open menu

Candid

Trading One Gavel for Another

Art auctioneer Samina Gagné ’26 now bids for a law degree.

       
Photograph by Diana Levine
Student Snapshot
Hometown London. Education Columbia University, BA in Architecture and BA in History of Art. Before BC LawAuctioneer and Senior Client Development Manager at Phillips; Client Developer at Sotheby’s. Law & Life HighlightsCo-president, Art Law Society; secretary, South Asian Law Students Association. Languages Fluent in French, conversational in Spanish, beginner in Italian and Portuguese. Fun Facts Ran 2024 NYC Marathon to raise funds for maternal health nonprofit Every Mother Counts. When not deep in casebooks, loves portrait painting.

Before law school, I was an auctioneer and senior client development manager in the international art auction world. I climbed the ranks at Sotheby’s and Phillips—working in New York and London. On paper, an auctioneer acts as a referee between buyers and sellers, making it possible for them to produce a price they both agree is fair. In practice, an auctioneer is a maestro at the head of an orchestra of clients, each wave of the hand accompanied by a new, higher price. At twenty-six, I became the youngest auctioneer in Phillips history—and one of the only LGBTQ+ women of color ever to take the rostrum at a global house. I took my first sale at twenty-eight.

I grew up as a third culture kid and lived in Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, the UK, and the US. I often felt like an outsider—bi-racial, queer, Muslim, and unsure how much of myself I could openly share. Over time, I saw that experience not as a burden but as the root of my ability to understand and share the concerns of others. 

Auctioneering taught me to command a room, think on my feet, and handle enormous pressure while staying composed and in control. But, having reached what I thought might be the pinnacle of my career, I realized that my ambitions extend far beyond the art world. I found myself drawn less to the external glamour of the art world and more to the legal and ethical challenges faced by the art auction industry—data privacy, financial sanctions, and anti-money laundering policies. Law school felt like a leap, but it was the right one.

Mentorship has made all the difference. With the support of BC’s Career Services Office, I’ll be working as a Silver Scholar and summer associate at Proskauer Rose LLP this summer. I was also recently nominated by BC’s Office of Global Education to pursue the dual degree study abroad program, and I plan to spend my 3L year in Paris, earning both a JD from BC and an LLM from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.