Lampe award winner from Bishop’s finds herself with the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick
She hasn’t forgotten all that she learned in Sherbrooke
Sherbrooke, May 11, 2015 – As the Lampe Foundation, CFUW Sherbrooke & District, prepares to honour 24 award winners at a ceremony on May 21, we proudly present the success story of prior winner Erin Toole. Over more than 20 years, the Foundation has helped hundreds of students achieve their educational dreams. What a treat to see what happened to a promising young student after graduation.
Erin Toole is currently Associate General Counsel with the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick. The commission is a crown corporation regulating financial and consumer services industries in New Brunswick, including pensions, insurance, securities and an entire gamut of consumer-related activities. Providing legal support to the commission and acting as a legislative coordinator, Toole acts as a liaison with the Department of Justice on laws that fall within the areas within the jurisdiction of the Commission.
Toole was a student at Bishop’s University studying Honors English with a major in Classics when she was awarded the Eileen Healy Scholarship for leadership by the Lampe Foundation in 1998. Toole credits Bishop’s with helping her to develop communication skills, particularly the ability to write, as well as the ability to interact well others, something practiced daily in small classes requiring a lot of participation.
After Bishop’s she returned to New Brunswick for law school where she remained near the top of her class for three years. She later moved to Toronto where she practiced corporate, family, and child protection law but ended up back in Saint John 5 years later with the Financial and Consumer Services Commission, admitting that she prefers the opportunities of her position for public outreach and information to a more adversarial role. Saint John, Toole says, is like Sherbrooke, large enough to be a city and small enough to be easily navigable and convenient for family life, with easy commutes and close proximity to nature.
According to Toole, students who want to become lawyers should be good at making decisions, adept at reading people and situations and be strong in research and analysis. She advises students to pay as little attention as possible to the negative information they hear about the legal profession and instead to talk to practitioners to get a sense of what they do.
It is of the utmost importance to have a mentor one can trust. She is grateful to have had her father, who, like her, was a graduate of Bishop’s and the UNB law school. She also credits a senior lawyer who “makes sure employees grow.” In law and related fields an arts degree with its emphasis on writing is a huge asset. A student with a particular interest in the area of law would do well to study a relevant field: science for intellectual property or sociology or psychology for family law. Well rounded candidates always have an advantage.
Although Toole follows politics with great interest she isn’t thinking about a political career yet. Maybe, she says, in twenty years.
The Lampe Foundation looks forward to awarding the 2015 Eileen Healy scholarship, and dozens more, at the annual Awards night on May 21st.
The Lampe Foundation, CFUW Sherbrooke & District is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education support for students from the Eastern Townships and across Canada. It is proud to offer scholarships in partnership with numerous educational institutions and private foundations. For more information on scholarships or to donate to the Foundation visit www.lampefoundation.org.
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For more information:
Claire Holt
Marketing director
Lampe Foundation, CFUW Sherbrooke & District
819-446-4840
Photo: Erin Toole
