Law Times

PAGE 12 FOCUS June 22, 2009 • Law Times 'Many wonderful moments with students' Continued from page 8 Looking back over his career, Bala says family law has experi- enced "dramatic and profound change." He notes that in the contracts courses, "half the cas- es that I teach in 2009 are ones that I studied in 1974. In fam- ily law there's virtually nothing that I studied as a student that I would look at today." He says "one of the realities is that both in the academy and in the profession, family lawyers, family judges, and I should say even family scholars, are some- times viewed as being at the bot- tom of the professional pyramid. I think that's very unfortunate, but it is sometimes a perception. . . . Nevertheless I think it's an area of huge social importance." Bala says "the family lawyers and judges, the mental health professionals and probation offi- cers are tremendously dedicated, skilled, knowledgeable, sophisti- cated people." The professor has "respect for people who practise law, and as I indicated I think [through] much of my research and some of the continuing edu- cation, I've probably come into contact with lawyers and judges more than many of my colleagues in the academy, and I treasure that. But I also very much enjoy being a law professor." He notes that some would imagine, "This is great, you have four months off," but the reality is that law professors as a group "certainly work hard," and some may "underestimate how much time and energy goes into class preparation, individual meeting of the students, doing research. But it is also a great privilege to be a professor and I appreciate that." He says it's also neat to see for- mer students achieve success. In fact, one of his "great- est pleasures is going to alumni events and meeting people who were my students five, or 10, or 20, 25 years ago and hearing about what they have done," he says. "Some of them are very suc- cessful lawyers, some of them are members of the bench. I remem- ber how thrilled I was when I read the first judgment written by one of my students. And people are very generous and say, 'Oh, I remember you as a professor, and you were such a big influence.'" Bala says while he was interest- ed in family law even as a student, he also had his eye on young of- fenders. He sees it as a "very im- portant area of law, and it's social- ly important. There certainly are other people writing in the area, I don't want to say I'm the only one, but it's an area that is under- represented in the academy." He also works as a volunteer with young offenders in Kings- ton, Ont., where he lives. Bala enjoys teaching first- year contract students. "And in some ways without wishing to be drawing invidious comparison between students, I find the stu- dents in first year are particularly enthusiastic, open, engaged, and willing to engage in class discus- sion in a way that sometimes one doesn't find in upper years." But he quickly adds "one of the nice things about family law is that it is actually an area where it's relatively easy even in upper years to get people to engage because everybody has experiences and views about family law cases." He says one of the big chang- es he's noticed in law schools in general is that "students are more professionally focused now than they were in the past . . . It is certainly a more intense experience now being a law stu- dent than it was 35 years ago." Bala says he's had "many won- derful moments with students." Meanwhile, Bala has been married to his wife Martha, for 29 years. They have four chil- dren: Emily, Katie, Andrew, and Elizabeth, aged 13 to 23. And, despite a busy work schedule, Bala has time to spend with his family and pursue various athletics including soccer, hockey and cross- country skiing. "I really enjoy getting outside. One of the nice things about be- ing a professor, although I feel I work pretty hard, I know I have a lot more control over my time, so if it's sunny outside at noon I'm going to go out and jog or play soccer in a way that if even if I was a judge I wouldn't have that freedom," he says. Bala's wife, a family doctor who taught in the Queen's family medicine department, has recent- ly retired, but it doesn't sound like he's joining her any time soon. "Why am I still working? I love what I do and you know one of the things I think, and this is why it's been such a great privi- lege, is that it's both responsible work, but it's a very generalized kind of responsibility." LT Big changes family law over the past three decades than Queen's University law professor Nicholas Bala. So Law Times put the ques- tion to him. And Bala, who teaches in the areas of family, children's, and contract law, didn't hesitate with an answer: the definition of the family. "Because the issues in this T Compensation and Duties of Estate Trustees, Guardians and Attorneys Jennifer J. Jenkins and H. Mark Scott Inside you'll find important rules for calculating compensation and you'll gain access to sample accounts as well as precedents and analysis that help you to understand the law. Looseleaf & binder • $165 • Releases invoiced separately (1-2/yr) P/C 0142030000 • ISBN 0-88804-435-6 caseAlert – Wills, Estates & Trusts An easy-to-use electronic service that keeps you up-to- date with the latest decisions in wills, estates and trusts law. Each month subscribers receive an e-mail bulletin summarizing recent court decisions in the wills, estates and trusts law area. 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Perfectbound • 504 pp. • Published July each year Standing order $57 • P/C 0956140000 Current edition only $67 • P/C 0956010000 • ISSN 1481-3637 area profoundly affect people's lives, there is a continuing so- cial and political interest," says Bala. "One of the changes that we've seen in the last 35 years is enormous change in the defini- tion of the family, what are sig- nificant familial relationships." Bala, 57, says when he went to law school, those unmar- ried and cohabitating "didn't have any rights at all." Now, there's also same-sex marriage, the rights and responsibilities of step-parents, issues around the definition of family in terms of artificial technology and repro- duction, and most recently the controversy about polygamy. "So the change in the defini- tion of family is a huge issue," says Bala. He identifies another change in "the recognition of the im- portance of gender equality, and resulting changes to our property and support laws." Bala says other changes have happened in the area of "family law dispute resolution, recogniz- ing the importance of trying to resolve cases outside of the formal court system, collaborative family law, mediation, and arbitration. "Recognition of the need to have a range of responses to family law cases; most can be settled but some cases are high conflict and require judicial in- volvement, and some involve domestic violence and require special and different processes." Bala adds that, "We need dif- For a 30-day, no-risk evaluation call: 1 800 263 2037 or 1 800 263 3269 www.canadalawbook.ca CA044 Canada Law Book is A Division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. • Prices subject to change without notice, to applicable taxes and shipping and handling. www.lawtimesnews.com CA044 (LT 1-2x4).indd 1 LT0622 ferent forms of dispute resolu- tion for different kinds of cases; even in regard to domestic vio- lence, we need to recognize that it is important but it's not just one phenomena it's a range of related phenomenas. You can't have a simplistic monolithic analyses of family cases. You have to recog- nize the variety of cases and have a range of responses." LT 6/17/09 11:12:18 AM here's no one better to ask about the most significant changes in Estates A Pow ers of Attorne ct Health Car y A e Consent ct Personal Health A ct, 1 996 Inf ormation Protection A ct, 2004

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• Review Process
• A Criminal Mind
• Focus On Family Law