Chris Shanks is an articling student at Slater Vecchio, practicing with the class action team. Before law school, he earned a BA in Liberal Arts and a BSc double majoring in Psychology and Biology in Nanaimo, BC. His interdisciplinary focus earned him the Alexandro Malaspina Award for Interdisciplinary Excellence three times. While completing his degrees, Chris worked full-time with adults with severe injuries and developmental disabilities and part-time at a local law firm. He graduated as the recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal, awarded for top undergraduate achievement, before earning his JD from the Allard School of Law at UBC.

Chris’s background in healthcare, art, and science — spanning literary studies on Lord Dunsany to fruit fly genome analysis — shaped his analytical and nuanced approach to legal problem-solving. He understands how modern institutions can depersonalize those they purportedly serve — whether those individuals are victims navigating complex legal systems, employees facing workplace power imbalances, or consumers taking on corporate giants. Witnessing people dealing with such systemic frustration, from corporate inertia to bureaucratic indifference, led him to law.

Beyond law, Chris has eclectic tastes. He reads Borges, watches The Great Courses, and travels to Bombay Beach. Perhaps most of all, he enjoys meandering and lengthy road trips, for example, to Cabo and back.