On March 10, 2022, the Union hosted three local lawyers – Kelly Melnyk, John Gustafson, and Kathy Kendall – to lead a virtual session on legal aid work as part of its Breaking Bread discussion series. Breaking Bread is a project from the TRU Students’ Union that connects students with community leaders through small group discussions around shared topics of interest. 

Kelly Melnyk is the supervising lawyer for the Community Legal Clinic at TRU, John Gustafson is a long time criminal legal aid lawyer who practices here in Kamloops, and Kathy Kendall is a well-known family legal aid lawyer also based in Kamloops.

Questions considered by the group included: 

• The future of legal aid work
• Advice for new lawyers interested in this field
• The many facets of legal aid work
• Challenges and opportunities
• As well as many other topics

Keep an eye on our upcoming posts to join our next Breaking Bread discussion.