How this Bay Street partner became a top constitutional lawyer

Ranjan Agarwal was frustrated. He was a fifth-year associate at Bennett Jones LLP and he wanted to work on a big constitutional case. That was the reason he went to law school in the first place.

But he had a problem: his firm didn’t have a constitutional practice group. Which meant that a case was never going to fall in his lap. “I had no way to master the subject matter,” says Agarwal. “Without experience, I wouldn’t be able to market myself.”

So he decided to be proactive. He signed up for the constitutional law specialization of the Osgoode Professional LLM. And, over the next two years, he completed the rigorous graduate program on a part-time basis.

When Agarwal graduated, in 2011, he had acquired the know-how and the credentials to reach out to both clients and fellow lawyers to let them know he was ready to take on constitutional files. “The LLM gave me the confidence to pick up the phone,” he says. “Over the course of the program, I had also published several papers. That made it easier to demonstrate that I had expertise in the area.” It worked. Now a partner, Agarwal is his firm’s leading lawyer in constitutional law. He’s been to the Supreme Court of Canada 17 times. “The program helped me build the career I have.”