No Detail Is Too Small: Thamar Abdu

Thamar Abdu of Thamar Bilingual Legal Services Ontario provides legal services in both French and English. After becoming a licensed paralegal in April 2018, Thamar started her practice in May 2018. She focuses on Small Claims Court matters and commercial litigation, such as a contract dispute between two businesses or between a business and an individual, as well as Landlord and Tenant issues. Her true love, though, is anything to do with contracts: going through the terms, finding the defects, examining the details. 

Background

Up until three years ago, Thamar lived and worked in Quebec. She spent many years working in the financial industry before working for the government of Quebec. Both of these jobs played a role in where she has ended up today. 

Her first encounter with the law as an employment opportunity was when she was asked to fill in for a colleague in the legal department of her employer’s company. To her delight, during her training she discovered an aptitude for law, understanding the concepts and aspects quite easily. As she did not have a legal education at the time, it remained a delightful discovery about herself, nothing more.

A few years later, Thamar was working for the Quebec government in a job that required her to know governmental procedure quite well and be very familiar with the law that intersected with her work. When her uncle visited from Ontario, she accompanied him to court on a minor matter, both for moral support and because she was familiar with the structure of a governmental/legal organization. Her uncle, seeing how much she enjoyed the visit to the Quebec courthouse, told her that in Ontario she could go back to school and become a licensed paralegal and provide legal services to the public.

At this point, a yearning for a new challenge had been quietly residing in the back of her mind for some time, specifically a chance to start her own business. But Thamar is not a person who works with her hands and so was not sure what her business would focus on. With no focus or outlet, the desire for her own business remained an idea.  When her uncle told her about the paralegal educational opportunity, her dream came into laser sharp focus. Within a month she had resigned from her job in Quebec and enrolled in a paralegal education program in Ontario. Although it was scary and daunting to leave behind an established life as well as a secure and well-paying job, Thamar was also excited to be setting out on a new challenge, a challenge that she relished. She’s never looked back.

Puzzle Pieces

Thamar loves examining details, investigating terms, searching for information and uncovering facts. Every case is made up of thousands of tiny pieces and she enjoys putting them together to see the big picture. In another life, she might have been an investigator. As a paralegal, her passion for facts and details help her to understand each case fully. She examines every facet of a case thoroughly, looking for anything that might help or hinder her client. Although this level of detail might be daunting to some, Thamar thrives on it. She uses her drive to understand everything to her advantage, to enable her to grasp the situation a client might be facing and examine and present each possible outcome. She never underestimates the value of one detail. Although this passion for detail may cause frustration, it can also have the benefit of finding that one piece of the puzzle that changes the perspective of an entire case.

Although she is still building experience and her practice is young, she doesn’t let her newness stop or intimidate her. She throws her heart and soul into preparing for every case.  All doubts and inexperience can be overcome with preparation and knowledge, she says. When asked how this translates to helping her clients, Thamar says that she is very thorough and outlines all possible outcomes that may arise. Her goal, she says, is not winning per se, but getting the best possible outcome in the circumstances for her client – be that money, an order from the judge or something else entirely.

Wolf Law Chambers

Choosing Wolf Law Chambers as the home for her practice is another decision Thamar has no regrets over. When she first started as a licensed paralegal, she worked out of a home office for a year but found it to be lonely work. She realized she needed to have other professionals around to talk about work, get opinions, brainstorm, get advice or even just to have a quick chat about coffee. Wolf Law Chambers provided this as it is a community of legal professionals. “It feels like a family,” she says. She found that her productivity soared when she was around other professionals and as an added boost, Wolf Law Chambers is more convenient for her practice. There’s a professional space readily available to meet clients, the boardroom, and if a client has problems in other areas of law, there are other legal professionals just outside her door who could help.

One of the benefits from starting her own business that Thamar enjoys is the freedom she’s gained to structure her day. As an early riser, Thamar long ago discovered her most productive hours were early in the morning. Once, those hours were needed to prep to get to the office for 9. Now that she runs her own practice, she can use those hours more effectively and efficiently because she can work from anywhere.

Although starting her own business has been challenging, Thamar focuses on the positive. She took the leap of faith to open her own business and pursue her love of law and details and contracts; what someone else may find tedious, Thamar finds fascinating.

Thamar and her eye for detail is ready to help you with your contract issues.