Alumni profile: Yeti Agnew
Out of the lab and into life
Waterloo chemistry grad Ella (Yeti) Agnew is not your typical lawyer. With a fresh perspective on practicing estate planning law, Yeti also maintains an active lifestyle outside the office with hobbies including an interest in museums and art galleries, marathon running and skiing.
With a true zest for life, Yeti credits the University of Waterloo for inspiring her to be a multi-faceted person.
The great thing about Waterloo is that it teaches you that you can have more than one dimension,” she says. “I learned so much by being involved in extra-curricular activities as a student and that has made all the difference in my life.
While working on her Co-op Chemistry degree, Yeti encountered obstacles in finding work in the field of science. “Back in those days, women were openly discriminated against in science,” she says. “I was told in one interview that I could not be hired because men would not take direction from a woman.”
Yeti decided to pursue alternative career avenues and a Co-op Co-ordinator, whom she met through extra-curricular activities, encouraged her to write the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Yeti scored very high and after completing her 3A term at Waterloo, went to law school at the University of Toronto. After finishing law school, and then completing her BSc from Waterloo, she became a lawyer on Bay Street, where some of Toronto’s most elite law firms are located.
Even though Yeti was gaining a lot of valuable experience, she felt like something was missing.
Bay Street law is very much focused on transactions and files and not the clients,” she says. “I felt like there had to be something out there that was a better fit for me.
It was only when she attended a conference in Vermont that Yeti felt like she had found her true calling.
I attended a meeting of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers,” she says. “At the networking event many of the lawyers talked about how they were trying to practice law differently, and I realized I had finally found ‘my tribe.’
After the conference Yeti decided to put her own twist on holistic law. Her firm—Yeti Law—is inspired by the Himalayan landscape and offers “legal sherpas” for clients. Yeti also happens to be the French name for the abominable snowman of the Himalayas.
Sherpas are the local guides of Nepal who know the terrain of the Himalayas and assist climbers in conquering the challenges before them and attaining their goals.
This is not unlike clients who arrive in a foreign legal landscape and need a guide who knows legal terrain,” Yeti says. “Legal sherpas are there to help make the client’s journey successful and easier.
Yeti also believes in looking at the client as a whole person. “It is important to find a lawyer who listens with their heart, and looks at the essence of the person, not just the problem that is presented by the client” she says.
Even with a busy career, Yeti still stays connected to her alma mater. She has served on the National Alumni Council and the Board of Governors, and in 2007 Yeti was named one of the Faculty of Science’s 50 Alumni of Honour. Yeti also now hosts the Faculty of Science’s annual ski day at Osler Bluff Ski Club, a private ski club near Collingwood, Ontario.
Osler Bluff Ski Club holds very fond memories for Yeti.
When my family immigrated to Canada when I was five, I was so impressed with all the snow,” she says. “And I was fascinated with my mother’s ski boots from Europe. I determined at that age that I wanted to learn how to ski. So, years later, I joined the ski patrol at Osler Bluff Ski Club and learned to ski ‘on the job’ before becoming a member of the Club.
Despite taking a career path that has veered away from science, Yeti still believes her chemistry degree prepared her well for the future.
Having a science background makes you an educated citizen.
