Community scholarships paved the way for Sojourner King to excel in law
May 28, 2021
Meeting Herb Carnegie for the first time left a lasting impression on Sojourner King.
She was one of 25 high school students from across Canada who received Herb Carnegie Future Aces scholarships in May 1998.
“I had read about him before that meeting,” said King who was an honour roll student at Marian Academy. “He didn’t say much, but you could sense he was very kind and compassionate. It was easy for me to see why someone like him could be part of an organization giving back to help young people achieve their goals and dreams.”
Carnegie, who was denied the opportunity to play in the National Hockey League (NHL) because of his skin colour, died in March 2012.
With the aid of that scholarship and Black Business & Professional Association (BBPA) and Jamaica National Overseas/Gleaner Company of North America bursaries and other grants, King was able to complete undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto (U of T) and law studies in the United States.
There was, however, a time when making it to university seemed impossible.
Raised in the Jane & Finch community by a single mom with limited financial means, King researched scholarships and applied for them.
“I knew my mother didn’t have money to send me to university,” she said. “I was also scared of student debut, so I had to find scholarships.”
Cost was also a factor in her choosing to go to U of T.
“I wanted to go to Wilfrid Laurier, but it was outside Toronto and the cost was going to be increased significantly as I couldn’t commute daily,” King pointed out.
The late Herb & Audrey Carnegie presented a Future Aces scholarship to Sojourner King in May 1998 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Coming from elementary and high schools where the majority of students were Black and minority, she was surprised on entering the university’s Scarborough campus.
“I really didn’t enjoy the experience because there were so few people of colour,” said King. “It was a huge cultural shift because I had always gone to school in Black communities.”
In her second year, she accompanied a female classmate – Siobhan Ake resides in Seattle and is Microsoft’s Director of Finance -- to Howard University’s Homecoming festivities.
Situated in Washington, DC, Howard is a historically Black research institution.
“I was so happy I took up that invitation because we had the time of our lives,” recalled King. “Having never gone to a Black university before, that experience was so unique.”
On their return, Ake convinced King that they had to attend Howard.
It was the only American university she applied to go to law school and was accepted.
“I was also accepted by the University of Windsor and York University,” King said. “I was ecstatic because I really wanted to be educated in a place where Black people are educating me. After what I went through at U of T, I was craving for that experience.”
With support from American Education Services that serviced private student loans through the Federal Family Education Loan program that was discontinued in 2010, she entered Howard University School of Law in 2002.
“As long you as you had Canadian credit, you got approval and got money to school,” King said. “Going to Howard was the best experience I ever had in my life. I had Black professors and I made lifelong friends.”
After graduating in 2005, she spent a few months in Amtrak’s legal department before joining Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP in the Greater New York City area as a Litigation Association.
King was the only Black lawyer.
In that role, she represented major insurers and private companies in premises and products liability, construction, property damage, mass tort and insurance coverage matters, drafted pleadings and negotiated settlements among other things.
At the start of 2008, King moved to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.
As an E-Discovery Attorney/Co-ordinator, she was responsible for implementing electric discovery strategies for the Securities Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, patent infringement cases, health care litigations, insurance class actions and other complex commercial litigations.
Seyfarth Shaw was King’s next employer in February 2012 as an E-Discovery & Information Governance Attorney.
“Their E-Discovery practice was very forward thinking,” said the civil litigator who was called to the New York Bar in 2008. “I worked with some of the best in the field.”
A year after joining the law employment firm, King tied the nuptial knot in Trinidad & Tobago.
After living and working in the United States for 11 years, she returned to the Greater Toronto Area to join her husband, Addison Balfour, who is a civil engineer.
In October 2013, King joined Norton Rose Fulbright as an E-Discovery Counsel with responsibility for managing the firm’s e-discovery and litigation support programs. She also designed, developed and implemented a project management framework and assisted with national and global initiatives.
“I was the only lawyer in the firm nationally doing this kind of work and I was flying all over the place,” she said. “I was so busy working sometimes close to 60 hours a week. I also had our son in that period and my priorities changed, as I wanted to be a good mom. The work life balance wasn’t working for me.”
Practicing on Bay Street where there are few Black lawyers wasn’t easy for King who chairs the Ontario Bar Association Policy & Public Affairs Committee.
“I was the only Black lawyer at the time and it was shocking because I was never the only one of my colour at the law firms I worked at in the United States,” she pointed out. “The racism here was also covert. People would walk by the office and do a double take when they saw me. There are two distinctive differences between Canada and the United States. In the United States, the support staff is Black while that’s not the case here.”
With the support of her husband, King quit Norton Rose Fulbright and, eleven months later in September 2016, started her own practice – Sojourner King Law that offers client-focussed, strategic and practical legal advice to individuals and corporations.
“I was always working for big companies and representing them,” she said. “It was the first time that I was doing plaintiff side law and helping people. That has been really rewarding and it’s truly being part of my calling.”
King also enjoys giving back.
She provided pro bono legal services to homeowners who lost their residences because of the subprime mortgage crisis just over a decade ago and the Legal Aid Society of New York recognized her for three straight years for outstanding pro bono service in the groundbreaking ‘Stop & Frisk’ case against the New York City Housing Authority.
For the first 10 years of her life, King was raised by her mother, Patricia Baptiste, who migrated from Trinidad & Tobago in the 1970s
“Very positive and nurturing, she encouraged me to learn my history and always stressed that education is my ticket to do whatever I wanted to do,” said King who co-chaired the OBA Equality Committee and the Roundtable of Diversity Associations Conference in 2019 and 2020. “She was very involved in the Toronto Caribbean Carnival and ensured that me and my younger brother grasped the ‘Trini’ and Caribbean culture which was huge.”
