Agathon Fric
Agathon Fric
Criminal defence lawyer
BA (Honours) in Political Science, 2011
(with Highest Honours, concentration in Canadian Politics, co-operative education option)
Agathon is an alumnus of the Carleton–Leeds Parliamentary Internship Exchange Program, which saw him work for Members of Parliament in Canada and the United Kingdom. He is a past recipient of the Honourable Walter Baker Memorial Scholarship in Political Science, as well as the Senate Medal for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
After graduating from Carleton, Agathon enrolled at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law. There, he excelled in oral advocacy, winning Dalhousie’s top appellate moot court competition, the Smith Shield. He completed clerkships at the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta before going into private practice as an associate in the litigation group of a major global law firm. In 2017, he left private practice to pursue postgraduate studies at the Harvard Law School, where he was a Dean’s Scholar.
Since earning his Master of Laws, Agathon has practised as a criminal defence lawyer in Calgary, mostly representing indigent individuals. His career has taken him to all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and he has published peer-reviewed articles on a variety of legal topics, including search and seizure, youth digital privacy, medical aid in dying, judicial selection, and the rule of law.
Carleton taught me that all politics is philosophical and all philosophy is political. Without both, what we say makes no difference and what we do makes no sense. Thought breathes meaning into action, and action validates thought. This lesson has been the lodestar of my career, reminding me that although real social justice might start in the library, it always ends in the trenches.