Environmental Law Section Interview Series: Featuring Alexandria Pike

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Issue No. 1 of the Environmental Law Section Interview Series. Our first guest is Alexandria Pike, partner at Davies. Alexandria shared interesting information about her background, interests, career path and perspective regarding the environmental law practice. We thank her for her time and candid responses. Check it out and enjoy the reading. 

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ALEXANDRIA J. PIKE
Partner at Davies

Tell us about your background.

I grew up in the Niagara Peninsula, a beautiful rural area. We had several acres of property at the edge of the Niagara River. I spent most of my playtime outdoors. Hence, I have appreciated the outdoors since the early days. 

A fun fact about yourself.

I backpacked around Asia as a young person by myself for about 5 to 6 months. Travelling alone for that long gave me the independent nature I needed. It gave me a lot of fortitude. I loved it and would go again tomorrow if I got rid of all my responsibilities.

Do you have any hobbies?

Right now, I am part of a group called Toronto Nature Stewards. We are trying to add more support because the City of Toronto cannot look after the issue on its own, removing invasive species from our ravines and Parklands. I lead a group every week that goes out to remove invasive species from a ravine park in the city. Other than that, I do a lot of outdoor activities, and I love to cook for my family on the weekends.

What motivated you to study law?

I have always been interested in social justice issues and environmental issues both. When my friends were leaving undergrad, I watched the jobs that people were taking ahead of me, and I was not very interested in any of them. I picked law because people said it was flexible, that you could do lots of things with it, and I thought that matched my interests, which were varied.

What made you choose a career in environmental law?

I did not start in this area but was interested in it. I did a summer internship at the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) but didn't know people doing this work full-time, so I did not think it could be a career. I started doing litigation and then focused on a smaller subset of litigation, planning law, in front of the Administrative Tribunal and Ontario Municipal Board. When I was doing that, I started to do work regarding contaminated lands. Ontario had just begun to put in place its regime to deal with contaminated lands, and I was very interested in that work. I went to try to do more of that work, and my firm at the time, which gave me wonderful opportunities, said you can build this practice, keep doing what you're doing and build it alongside.

Nevertheless, I am not very patient, so I went into the market to see who was doing this work full-time and found a handful of people who did it full-time. I talked to them and ended up at Davies. They had two people doing it full-time and wanted more support in the group. I did not come in with much expertise in the broad area of environmental law. I only knew about contaminated lands and had to learn a lot. The first few years at the firm were a very steep learning curve. However, I started feeling comfortable within a few years and loved the practice. It is very diverse. I deal with different issues every single day. The knowledge of contaminants is changing, the knowledge of the effects of a contaminant is changing, and the knowledge of what we can and need to do about climate change is changing all the time. I love the variety.