Dave Shellnutt considers himself to be the same person he was last year, but — fundamentally — everything has changed.

Exactly one year after a violent incident nearly ended his life, the Parkdale resident and lawyer officially opened his new law firm, The Biking Lawyer, in a refurbished Dufferin Grove bike shop; he is also living each day with a different kind of attitude.

“I sort of have a ‘seize-the-day’ mentality,” he said. “Where nothing is guaranteed; you’ve got to move like it matters. So this year, I’ve been moving toward doing this.”

Early New Year’s Day in 2019, after leaving a celebration, Shellnutt was assaulted on the street in the downtown Toronto core by two men — an incident that left him in a coma for six days.

His injuries were traumatic.

Shellnutt, an active individual who rides his bike 365 days a year, had to learn to walk again and feed himself through a syringe. But, he said, he was determined to heal. And he did.

“I just wanted to be OK again. I needed to be OK,” he said.

Then, during his first week back to work in May, he was hit by a vehicle while cycling and broke his wrist and his elbow.

Shellnutt said all of his unfortunate experiences led him to the moment, about two months ago, when he decided to lease the space of an old bike shop on College Street and start his own law firm.

“We had been looking for other places, but when we walked in here and knew it was a bike shop, I felt — it’s a bit much to say — but I felt a bit of destiny,” he said. “It felt right.”

These days, Shellnutt is looking at life in a brand new light.

“I like simple things like watching the sunrise. I do that a lot,” he said. “I really embrace talking to my family and friends and the people who were there to support me and I proposed to my partner a couple days ago. She had a really bad New Year’s Day last year and so I tried to make it a better one this year.”

He added that over the past year, he’s gotten involved in a number of causes that he cares about, including doing about 35 pro bono applications for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for human trafficking and sexual assault survivors.

The social justice lawyer will be representing personal injury plaintiffs at his new firm, focusing on bike crashes, sexual assaults, violence and anti-racism work.

“My career was always focused on helping people and I was always interested in social justice and those kinds of things,” Shellnutt explained. “And that’s always made me happy, so now that I’ve almost lost my life, I’ve decided to embrace it, and that includes doing what makes me happy and that includes the work that I love.”

His new building is split into two law offices — a space he shares with family lawyer Rebecca Ying — with a common space at the front.

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There, Shellnutt plans to host a series of “Know Your Rights” workshops.

“It makes me feel like I’m using the time that I’ve been blessed to have here appropriately,” he added.