A year ago this month, the Arab Spring reached the shores of Bahrain, where Ziad Reslan was articling with Blakes. Reslan had been corresponding with PrecedentJD, filing a pair of dispatches to the magazine before the uprising shook that small island state. Now back in Toronto and working as a law clerk at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Reslan recalls his harrowing experience and reflects on what he witnessed.

“I started articling with Blakes in Bahrain in August 2010 and came to absolutely love this tiny island of about one million people.

Surrounded by a sea of conservative regimes, Bahrain shines as a liberal oasis. Home to around 500,000 Bahrainis and 700,000 expats from around the world, the country allows drinking, driving for women and has regular parliamentary elections in which all citizens get to vote, men and women alike — significant distinctions in that region.

Bahrainis themselves are some of the most genuinely welcoming people I have ever met. What Bahrain lacks in size, it make up for in hospitality. This is not surprising considering that more than half of Bahrain’s economy is based on services.

Bahrain was the first country to discover oil in the Persian Gulf, and the first to run out of it. The island was then turned into an offshore finance and tourist hub. Bahrain’s services-orientation, bustling night scene and its countless resorts have even earned it the title of the Gulf’s “sin city.”

All this came to a screeching halt on Feb. 14, 2011 when Bahrain became engulfed in protests.”

“I will refrain from addressing the political background of these protests — that is a matter for the Bahrainis to opine on. Rather, I will stick to the facts.

Several thousand Bahrainis participated in the initial protests. Rival protests then emerged, with diametrically opposed demands. In the turmoil that followed, several Bahrainis and a few expats — mainly South Asian labourers — lost their lives. The Bahraini army, and even the Saudi one, was eventually called in to restore order.

Blakes had taken a bold step in venturing into the Gulf, opening offices in Bahrain and Khobar in 2009, a first for a Canadian law firm. With the events that followed in Bahrain, Blakes will be, to my knowledge, the only Canadian firm to have dealt with local unrest in a foreign office.

And deal it did. Throughout the unrest, the firm’s partners in Bahrain were in constant contact with the staff to ascertain their whereabouts. The firm’s managing partner, based in Toronto, personally called every one of the staff, lawyers and non-lawyers alike, to ensure that they were safe. The firm’s most senior financial officer followed up with calls informing each member of the Bahrain office of insurance, contingency, and, if need be, evacuation plans.

My own mentor in Bahrain, a senior Canadian associate, took bold steps of his own. He was constantly in touch with, and most worried about, the Bahraini staff in the office who would have no recourse to the Canadian consulate’s resources. He offered his own apartment to staff and their families who felt that they were in unsafe zones. Simply put: he went above and beyond the call of duty.

Within a month, all staff had returned to the Bahrain office in the midst of relative stability. They returned, I am sure, feeling that they worked for an employer that put their safety first.

After a short break from Bahrain — to write my bar exams — I too returned to the Bahrain office to finish my articling term. For me, it was business as usual as I started again commuting between Manama and Riyadh on a weekly basis.

Today, I reflect back on the events of last year. I hope, first and foremost, that Bahrain will return to being the oasis it was before the unrest. And as to my own ambitions to work abroad, the events of last year may have given me reason to pause. But as I think back today, I quickly realize that this has not dissuaded me from pursuing opportunities overseas. Far from it. Security risks are present in any developing jurisdiction. The trick is to venture off with an employer that has accounted for these risks, and to plan for contingencies.

The upside, as I can personally attest to, is unbeatable experience. The adventures of last year were an education unto themselves that no other position in Canada could have ever afforded me.”