Duane Hicks
The Fort Frances area has a new lawyer now that Nicole Miller has joined Clint Calder at Calder Law Office here.
The 37-year-old, who originally hails from Couchiching First Nation, moved back to the area last month, along with her husband, Craig, and daughters, Piper, seven, Davilyn, five, and Quinn, three.
Calder is excited to have Miller on board as her services are badly-needed here.
“The practice here is quite busy and it has been for the last few years,” he remarked. “There’s lot of work to do and I don’t have time to do it.
“Having the extra help is a bit of a relief.”
Miller said she is practising in the areas of family law, wills and estates, and real estate law, adding that especially in the area of family law, there is not a lot of options for clients.
“I was appalled to hear a lot of them are referred to Thunder Bay,” she noted. “I think that does such a disservice for them.
“I do think there is a need in the area for family law.”
“We don’t have many lawyers practising family law in Fort Frances,” echoed Calder. “We get calls all the time and we refer usually to out-of-town lawyers.
“So having Nicole, who has an expertise in family law, is very exciting, as well, for the town.
“Clients will have more opportunity to be served locally, and save time and money not having to [go to] Thunder Bay and those kinds of things,” he reasoned.
“That’s very positive.”
Calder said Miller also proves that it’s not impossible to get young professionals, particularly lawyers, to come here.
He noted that in recent years, the concern about the “greying of the bar” here has grown. And many lawyers are looking to retire in the next five years or so, which will create an even greater need for legal services in the area.
This problem is compounded by the lack of a resident judge here, which makes it harder to attract new lawyers.
“I view this as a great opportunity for the town,” said Calder.
“We’ve got lots of bad news, particularly in the past year, but I view this as a positive.
“We have an experienced young lawyer moving back to her hometown to develop a practice,” he noted. “And it’s hard to attract young lawyers to this town for the reasons I just mentioned.”
Miller received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba in 1998 and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Manitoba Law School in 2001.
She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2003 and the Manitoba Bar in 2004.
Miller said that while she taking her undergrad at U of M, she applied for both the RCMP as well as law school.
“Whichever one I received first, I would take,” she recalled. “And I received my law school acceptance first.
“Originally, when I had set out, I had wanted to work with children,” Miller added. “But when you’re in law school, you’re not sure how you’re going to get there.
“What I ended up doing was primarily family-type work, and I really focused my practice on what we call collaborative law—more settlements, negotiating, mediation, stuff like that because I think that’s more beneficial for all the parties, including the children that are involved.
“It didn’t really answer my calling for helping kids, but I’ve enjoyed it,” Miller said.
“I’ve been primarily doing family law for 10 years now.”
Miller, who spent the last seven years working at Steinbach-based firm Smith Neufeld Jodoin LLP, decided to move back here to practice in order to be close to her parents, Murray and Sharon Strachan, and the rest of her family.
“Life is very busy and it’s very hard when you don’t have family support,” she remarked.
“So my husband and I—he’s actually from Nova Scotia and there was no question we would not be moving there—we had talked in the last couple years about perhaps moving back to [this] area.
“The biggest roadblock was always something for him—he’s an engineer and there’s not a whole lot of work in the area for engineers,” Miller explained.
“And then he found an online ad for Resolute so he’s joined their engineering department.
“So the talk turned into action.”
Miller said it was easy to come home and visit when her children were younger. But as soon as they started school and got into other activities, she would find they only made it here every three-six months.
“Even just little things, like attending their Christmas concerts,” she noted. “We were the only ones in the audience for them.
“Their grandparents aren’t there, their aunts aren’t there.”
Calder had gotten wind that Miller was thinking of moving back and they met this past summer, at which time Calder invited her aboard. Miller started at the firm on Monday.
“I’m looking forward to being back, and having my kids have some of the same experiences I did growing up,” said Miller.
“Living in Manitoba, there’s not too much opportunity to be around a lake unless you drive two hours,” she added.
“They’re looking forward to what that will provide for them.
“My oldest has declared that she’s going to learn to waterski this year. We’ll see. . . .”
Miller said she and her family also are looking forward to getting involved in the community in several ways.
“During my career, I’ve always done volunteer work,” she noted. “I’ve done pro bono work with women’s clinics and things like that; that’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing.
“In terms of my family, we’ve always been active in our communities that we’ve lived in,” she continued. “I’ve sat on the pre-school board in our previous community, we billeted for Brandon Wheat Kings when we lived out there.
“We like to be involved. We like to know who the members are in our community; who our kids being influenced by.
“Since we’ve been here, we haven’t had an opportunity to get too involved in anything,” Miller admitted. “But I am expecting that will change.”
Calder also hinted that Calder Law Office is looking to have another new partner come aboard in the near future.
Carrie Atatise-Norwegian, who originally hails from Lac La Croix FN but went away to school in Ottawa, recently has been an articling student there.
“She’s finished her articling,” Calder noted. “She just needs to finish her bar exam and then she’ll be called to the bar.
“If all goes well, by next spring or summer she’ll be our third lawyer.”
