With the closing of the 2023-24 academic year, we welcome a new cohort of graduates to the TRU Law alumni community. We’d like to introduce Law’s newest alum and the class of 2024 valedictorian, Mostafa Elfakhani.

Law 2024 valedictorian Mostafa Elfakhani

Elfakhani is from Beirut, Lebanon. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut with a minor in theatre in 2020. Between his undergraduate degree and beginning at TRU Law, Elfakhani taught improvisational theatre workshops to underprivileged school children in Beirut, aided in cleaning and rebuilding campaigns for areas affected by the 2020 Beirut Port explosion and worked in e-commerce in Dubai, UAE.

Elfakhani was deeply committed to and engaged in the TRU Law community. Elfakhani served as a teaching assistant to Professor Bradford Morse in the Property Law course for first-year law students; represented TRU in the 2024 BC Law Schools Moot as part of the winning team; was a student clinician at the TRU Community Legal Clinic; co-founded the student-run satirical law newspaper, The Gavel; worked with Professor Craig Jones, K.C. on a BC Human Rights Tribunal case alongside a team of students; volunteered with Pro Bono Students Canada by hosting a radio segment on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; co-ordinated a bake sale for humanitarian relief; and was awarded the Dean’s Course Prize in Law and Film.

During the summers after his first and second year of law school, Elfakhani worked at a full-service law firm in Vernon, and at Dolden Wallace Folick LLP in Vancouver, respectively. After graduation, Elfakhani looks forward to returning to Dolden Wallace Folick LLP to begin articling.

Finish the sentence

1. If it weren’t for law school, I wouldn’t be able to force my family to refer to me as a doctor.
2. The thing I’ll miss most about living in Kamloops is Klasske’s. I’ll also miss all the amazing people I met in law school but mostly those delicious donairs.
3. The thing I’ll miss least about law school is having to hear “it depends” everywhere I go.
4. If I had the power to appoint one member of the faculty to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), it would be Chris Hunt, so he can fix Uber v. Heller.
5. What works for others may not work for you sums up some of the best advice I heard during law school.
6. Now that law school is over, I’m looking forward to relaxing on a beach. Just kidding, I have to do PLTC.

Choices

1. Books or Netflix?
   Netflix. Law school ruined casual reading for me.
2. Coffee or tea?
   Coke Zero.
3. Early bird or night owl?
   Night owl all the way. You could never catch me taking a morning class.
4. Cat or dog?
   I’m more of a dog person, but I recently got a cat. Her name is Delilah, and I love her.
5. Skiing or snowboarding?
   Après skis, without the skiing.
   
6. Papers or exams?
   I prefer papers because they give me the illusion that I have all the time in the world to procrastinate, panic and then miraculously churn out something coherent at the last minute.

A recording of Elkafhani’s valedictorian speech can be viewed here.