Shannon Wallace ( She/Her )

Bachelor of Humanities, Lawyer

B.Hum Graduate 2019

What was your experience like in the program and how has your degree helped your career?

I applied to the Humanities program not because I saw it as a step toward a particular career, but because I loved to read. To this day, when people ask me what it is that I studied in the Humanities Great Books program, I tell them it’s exactly what it sounds like. I spent four years reading a lot of big, old, really great books. When I eventually decided to pursue a career in law, I discovered that those big, old books proved to be the perfect preparation for law school and work as a lawyer.

If there’s one similarity between the Humanities program and a legal career, it’s that you have to read. A lot. The Humanities program taught me to read and understand long, complex texts and to communicate the ideas within those texts with clarity. These skills have come in handy time and time again in my career so far.

The small class sizes in the College and the frequent, lively debates in discussion groups gave me the confidence to test out my own ideas and prepared me well for the Socratic-style teaching method used in law school classes. My first position after law school was at the Crown Attorney’s office in Toronto in the Criminal division, in which I spent a lot of time on my feet in a courtroom. Being in front of a judge was not all that different from being in front of a Humanities professor asking me questions and challenging my arguments.

I continue to use all of the above skills in my current position at a smaller, full service firm in my day-to-day communications with clients and other lawyers.

The program also prepared me for my most recent and most important job as a mom. The best things I learned in the Great Books program were the importance of asking questions and the beauty and truth that can be found in history. I hope to pass these lessons along to my children.