

“To anyone growing up in Canada, hockey is the ultimate sport and offers lessons that can be valuable in almost any endeavor,” said Kelso, a real estate attorney with PKF Lawyers in Manitoba.

Kelso, who graduated from Robson Hall Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba in 2011, has played hockey since he was a kid, developing an early passion for it on a neighbor’s back yard rink. Such homemade ice surfaces, of course, sprout up in neighborhoods across Canada during the winter months, ensuring that there is a steady stream of players always honing their hockey skills.

“I played community organized hockey until high school, but never at a particularly high level,” said Kelso. “I was a little bit more into basketball during high school, but I kept playing recreational hockey and then was part of our law school team, going on a couple of road trips to Grand Forks, North Dakota. Their law school and med school put on tournaments there.”

His hockey involvement continued to grow when as a first-year law student he was drafted to play in a lawyers’ league comprised of squads from six law firms in Manitoba. The Winnipeg Law Hockey League offered the added benefit of a “networking opportunity” for current and aspiring lawyers, said Kelso.

“I’m still playing on the team with a lot of the same guys,” said Kelso of his now 15-year tenure with the squad, which plays each Tuesday evening from September through March in one of three time slots – 6:45, 8, and 9:15 p.m. “It’s been a great way to break up the week and to get some regular exercise.”

Kelso has played as a defenseman exclusively in the lawyers’ league, although he has periodic opportunities to display his goal-scoring ability on the power play where passing and stickhandling skills are at a premium.

“It’s a no-checking, no-slapshot league to cut down on the possibility of injuries,” Kelso indicated. “There have been a couple of standout players in the league, including some who used to play in the

Winnipeg, Manitoba

WHL, the highest level of junior hockey in Canada. I used to be one of the better players when I started, but as a number of younger players have come into the league, I’m more of the steady, stay-athome defenseman,” he said with a grin.

One of three siblings, Kelso is the younger son of Louise and Jim Kelso. His father is an IT specialist at the University of Manitoba Business School, while his mother is a retired elementary school teacher.

Kelso initially had plans to pursue a pre-med program at the University of Manitoba but decided to “pivot” to a degree in economics after getting his fill of a heavy diet of chemistry and biology courses.

Upon graduation from law school, Kelso landed a job with David L. Moore & Associates, practicing in the areas of real estate, wills and estates, and corporate and commercial law. The firm became part of PKF Lawyers in 2016. Headquartered in Winnipeg, PKF has upward of 30 attorneys spread across six offices in Manitoba.

Kelso and his wife Michelle, who is the communications and event coordinator for the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association, were married in October 2022, a wedding attended by a number of his hockey friends.

While his hockey buddies eschew any weekly practice sessions because of the demands of their professional responsibilities, Kelso said they do hold occasional “team building events on weekends to discuss strategy and to enjoy a few drinks.”

The formula has proven to be a winner in recent years, according to Kelso.

“As best I recall, we’ve won the league championship three of the last four years,” he said proudly.