About Me: Why Trust a Lawyer on Health?

The devil is always in the details.

I can’t remember when I first heard that, but I do remember the first time my dad tried to hammer why assumptions suck into my head. I was in Grade 7. He asked me, very seriously:

“What’s the first word in ‘assume’?”

I thought hard and said, “A.”

He scoffed. “Fine. Second word?”

“As.”

More scoffing. “Third word?”

“Ass,” I said, faster this time.

“Exactly,” he said. “When you assume, you make an ass out of U and ME.”

It was corny. It was also correct. And the lesson stuck.

Because that’s basically what good lawyering is: details matter, and assumptions are dangerous.

And that’s also what I find missing in health.

In the wellness world, people are constantly making big claims on small evidence. They summarize data in ways that spin. They skip over the limitations. They treat “promising” as “proven.” They sell certainty when the science is still messy. Sometimes it’s influencers. Sometimes it’s companies. Sometimes—uncomfortably—it’s professionals who should know better.

I’m not here for that.

Yes, big-picture thinking matters. But not at the expense of transparency. If something is early evidence, we say that. If something is strong evidence, we say that. If something is marketing pretending to be science, we call it what it is.

That’s the lawyer brain.

My background (the short version)

I went to Queen’s University and graduated with honours with a double degree in Psychology and Health Sciences. I went to Dalhousie Law intending to focus on health law… and then I fell in love with criminal law.

I spent the next 15 years in the legal system—first in defence, then in policy, working on the unglamorous, essential work of making systems function better: reviewing evidence, spotting weak arguments, building clearer standards, and asking the annoying questions until the story holds up.

Then COVID hit.

I left my dream job as counsel with the Ontario Court of Justice, moved my family to Costa Rica for a sabbatical, and had the kind of life-reset that makes you realize: you can be “fine” on paper and still not be building what you actually want.

I eventually took over our family company (which I’m grateful for)… but it didn’t scratch the itch for the kind of work I love most: sorting real information from confident nonsense.

So I came back to health.

Why I built Lawyer Does Health

This project really clicked after I read Outlive by Dr. Peter Attia and realized something obvious—but easy to ignore:

A lot of the most important threats to our health don’t show up as a dramatic emergency. They build quietly for years. And by the time the system reacts, you’re already dealing with consequences instead of prevention.

Most healthcare systems are not designed for prevention. They’re designed for treatment. You go to the doctor to get better—not to stay healthy.

There are exceptions (screening programs like mammograms, for example), but for most people, risk reduction through lifestyle and early detection isn’t consistently delivered in a way that’s practical, personalized, and evidence-based.

So I wanted to build what I kept looking for and couldn’t find:

  • clear, evidence-based cheat sheets

  • tools you can actually use

  • straight talk about what’s proven vs. what’s hype

  • and a better way to advocate for yourself in a system that isn’t built for proactive health

That’s what this is.

What you can expect here

  • No miracle cures.

  • No “biohacking” cosplay.

  • No cherry-picked studies without context.

  • No assuming.

Just evidence, explained clearly, with receipts—so you can make smarter decisions and ask better questions.

Welcome to Lawyer Does Health. Where evidence is king.