Jennifer Button

For Jennifer Button, education has always been something to build on. After completing her MBA, she found herself looking for the next opportunity to keep learning and stay challenged professionally. A Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 15 years of experience, she came across Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Taxation Law and decided to apply.

“I’ve always been a lifelong learner,” she says. “After finishing my MBA, I started looking at different courses and found the LLM in Taxation Law. I did some research and thought it was a great opportunity.”

At the time, Jennifer was working full time and caring for a young child. “My son was four or five years old then,” she recalls. “It was a good time for my career, even if it wasn’t the easiest personally.” The program’s weekend and online format made it possible to balance everything. “It was really well established,” she says. “I could do it with work commitments and family commitments.”

Living in St. John’s, Newfoundland, the virtual format was especially important. “It being distance education was great,” she says. “It’s not like hopping on a plane and attending a course is easy.”

Now serving as Director of Corporate Services at Advantage St. John’s, Jennifer oversees financial and tax reporting for the economic development organization. She says the LLM expanded her understanding of tax in ways that complemented her CPA background. “We completed international tax law, succession planning, trusts – topics that really complimented my education as a CPA.”

The timing also proved ideal. While studying, she was working as finance director for a large family-owned business that were working on a complex succession-planning issue,” she says. “The course aligned perfectly with the work I was doing.”

She remembers her cohort as diverse and collaborative. “There were probably about seventy-five percent lawyers and twenty-five percent accountants,” she says. “I was pleasantly surprised by how many CPAs were there. The varied backgrounds made it really interesting.”

Completing the LLM was also a personal milestone. Having previously studied at Memorial University, Jennifer valued the chance to engage with peers from across Canada. “It gave me more confidence to apply to a well-recognized university, complete the course, and excel,” she says. “That was a huge boost.”

Beyond her professional role, Jennifer remains deeply involved in her community. She serves as Vice Chair of CPA Newfoundland and Labrador, Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee for YMCA Newfoundland and Labrador, and Treasurer of the Quidi Vidi Rennie’s River Foundation, while also teaching accounting at Memorial University and coaching youth soccer.

Looking back, she describes the LLM as “a great experience” – one that was relevant to her work, manageable alongside her family life, and deeply rewarding to complete.