What follows is the transcript of a successful ceremonial court application by Mark McCourt on June 10, 2022 in Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench (the Honourable Mr. Justice Don J. Manderscheid presiding), resulting in Sara McCourt becoming a lawyer, being admitted to the Alberta bar and enrolled as a member of the Law Society of Alberta:
Thank you very much for your time this Friday afternoon, M’Lord. For the record, my name is Mark McCourt, and I am the founder and principal counsel of McCourt Law Offices. I have the great pleasure and honour today of applying for the admission of my articling student and oldest daughter Sara Kathleen McCourt to the bar of our province, and for her enrolment in the Law Society of Alberta. The Law Society stresses the importance of law firm owners to have a succession plan in place -- the key to my plan is your lordship granting this application. Sara McCourt was born in St. Albert on January 24, 1994. I was an eyewitness to her birth and thus am willing to testify that she was in fact born, at that time and place. Sara was raised in west Edmonton, where she continues to reside, attending Michael A. Kostek Elementary, S. Bruce Smith Junior High and Jasper Place Composite High School before entering the University of Alberta at age 17. At age 18, Sara scored in the 90% percentile on the LSAT, which combined with a stratospheric Grade Point Average in her first two years at the Faculty of Arts, led to her beginning law school at the U of A Faculty of Law at the ripe old age of 19. Sara is one of a select few teenaged University of Alberta Faculty of Law students in the 21st century to date. Sara won the 1st year law moot court competition at U of A Law with her moot partner Graham Vachon, who happens to be the other lawyer at McCourt Law Offices. While in Law School, Sara volunteered with Student Legal Services, but upon realizing that much like pro bono legal practice, volunteer work doesn’t pay well, she wisely switched to a paid position with SLS. Also while at law school, Sara ran the U of A Law blog and hosted a number of law school events, including a viewing of the Magna Carta when that 800 year-old document visited Edmonton a few years ago. After taking a break from university to better herself mentally, Sara returned to the U of A, completing her Arts degree in Philosophy with distinction in 2020 and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 2021 before starting articles at my firm the day after Labour Day last year. “Articling Student” is Sara’s most recent job description at McCourt Law Offices but certainly not her first job at the firm - her first job at McCourt Law Offices was about 20 years ago when I paid her $2 to update the business cards for a lawyer at the firm who was going through her second divorce. The lawyer at the time was using a hyphenated last name, and Sara’s job was to white-out the second half of that hyphenated name on the lawyer’s business cards. So Sara has worked on and off at the family law firm for the past 20 years or so, but if she ever tires of practicing law, she did attend clown school, making her well qualified for a career in politics should she ever desire to give that a try. I think that politics will have to wait though, as Sara has accepted a position as an associate lawyer here at McCourt Law Offices, contingent on this application being successful today. I think the massive pay hike from the slave wages she was earning as a student-at-law is enticing to her, but mostly I think Sara sincerely wants to continue in the family business - a firm started in 1995 by myself and my wife Liana (Sara’s mother and a fantastic Legal Assistant) back when Sara was a year old. Sara’s younger sisters also work at the firm: Rebecca as Assistant to the Senior Litigation Assistant, and Kendra as Director of Advertising and Social Media. Sara McCourt breezed through her CPLED assignments and has served her term of articles with diligence, honesty and propriety. Given the medical-legal nature of our personal injury law practice, Sara has dedicated many of her lunch hours to watching the medical show Grey’s Anatomy with our litigation assistant Rachelle Leger. In conclusion, I am confident that Sara Kay McCourt will conduct all matters faithfully, truly and to the best of her ability. I am advised by Jeff Schultz, who will be marrying Sara this October, and do verily believe that she is of good character and reputation. Sara McCourt is in my opinion a fit and proper person to be enrolled as a member of the Law Society of Alberta. And therefore, as Sara’s principal and as her dad, I hereby recommend that Sara McCourt be admitted to the practice of law in the province and be enrolled as a member of the Law Society of Alberta. Those are my submissions, thank you sir.