As a teenager, Lidiya Yermakova faced a life-defining choice: leverage years of intensive training as a tennis player and take a crack at going pro, or leave it all behind and go to university in the hopes of getting into law school.
“It was a big decision,” she says. Yermakova had been playing since she was a toddler growing up in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih. (Both her dad and her older brother were also serious tennis players.) “But ultimately, I really wanted to be in court.” And here she is now, an Osgoode Hall alum nearly two years into her health-law practice at Lerners LLP.
Though she chose a career in law, Yermakova has not let go of tennis. “After my undergrad, I took a break,” she says. “I probably didn’t play at all for four months. But I missed the competition.” So she picked it up again during law school, even getting named a York University all-star. And she still plays about once a week. “I have a lot of competitive drive. And that’s the same reason I like litigation: it takes hours of prep to be able to stand up and feel good about the argument you’re making. It takes a lot of work, but the days I get to do that are the greatest.”
Lidiya Yermakova
Lerners LLP
This story is from our Spring 2016 issue.
Photography by Daniel Ehrenworth. Hair and makeup by Shelbie Vermette.