A Warm Welcome to Trudy Smith, Elgin Cannon’s New Articled Student

We are excited to formally announce that we have welcomed Trudy Taylor Smith into the Elgin Cannon office as an articled student. Trudy has been working with us since October 2021. 

Trudy completed her Juris Doctor at the University of British Columbia in 2021, after earning a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Prior to law school, Trudy spent several years living cross-culturally in Argentina, Thailand, China, and India. She worked in international development and later coordinated a transitional housing and settlement program for refugee claimants, which kindled her interest in refugee law.

Passionate about creating a more welcoming, compassionate, and just world, Trudy has volunteered with Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), Kinbrace Refugee Housing and Support, Pro Bono Students Canada, and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in San Antonio, Texas. She is proficient in Spanish and conversant in Hindi.

Trudy is also interested in the intersection between criminal law and the immigration system, and she is building expertise in helping clients navigate both systems and the complicated ways they often overlap. She spent the first half of her articles with Richard Fowler, Q.C., working on criminal defence cases at the BC Provincial Court, BC Supreme Court, and BC Court of Appeal. 

While in law school, Trudy worked in criminal defence as a summer articled student with two sole practitioners, where she represented numerous clients at bail and sentencing hearings. She also spent a semester as a student clinician at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Outside of work, Trudy can often be found hanging out with friends, hiking with her dog, teaching and practicing yoga, or curling up with a good book. 

We look forward to working with Trudy and mentoring her as she begins her career in immigration law.