Osgoode’s Canadian Common Law LLM was Alejandro Beltran’s career turning point

Alejandro Beltran’s 2017 graduation from OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM in Canadian Common Law was a landmark moment in more ways than one.

As well as a celebration of his latest achievement in a legal career that started in his home country Colombia, it also marked a turning point on Beltran’s professional journey.

Before his enrolment in the Canadian Common Law program, he was already working in the country, handling contract and compliance issues for a variety of oil and gas companies based in Calgary.

“I love the industry and I love the people in it, but I thought it was a good time to change direction,” Beltran explains. “The world is moving to more environmentally friendly industries and I wanted to find some way that I could contribute.”

Soon after earning his LLM, Beltran landed a job at Outotec, a predecessor of Finnish sustainable technology company Metso, where he was recently promoted to Head of Legal for its North and Central American operations.

The company provides equipment and services for players in the mining, metal and aggregate industries all over the world. 

“There’s a lot of travelling involved,” he says. “It’s a very exciting position at a very exciting company.”

Legal work runs in the family for Beltran. And while he eventually followed his father into the profession, he explains that his enrolment in law school back home in Colombia was actually inspired more by his ambition to get involved in the country’s turbulent political arena.

“But then, when I was at university, I discovered commercial law. I found that I was very interested in oil and gas, so that was what I focussed on and I applied to the best law firms in Colombia that specialized in the industry,” Beltran says.

After a few years in practice, Beltran decided the time was right to act on a long-held desire to explore other parts of the world.

Calling on his extensive energy industry experience and network, Beltran secured a skilled worker visa that allowed him to work in Canada, where he eventually became so well settled that he started looking into his options for resuming his legal career in this country.

“I wanted to get an overview of the Canadian legal system and understand how it works,” he says.

Beltran’s move to Ontario was driven by his determination to take Osgoode’s Canadian Common Law LLM, partly because of the way its core courses are specifically designed to meet the requirements of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation.

“Osgoode had a really great reputation and I loved it,” Beltran says. “It’s a pretty unique program in the way that you cover so many of the most important subjects over a relatively short period of time. The professors opened a window for me to see how the law works in this country.”

“For me, it was a great experience and I’m super-grateful.” he adds.

According to Beltran, the comprehensive nature of Osgoode’s Canadian Common Law curriculum has also proved helpful in his new role, which requires him to cover a broad spectrum of matters across a variety of jurisdictions.

“Much of my work focuses on contracts for equipment and the provision of services, but I also deal with pretty much every legal issue that comes up for the company in North or Central America, including intellectual property, insurance, or even criminal law,” he says. “I also have a great team of lawyers working in any place where we operate.”

In the time since his graduation, Beltran has not been a stranger to Osgoode. He has also returned several times to boost his credentials in a number of niche practice areas, completing certificate programs in Contract Management for Construction and Infrastructure Projects and Intellectual Property Licensing.    

“I’m very grateful to Osgoode, not only for the skills and knowledge that I built there, but also for the connections that I made and which I still maintain,” Beltran says.