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By David Karp
Fielding. Photo: Rob Kruyt Alex Fielding has long been interested in human rights, but it was in law school that he realized the potential of law to affect change.
Fielding graduates with his law degree this month, which he hopes to use to fight human rights injustices. He’s following in the footsteps of his father, Alan Fielding, a retired lawyer who heads Sahakarini Inter-World Education and Development Association. The organization has projects aimed at providing health care, education and microcredit in poor countries.
“Growing up, we were involved in different development organizations and charities,” Fielding says. “It instilled in us a sense of social justice.”
After earning a bachelor’s in music and political science, Fielding went to London to work on a campaign for Amnesty International. But after a year with Amnesty, he found that advocacy work can only get you so far.
“I found it’s ultimately frustrating because there’s nothing binding. With the legal side of it, you can actually take governments to court,” Fielding says. “I think my skills are best used in a courtroom setting, because I think that decision has more weight than just leaning across the table and trying to convince a government or company to change their practices.”
As he set his sights on law school, Fielding knew he wanted to attend UVic.
“I only applied to one law school,” he says. “There was no other choice. I told myself, ‘If I don’t get into UVic law, I’ll just try again next year.’”
It was the collegial atmosphere that attracted Fielding to UVic, who was turned off by the competitive nature of other law schools.
“We’d get together and do outlines together and study together—really help each other get through it,” he says. “As a result, it’s created a long-lasting bond that will last far beyond law school.”
Attending UVic worked out well for Fielding. He headed up the university’s International and Human Rights Law Association for a year, organizing a conference on civil liberties and bringing in speakers, such as the lawyer of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr. And he won the David Roberts Prize in Legal Writing for a paper on Constitutional law and freedom of religion.
Now, Fielding is articling with the Vancouver office of Stikeman Elliott LLP, learning the ropes of commercial law. He’d eventually love to work abroad again as a lawyer with the International Criminal Court or the United Nations.
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