Financial Law LLM alum Anjana Bandara relishes a challenge

Anjana Bandara is not one to turn her back on a challenge.

After leaving behind a burgeoning legal career in Sri Lanka when she immigrated to Canada, Bandara was determined to requalify in her adopted homeland and still vividly remembers sitting down to take her first examination required by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation.

“I was eight months pregnant with another little kid at home,” she says.

Later on in the process, Bandara decided not to pursue a potential articling exemption based on her existing legal experience in a common law jurisdiction, opting instead to train at a small law firm with offices in Toronto and Brampton.

“I wanted to get some real exposure so that I could gain Canadian experience and learn what was different and what was similar in practice,” Bandara explains. “There is only so much you can learn in the classroom.”

Building on her previous experience as in-house counsel at a major commercial bank in Sri Lanka, after her 2013 call to the bar Bandara became an associate with the law firm she started her articling with and quickly made herself indispensable to the firm in matters of estates, business, corporate and mortgage enforcement. 

“I developed a reputation for being the lawyer that would provide solutions to cases that nobody else could solve,” she says. “I kept gaining knowledge and my client list kept growing.”

Back in Sri Lanka, the young Bandara had never considered a future in the legal profession until the end of her time in high school.

“Once I realized that law was an option, I never looked back,” she says. “Only University of Colombo offered the LLB for the entire island and there were a mere 200 spots available. It was very competitive, but I did not give up. I wanted to be a lawyer and I have enjoyed being a lawyer and all the challenges that come with it.”

Soon after graduating, Bandara secured her first position at Seylan Bank, handling a wide variety of legal matters for one of Sri Lanka’s largest providers of financial services.

By 2020, with several years of private practice experience behind her in Toronto, Bandara was ready to bring her career full circle and began looking at financial law LLM programs that would assist her with her search for an in-house role – this time at a Canadian bank.

Osgoode’s part-time Professional LLM in Financial Law was the clear choice, not only because of an enthusiastic recommendation she received from a friend and previous Osgoode LLM alumnus, but also because the program’s flexible schedule would allow her to continue working while boosting her legal credentials.

By the time of her 2023 graduation, Bandara had already transitioned to her current role at TD Legal, where she is a Senior Counsel with the Canadian Disputes and Investigations team.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the Financial Law LLM and the knowledge I gained on the program,” says Bandara, adding that she particularly appreciated the program’s focus on interactive learning, as well as its unique mix of academic, applied and theoretical perspectives.

“I gained friends and I gained knowledge. It was win-win,” she says.

Bandara says she would have no hesitation recommending the program to anyone with an interest in the financial industry, whether they are an internationally trained lawyer or they attended a Canadian law school. “I can’t think of any drawbacks. It’s a very practical program at one of the most well known law schools in the world,” she says. “The professors you meet are very well rounded and their expertise is exceptional. I see it as a value-added proposition for your career.