In the coming decade, technology and globalization will continue to reshape society — and the practice of law.
That’s why Bond University in Australia has designed an innovative curriculum that, at its root, equips law students with the skills they need to meet the challenge. Meet two Bond grads who returned to Canada to build legal careers that are as innovative as the school that trained them.
The techie
Yovan Grulovic
Bond Class: 2010
Yovan Grulovic has a near-constant thirst for innovation. Case in point: two years after graduating from law school at Bond University, on Australia’s Gold Coast, he co-founded a tech startup. The company, GoFidel, built an app that allowed consumers to monitor all their loyalty-reward programs in one place. Grulovic also acted as the general counsel: he secured the intellectual-property rights and the software-license agreements. These days, he works in-house at the Globe & Mail in Toronto, where he helps the newspaper licence and implement new technology.
How did Grulovic build such a great career? It all started at Bond. As a student in Australia, he picked up practical legal skills, such as legal research and drafting, that he still uses today. And, upon graduation, his international degree helped him land a job as in-house counsel at a Toronto-based global software company. “In an increasingly international world,” he says, “my company wanted someone with international experience.”
Grulovic is one of many Bond grads who completed his degree in two years. This is possible because the school runs 12 months a year. “If you can get through such an intense workload, you’re prepared for life as a lawyer.” For Grulovic, who grew up in Mississauga, Bond was no second choice. “I saw it as an adventure and a chance to add international experience to my resumé.”
The high-flier
Ashleigh Tomlinson
Bond Class: 2012
Eight years ago, Ashleigh Tomlinson made a big decision. She took a leave of absence from her job as a flight attendant with Air Canada and went to law school at Bond University in Australia. Since graduating, she has built a career that merges her experience in the airline industry with her newfound legal skills.
Her post-Bond resumé includes a stint as an aviation-safety consultant at an agency within the United Nations. After doing that job for a year, she landed at Rohmer & Fenn, a Richmond Hill-based law firm that specializes in, among other things, aviation law.
It’s a dream job, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Bond. The law school’s practical approach to teaching, coupled with its small class sizes, equipped her with the skills that allowed her to thrive in her early years of practice. “In class, we would go over real-life legal scenarios,” says Tomlinson. “To see what the application of law really looks like was invaluable. I learned what really mattered.”
As a student, she also fell in love with the school’s state-of-the-art facilities. “The campus is pristine and new,” she says. “None of the computers are outdated and the buildings feel like a place you should be learning in.”
And the view from campus were stunning, which made the occasional all-nighters bearable. “It’s easier to shrug off stress when you have a beautiful view waiting for you right outside your window.”
Game transformer
At Bond University in Australia, law students receive the tools they need to launch innovative careers after graduation.
Innovation in law is more important than ever. That’s why Bond University in Australia wants to give its law students an advantage by offering them the opportunity to complete the university’s Transformer Program.
Students who take this elective work on an ambitious project of their choosing. That could involve developing a business plan for an access-to-justice practice or designing software to streamline a field of law. As students progress, Bond connects them to experts, from venture capitalists to industry leaders. “This is an unparalleled opportunity,” says associate professor Kathy Atkins, an associate dean at Bond. “We want our students to drive change in the legal profession.”
This content was paid for by Bond University. To find out how Bond can work for you, visit bond.edu.au/lawcanada or call 416-558-5353.
This story is from our 10th anniversary issue, published in Fall 2017.