Norma Buydens didn’t set out to be a lawyer. Her passion, and focus of her undergrad degree, was History. Then life came calling.
“I had my first child, and then I became a foster parent to teenagers related to my husband who had been abused,” she recalls. “After bringing them into our home and working through some of their issues I thought, ‘I would like to be able to do something about this’.”
Buydens had toyed with the idea of becoming a lawyer when she was younger, but one weekend she drove to Saskatoon and took her LSAT. After studying for a few hours, she passed. The next year her family moved to the city so she could study law part-time. She completed law school, as well as her Master’s in History, and was ready to start articling when life happened again.
“My daughter was going through some difficulties, and we didn't know what it was at the time,” she says.
She and her husband, an education professional, homeschooled their daughter, who 10 years later received a formal autism diagnosis. Eventually, Buydens was able to article for the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench, after which she and her family moved to Weyburn. She initially worked for a local law firm before starting her own practice.
“I got my law degree in 1996 when I was not quite 34, and I started practicing at 48,” she says. “Given the experiences with my own family, I found myself strongly interested in family law.”
Buydens draws on the rapport she can establish with families, parents and spouses to provide empathetic, helpful advocacy. Her clients benefit from what she describes as her “time in the trenches as a parent,” and she finds personal satisfaction in being able to make a difference in a child’s life.
As a family lawyer, Buydens also helps ease the process, as much as possible, for families who are looking to move on from a broken relationship. She seeks to deal with conflict properly, quickly and equitably, and always with a particular focus on the children involved. Something she wasn’t necessarily expecting about divorce proceedings is the oftentimes genuine desire of the parties to apply more attention to the children.
“There are a lot of men that when, they come to a divorce, get a big wake-up call in terms of wanting to be more involved as parents,” she says. “To my mind, anything I can do that helps that along will help the kids who deserve their two parents. If I’m working with a family lawyer who has a similar philosophy and we’re trying to make peace, then we can both be good influences on the two parties and help get something that’s going to work for them.”
Estates and estate planning are other areas where Buydens has legal expertise. Once again, during the first years of her career she came away surprised by the relationships and interactions she encountered through what can be hard, emotional conversations.
“I get to see elders who are being really supported and loved by their children, by their friends, by their brothers and sisters,” she reflects. “I find it very emotional to be dealing with people when they’re ill, or if they know that life is coming to an end. But I also see some acts of tenderness that are just mind-blowing for me.”
Acknowledging the range of situations and personal experiences that bring clients into her office, Buydens tries to make her legal services as accessible as possible. She never charges for a first appointment, and there are times when the client realizes, after hearing some advice, that they don’t need legal help at all. If they do, they can arrange a fee structure – flat or hourly – that is least onerous to them.
For Buydens, her legal work always points back to her own, earlier life experiences. They continue to inform her approach to law, benefiting her clients through sincere, understanding service.
“You can be thrown all kinds of things you didn’t expect,” she says. “I am here because I care, and I want to be a part of making people’s lives easier.”
Buydens practices law at 110 3rd St NE in Weyburn. She can be reached by calling (306) 870-0204.