Carrie Vanderveen was looking for a career that would combine her two interests in political studies and business. Then she went to law school and took a course in international trade and discovered a path to do just that.
Today Carrie Vanderveen (’00) works at the Government of Canada’s Trade Law Bureau. As legal counsel for Global Affairs Canada, a government department, Carrie and her colleagues provide legal advice to the federal government and to government agencies with respect to Canada’s international trade obligations.
An intellectually challenging career
“It's very engaging work,” Carrie shares, “I really enjoy how it’s intellectually challenging. It has its political aspects as well that are both interesting and challenging.”
Carrie’s team provides advice and conducts litigation where Canada is directly involved, for example, in the context of free trade or investment agreements that contain government obligations. This includes negotiations and dispute hearings at the World Trade Organization, as well as cases where Canada is challenged by individual investors.
“I really enjoy how it’s intellectually challenging...I get to work with quite a large team of other experts in the field and that helps build my own knowledge and skills."
Carrie illustrates, “We provide support to trade officials when they are negotiating free trade agreements or investment treaties. This includes more traditional areas like market access for goods and services, and also more novel areas like state-owned enterprises and the environment.”
Collaboration among colleagues
Cases that Carrie has worked on that have received public attention include the ongoing softwood lumber dispute between Canada and the U.S., which addresses subsidies to Canada’s forestry industry and U.S. disciplines on those subsidies; and the aircraft dispute between Canada and Brazil, in which Brazil alleged that Canada had provided subsidies to Bombardier for the production of the CSeries jet.
Given the complexities of her work, Carrie is grateful for the collaboration among her colleagues. “I get to work with quite a large team of other experts in the field and that helps build my own knowledge and skills. It’s great to have people with similarly nerdy interests and expertise. There are many great colleagues within this bureau of about 70 people,” she said.
From TWU to a career in international trade law
Speaking of how she arrived at her career focus, Carrie thinks back to her time at TWU, where she was a history major and business minor. “I was always looking for a career that would combine my two interests in political studies and business. I didn’t want to have to choose.” Upon entering law school at Dalhousie University, Carrie took a course in international trade and was thrilled to discover that she could pursue political studies and business in tandem.
Around this time, a professor who believed in Carrie connected her with some interesting opportunities in the area of international trade law and was an advocate for Carrie during the early years of her profession. Carrie completed an LLM at the University of Toronto and an internship at the World Trade Organization, before entering a career with the Canadian government.
“Time spent in research certainly has served me well. In my current field, we do a lot of research, and a lot of writing.”
Carrie values her TWU journey for the process of developing her interests. While many people may enter university with a general idea of what they might enjoy, by taking a variety of courses and exploring a variety of subjects, students can further develop their interests and determine what they most love.
Carrie went through a similar process of discovery at TWU, while also developing research and writing skills. Remembering the many papers she wrote during university, Carrie says, “Time spent in research certainly has served me well. In my current field, we do a lot of research, and a lot of writing.”
Encouragement to future students
For many students, the time at university is just the beginning of their career journey. To take advantage of these years, Carrie encourages students to meet their professors. “They have interesting backgrounds, unique experiences and good advice that can spark ideas for your own life or career and be a resource to rely on,” she said. To this, she added an encouragement to explore, “Develop your interests and keep an open mind. It’s surprising how opportunities come. God has been leading me on a path and using other people to open doors that I wouldn’t have been able to open myself.”
See also — TWU students studying business law and public policy visit the Parliament and Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa
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Photo by Kyle Glen on Unsplash.
The views expressed by students and alumni are their own. They do not necessarily represent the views of Trinity Western University or of any other companies, groups or organizations named.