Allison Jandura chosen for Supreme Court of Canada clerkship

The future continues to look bright for recent graduate Allison Jandura, ’21 JD, who will be heading to Ottawa for a one-year clerkship with the Supreme Court of Canada in 2023.

Jandura will complete her clerkship with the Honourable Justice Russell Brown, who was a faculty member at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law until his appointment to the Bench in 2013.

“I got a call about two days after the interviews. When I answered the call, it was Justice Brown on the line,” Jandura said about how she received the news.

Jandura joins a select list of individuals with a connection to the Faculty to be chosen for a clerkship with Canada's highest court.

“I was thrilled and grateful to be selected. Clerking is such a fantastic opportunity to learn from judges and colleagues and engage with interesting and important legal problems,” she said.

With her time in Ottawa beginning next summer, Jandura will complete her current clerkship with the Alberta Court of Appeal as a student-at-law and will finish her articles with McAllister LLP in Edmonton.

This isn’t the first time her hard work has led to high achievement. In her graduating year, Jandura was recognized with the Horace Harvey Gold Medal in Law, an honour given to the individual with the highest academic standing in the JD program, and during her time as a student, she worked as a writing fellow/teaching assistant for the faculty’s Legal Research and Writing Program, and as a research assistant for the Health Law Institute (HLI).

Jandura is also an active volunteer in the Edmonton legal community. She’s currently a case review officer for the Administrative Law section for the Canadian Bar Association, and has previously held volunteer roles for the Alberta Law Review, Runnymede Society, Law Faculty Council, Edmonton Community Legal Centre, Women’s Law Forum and Student Legal Services.

In addition, she has already lent her legal expertise for peer-reviewed publications, including most recently an article she co-authored with the HLI’s Professor Timothy Caulfield and Blake Murdoch, “Reconsenting Pediatric Research Participants for Use of Identifying Data” published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Despite already achieving outstanding success early in her legal career, Jandura said the idea of attending law school didn’t become a serious thought until finishing her Bachelor of Science degree that she received from the University of Alberta (following that degree, she obtained a Master of Science in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto).

“I explored a lot of different career options but I ultimately decided that going to law school would be a great way to combine my variety of interests. I’ve always loved reading and writing and the law is a great place to do both,” she said.

Dean Barbara Billingsley congratulated Jandura on being chosen for the clerkship.

“The Faculty of Law is very proud that Allison has been selected for a coveted Supreme Court of Canada clerkship,” Billingsley said. “Supreme Court clerks experience the inner workings of the Canadian judicial system at its highest level and work closely with the country’s top jurists. It is a learning experience unlike any other. I am very pleased that Allison has been provided with this opportunity and, given all that she accomplished when she was a JD student, I know that she will do a great job.”

Looking to the future, Jandura said she is keeping her options open when it comes to her career in law.

“Right now, I’m leaning towards a career in litigation but I want to keep an open mind. I’m excited to keep learning about the law and gaining new experiences,” she said.