Name of my host: Susan Pereira    Relationship to me:  My mother 

The Interview:  

1. What is her job title? “Federal Crown Council.” 
2. What isherjob description? She supervises lawyers who conduct prosecutions on behalf of the Government of Canada.  In other words, she supervises prosecutors. 
3. What are the duties and/or tasks she performs at her job? She reviews charge approvals from prosecuting agents, determines sentencing positions, guides in trial preparation, provides legal advice, liaises with police agencies, and reviews appeal memos. 
4. What qualifications does she have for this job in the following areas: 
5. a) training? She articled with an experienced lawyer and got trained by the department. 
6. b) education? She went to UBC law school, got a B.A. at BYU, and does 12 hours of continuing legal education per year. 
7. c) experience? She worked 12 years as a prosecutor before doing supervision. 
8. d) skills and attributes (personal qualities)? She is intelligent, is a good debater, has good ethics, and has great analytical  
9. What are some of the things she likes about the job? She feels that her job is important; it is important for positions like hers to make sure the legal system is functioning and fair.  To her, the law is interesting.  Analyzing cases is mentally stimulating and is very rewarding. 
10. What are some of the things she dislikes about this job?  Legal decisions can be frustrating, and sometimes as part of her job, she needs to clean up after the mistakes made by her agents that could have been avoided had they consulted her first. 
11. How does she anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years or so?  Changes with the legislation will cause focus on different areas of prosecution.  For example, ten years ago, there were a lot of marijuana prosecutions to deal with, but now there are a lot more cases involving fentanyl and a lot less dealing with marijuana because it is now legal. 

Student Reflection: 

I would like this job because you do problem solving in it.  Every case you get is like a puzzle.  The prosecutors need to figure out how they can prove the accused is guilty and you get to help them in their problem solving.  In my Mom’s job she doesn’t have the stress of having to go to court and speak to the judges, since she is supervising the people who do that, but she still gets to review the cases and provide feedback.  The second reason I like this job is because it is done on behalf of the government instead of a law firm.  In a law firm you must sell yourself in order to get clients, here your work is not a business but instead a form of justice.  The third reason I like this job is because it allows you to work from home if you need to, since my mother is on her computer most of the time reviewing files and replying to important emails, she can work comfortably from home on at least one out of her four working days. 

I wouldn’t like having this job because in it you are relying on another person to do well in their case.  As a supervisor you can’t go to court for your agents, so sometimes if they don’t consult you before going to court you only hear about the avoidable mistakes they make after the fact.  That would become really frustrating because of the lack of control you have.  If they mess up a guilty criminal could be released back into society.  The second reason I wouldn’t like having this job is because sometimes cases can be upsetting.  Although the cases my mom gets are all drug related cases, some of them can still be disturbing and gruesome.  If I had to read about incidences of people using needles to inject themselves with illegal substances daily, I would be very upset.  The third reason I wouldn’t like the job would be because of the long hours spent reading emails on a computer screen.  Although the information in those emails may be interesting, I don’t think I could handle sitting and reading at a computer from nine to five. 

I never considered myself doing supervision for prosecution because the supervision aspect isn’t for me, I’d much rather be going to court instead of sitting in an office hearing about it, but that could change as I get older.  The prosecuting supervisors are usually prosecutors before they become supervisors so it’s possible that if I did pursue prosecution, I could find myself in the same position as my mom a couple decades down the road. 

Take your kid to work day opened my eyes to the possibility of going into law like my mom, although I also understand that it takes a lot of work to get there.  Before you can even go to law school you need to have a bachelor’s degree, which takes about four years to get.  That really got me thinking about how much work and learning it takes before you can go into your career field of choice.  Almost every field requires for you to get some sort of a degree before you can work there, which takes a lot of effort, but I think it pays off when it can help land you in a job that you really enjoy.  All I can hope for myself in the future is that I can find something I enjoy as much as my mother enjoys law, because in my eyes that is the key to having a successful life after you graduate from high school.