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CCCA_V6No2_Profiles-FIN_CCCA_V1No1_Profile-FIN.qxd 5/23/12 11:53 PM Page 22 Profile Leaps of faith How Canadian Western Bank’s general counsel built a stellar career — one bold move at a time. T here was a time when Gail Harding recalls.“During that time,Alberta approved Only six weeks into the first semester, might have questioned why she’d in Calgary went from listing about one ever gone into law. a junior capital pool.The stock exchange the self-described “big city girl” realized teaching wasn’t for her. Recalling an ear- She was articling for an Edmonton firm company a month to almost one a day. It lier aptitude test suggesting law as a possi- in 1984-85 when she was told she would- was exploding.” ble profession,Harding signed up to write n’t be hired because there was no work in She was also making connections and the LSAT and was back at the U of A the what was then Alberta’s battered economy. caught wind that the stock exchange might next fall. “I was in a bit of a pickle,”says Harding, hire a lawyer. Harding called, had an infor- It was ingenuity and initiative that led who had earned two post-secondary mal interview and moved to Calgary to Harding to Calgary and what she recalls degrees and was saddled with student become the exchange’s legal counsel. as a “phenomenal” time at the Alberta loans and few prospects for work in her She has since made a career of exciting Stock Exchange. Still in her twenties, she new field. jobs — roles that demanded a willingness learned on the fly and represented Alberta She had quit her job as a high school to take “leaps of faith” when opportunities at national meetings with her peers from teacher to attend law school, but her arti- came her way. the other stock exchanges in Toronto, cles coincided with the tail end of the Today, she’s senior vice-president, gen- Vancouver and Montreal. National Energy Program when foreclo- eral counsel and corporate secretary for “I had opportunities most people don’t sures were the only big business in the Canadian Western Bank. get in that age group,” she says.“It was an Wild Rose province. Peers call her a role model and a lawyer insanely busy four years. We moved It was also a time when virtually all who contributes greatly to the bank’s legal through different phases… the last one graduates articled and went straight into a and business side, to her profession and the where I spent a huge amount of my time law firm.With no one hiring, a desperate broader community, all while raising two dealing with scams rather than trying to Harding got creative. She leafed through daughters with her husband in Calgary. help build companies.” the legal directory and wrote a letter to Harding calls her experiences an example With little opportunity to advance and every lawyer in Edmonton and Calgary of how legal training provides a foundation some law firms hiring again, Harding who didn’t work at a law firm. for lawyers who are willing to look at chal- turned to private practice in 1990 at what One letter landed with the Alberta lenges they might never have considered. is now Fraser, Milner, Casgrain LLP in Securities Commission chair who had just The Edmonton native’s first work expe- Calgary. Again, she found herself stepping lost his executive assistant, a position that rience began in the classroom, however, into a changing landscape, where firms had traditionally been filled by a lawyer. when she earned her education degree were shifting from provincial operations to The legal department had no openings, from the University of Alberta in 1980. multiple-office national law firms. but he offered her the job of assistant as a Bilingual, she found a job teaching senior “I didn’t leave that firm for 14 years, but “stepping stone” to learn the industry. high school French and social studies in a I think I went through six sets of business “I was there for 14 months,” Harding small community. cards because we kept merging,” says 22 CCCA Canadian Corporate Counsel Association SUMMER 2012