The Questions That Keep Law Interesting

I became a lawyer almost by accident.

While I was studying history at Mount Allison University, a friend asked me to help her prepare for the LSAT. I was already doing the work alongside her, so I decided I might as well write it too.

I did well. When I told my father, he said he had always thought law would suit me because I liked to argue.

He wasn’t wrong, exactly. But argument is only a small part of what has kept me interested in the law for more than two decades.

The larger part is curiosity.

Curiosity With Consequences

I was drawn to history because I wanted to understand how things happened and why. By the time I finished my honours thesis, though, I was ready to apply that curiosity to problems with more immediate consequences. That led me to law school at the University of New Brunswick.

And so today when a client brings me a problem, my instinct is to keep asking questions until I understand what is really happening. Why doesn’t this make sense? What is the underlying issue? What options does the client have, and what would each one mean in practical terms?

The most rewarding work often involves individuals and local businesses. Their legal issues are not abstract. A workplace dispute, a difficult employment decision or a civil claim can affect someone’s livelihood, business and family.

Good legal advice begins with understanding the law, but it cannot end there. Clients also need to understand their choices, the risks involved and what a sensible path forward might look like.

That practical quality is one reason I am focusing more deliberately on employment law. I trained in the area early in my career, working under exceptional litigators. It has remained part of my practice alongside civil, appellate and administrative work.

Employment law brings legal principles directly into the workplace. It requires analysis, judgment and an understanding of how organizations and people actually function.

Learning By Teaching

Curiosity became especially important when I taught administrative law at the University of New Brunswick’s Faculty of Law in 2020 and 2021.

What surprised me was how much I learned from the students. I did not want to lecture for hours. I wanted conversations and discussions. Students would sometimes ask a question I could not answer fully. I would go away, look more closely and return with a better answer.

That back-and-forth reinforced something the practice of law continues to teach me: experience matters, but it should never make you complacent. There is always another question to ask and often another way to look at the answer.

Preparation and Performance

Outside the office, much of my life has involved singing and theatre. I sang in choirs growing up and at Mount Allison and have performed with Saint John Theatre Company, KV Players and Opera New Brunswick.

There is a connection between performance and practising law. Neither is about simply standing up and speaking. B
oth depend on preparation, understanding your material, listening closely and communicating clearly when the moment arrives.

Music also played an unexpected role in bringing me to Lawson Creamer. I knew founding partner Gary Lawson because his daughter and I had sung in the same choir.

During law school, there were many options, but none quite felt right. I called Gary and asked whether the firm might take me on for the summer.

That was in 2001. I completed my articles here, joined the firm after my call to the bar in 2003 and became a partner in 2018.

It was the best professional decision I could have made.

Lawson Creamer has always had exceptional lawyers, but it has also had exceptional people. The culture fit me from the beginning – collegial, community-minded and serious about doing good work without taking itself too seriously.

I may have arrived at law almost accidentally. What has kept me here is much clearer: interesting questions, work that matters to people and a firm and community that have always felt like home.

Matthew Letson is a partner at Lawson Creamer, practising employment law and civil litigation. He can be reached at mletson@lawsoncreamer.com.