Top Twelve Under Twelve

As part of a continuing feature, the QJIL profiles young lawyers in its series, Top twelve under twelve.

Ysabel Normand sits at the 34th floor conference room table adjactent to the lobby of Lortie Hardy Bergeron LLP in downtown Montreal. At 11 years old, her feet do not quite reach the ground from her seat, yet this does not stop the wunderkind from aspiring to the highest ranks of Montreal's corporate law pyramid.

The youngest-ever head of Lortie's Mergers & Acquisitions department sighs when I ask her whether her age has been a handicap. "People always ask me that. I'm always, like, no."

Unlike in other Canadian provinces and U.S. states, an undergraduate degree is not necessary to qualify for law school in Quebec. Normand skipped two grades at age 7, took her high school exams at age 9, and finished two years of CEGEP (a Quebec junior college) in six months. She then started law school at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Her first summer internship with Lortie was so successful that they named her head of the M&A department, even though she is not expected to pass the Bar for another two years. "I'm glad they shortened Bar school to 4 months," said Lortie. "If they didn't do that, I couldn't pass my exams until I was, like, 16. I'd be driving a car and I wouldn't even be a lawyer yet. That would be stupid."

Normand always felt she was destined for the legal fast track. "Other kids in school liked the Jonas brothers, but I thought they were dumb. I liked books better, like the Quebec Civil Code." But she prefers the Canada Business Corporations Act, because "it's shorter."

Normand is comfortable climbing the corporate ladder. "When we had our first M&A roundtable meeting, they were all like, they couldn't figure out how to unwind an income trust structure before the new tax provisions came into effect in 2010, and I was like, "duh". So I drew them a picture, and they were all like, "oh yeah"."

The high-flying preteen is acutely aware of the need to break barriers. "It's hard for girls to get to the top of a law firm. They think that you can't be a good lawyer because you can't throw as far as they can, or you like horse-riding instead of hockey. And it's harder for me, too, because I have to be in bed by 9. But that's ok, because I'm awake and I can start work at 6:30 in the morning, but the old people don't come in until 9:30 or ten because they've been up all night, smoking or whatever."

She has little problem going to law school and working at the same time. "Law school is really easy. It's all like, "a judge said this" or "a judge said that". I had to learn algebra to pass high school, and that's way harder."

Mergers and acquisitions work doesn't daunt the eleven-year-old, either. "Anybody can write a due diligence report. I got my brother to do one for me once, and he's eight. If you can write a diary, you can write a due diligence report. They're sort of the same thing."

But she does admit that she sometimes finds the long hours and stress difficult to cope with. "I don't know if I'll always be a lawyer," says Normand. "Maybe when I grow up, I'll be an astronaut, or a horse-jumper."