Margaret Walsh

I really care about the people that I work with and the cases that I work on, and I don't do things halfway. If there's even a small task, like getting a medical record for a client, I'm reaching out to the medical facility on a weekly basis and trying to get that as soon as possible. I would say it's just caring about what I do and the people around me that has made the difference in my success.

Stay open, stay vulnerable, and don’t let setbacks define you. Maggie believes that growth comes from both wins and losses, and that learning to navigate challenges with resilience is key to long-term success.

I would say keep an open mind and don't be afraid to be vulnerable. I think sometimes younger women, myself included when I first started, feel like because we're younger women, people might not respect us, so we have to be harder and less open and more just professional. Obviously you have to be professional and respectful, but I think the most success I've had is just being myself and being open. People don't feel comfortable opening up to you and sharing their story if they don't feel like you'll be receiving it well or if they don't feel comfortable around you. So just being open and open-minded and vulnerable, and also not getting discouraged by the losses and trying to focus on the small wins.

The biggest challenge is that it's hard to see that no matter how much you care and how much work you put into it, the justice system is still inherently unfair to people of color and to Indigenous people especially. It's difficult to see that sometimes it is so systemic that no matter how much effort and blood, sweat, and tears you put into your work, someone who has a very wealthy attorney and a lot of money and who's a white male is going to get a much better sentence than someone that is a minority and who does not have the funds to afford a private attorney. But the opportunity in my field is really unique - I get to sit down with my clients and really get to know them. Sometimes you can read an arrest warrant and people can say, oh, they're guilty, what are you doing helping this person. But if you get to know each person on an individual level, everyone has a level of humanity. Maybe they were abused as a child, maybe they have other circumstances - everyone's circumstances lead them to a certain point. It's special for me to have these connections with people that I typically wouldn't or would overlook maybe in my younger life. I used to think things were very black and white, that if you did something you deserved to be punished for it, but there's so many other factors to the legal system, to people, to nature versus nurture. There are just so many factors that people don't get to see on a daily basis.

Advocacy, inclusion, equality, justice, kindness, and respect are the values most important to me. Being approachable is crucial so people feel comfortable opening up to you, and I believe in being approachable by being vulnerable yourself. No one's going to open up to you if they feel like you're guarded, so I tend to be a bit of an oversharer, but I feel like that makes me approachable and helps me build relationships with people of all different backgrounds. I like to help people wherever they are and find resources for them. For example, there's one woman I'm helping right now who's dealing with immigration issues and domestic violence issues, and she has a language barrier as well. I've kind of taken it upon myself to call her attorneys, call her doctors, set up appointments, just so she can feel more included and safe and feel like she has someone in her corner because she is new to this country. So I would say inclusion, vulnerability, and making sure everyone feels they have an advocate.