Cowling Legal Freelance - Blog

WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Nathalie Godbout, Q.C.

9/14/2018

Welcome back to the Women Leading in Law series. After a call out to my "tweeps" on Twitter for amazing women lawyers on the east coast I was introduced to Nathalie Godbout, the next lawyer to be profiled for this series.

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I am a partner and co-founder of Godbout Fawcett, a law firm located in Saint John, NB that specializes in professional malpractice defence and complex litigation. Our boutique firm opened in December 2016. Our focus is on providing the client with a supportive, personalized experience of legal support for whatever challenge they are facing.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I suspect my childhood had everything to do with it! I was the kid in the neighbourhood that wanted everything to be fair, for everyone to be meaningfully heard. I was also the kid that other kids sent in to negotiate on everyone’s behalf. My advocacy work probably started when I was 5 years old and has been developing since then. That passion has never left me.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

There is a well-recognized saying from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that is my life’s mantra: “At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.” It has always felt to me that the moment I committed to becoming a lawyer was the moment everything started falling into place so that it could happen. My parents have been endlessly supportive. And today, I credit my powerful circle of friendships - my army of women – for holding me to my vision of what a great law firm could look like. I am proud of what we have accomplished here in such a short window of time.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

I relish the moment that a new client can finally relax and know that our firm has got his/her problem well in hand. There is a look, an elusive resting posture that comes over them; it is very gratifying. More personally, I wrote an article a few years ago entitled “To The Woman In Room 805” that spoke to an incident of intimate partner violence that I had witnessed; it went viral, and helped to trigger an important conversation in both my real and online community about what this experience is and what we can do to change it. I received countless messages from women who told me the article changed their lived experience and, in some cases, gave them the courage to make a plan and leave their abusive relationship.

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

The challenges are known and many, born mostly of societal stereotypes of what we are somehow expected to be: perfect spouse, mother, organizer, empathetic friend, all while practicing our trade in a legal community built on mostly male constructs. Our firm is, at least in part, a temple to what it can look like if you rebuild it from scratch. So we did. The opportunity for us was a chance at showing other lawyers and their families a law firm that empowers its team, is technologically savvy, allows for remote work and shared responsibility in files, with generous time off, incentive-based earning, powerful networking, and constant learning. We are not slaves to the billable hour, and value the outcome far more than the profit. Because when you start focusing on the work product, the satisfaction of your client, and the happiness of your team, the profit and new clients naturally flow. Yes, we are running a business, the humanity is never allowed to get lost in the financial statements.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Years ago, when I started my family in my late 30s, my husband and I had to reinvent the way this was traditionally done. Ultimately, my husband stayed home with our newborn and I went back to work 3 weeks later. He brought her to my office every day so I could nurse her. It was chaotic and non-traditional and perfect for us. My advice is: don’t let the world tell you how you are supposed to do this. You can and should design your practice and your life to be a reflection of your goals and your core values. At times, I was surrounded by people that clearly thought I was letting my baby down, that my husband had somehow been tricked into trading off on his manhood, and that my clients would not understand any of it. They were so very wrong. We have magical memories of those years when our daughters were young. They waved joyfully (most days) to me as I left to go be a strong advocate for my clients. They were happy because I was happy.

Don’t give in to the archaic constructs of this amazing profession of ours. We can and will change it; in fact, it’s already happening.
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Thanks Nathalie for participating in this series and I love how you have a built a career and practice that suits you and your core values. Congratulations.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Laurie Livingstone

9/3/2018

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The next lawyer to be profiled in the Women Leading in Law series is litigator Laurie Livingstone. What I especially like about this post is that Laurie not only talks about her own experiences and accomplishments, she has also used this platform to pay-it-forward and praise other amazing women lawyers coming up behind her.

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I am a litigator based in the Calgary office of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP but I practice in both Alberta and Ontario. Technology and teamwork allow me to simultaneously practice in both provinces, which I love.

My practice is a mix of complex commercial litigation, administrative law and appellate advocacy. If it’s a case with issues that are going to make your brain hurt – it’s my kind of litigation!

Quite by happenstance, I have also developed a niche practice in the area of voluntary associations and self governing organizations. That practice has given me the opportunity to argue a number of interesting cases involving issues of jurisdiction, governance, and discipline in political parties, religious organizations, educational institutions, and sport associations.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I often, jokingly, say that I ended up in law school by picking ‘not math’ at every educational fork in the road. That’s not entirely false; I’m no math whiz and I wasn’t someone who dreamed about being a lawyer from a young age. I moved across the country to study at Dalhousie University when I was 17 and, at that point, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. Over the course of my undergraduate degree, I ended up spending a lot of time in the Sir James Dunn Law Library doing researching for sociology papers. I loved the atmosphere in that library; all the law students working away in their carrels and the study groups huddled together in the glass meeting rooms. It felt like a place I wanted to be, so I started to think about law school.

In the bigger picture, I think a large part of what drew me to law, and in particular to advocacy, is my affection for words. I’ve always had a deep love for words and for their power. Words can cut sharper than any blade and soothe better than any balm. There is an art to stringing words together. Done well, it can bring order to chaos and can change the way people think. It’s the magic of creating something coherent from the raw facts and law in each case that keeps me engaged and excited about the practice of law.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

It definitely wasn’t by design! I think chance manifesting itself in the form of curiosity and a willingness to work hard, has allowed me to take advantage of every opportunity that has come my way.

As a student, I was always curious about what senior lawyers were working on. I would regularly ask if I could tag along to watch arguments in interesting cases, even if there wasn’t a way for me to immediately assist on the file. That investment of non-billable time often lead to me later becoming involved in those interesting cases. My curiosity and default to say “yes” to every opportunity, also resulted in the tremendous experience of doing an external rotation in criminal law while I was an articling student. The months I spent at Eddie Greenspan’s office watching Eddie, Marie Henein, Mike Lacy, Melanie Dunn (now The Honourable Justice Dunn) and other advocates at work was amazing. It solidified my desire to be a litigator.

A large part of my ability to thrive in this profession has also been because I’ve had wonderful champions in my corner. In particular, I have to recognize Ian Blue, Q.C. and Arthur Hamilton. They took me under their respective wings when I was a student and they have been giving me opportunities and advocating for me ever since. I work in male dominated areas of law and, over the course of my career, it has been far more common than not for me to be the only woman in the room as well as the youngest person in the room. Having senior male practitioners who treated me as an equal and who insisted that clients, courts, opposing counsel, and other partners in the firm did the same, was a huge factor in my career development and in me not (yet) becoming part of the depressing statistic of women who have left private practice.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

What I’m most proud of is having had a hand in spotting, and early-on nurturing, the talent of some women who have become fantastic practitioners and true leaders in the profession.

What seems like a lifetime ago, I fought to hire Danielle Robitaille into the Cassels Brock student program. She has proven my declaration “she’s a real litigator” to be true over and over again in her brilliant work at Henein Hutchison LLP. Andrea McEwan, who is a rising star in estates litigation in Toronto, is another woman I am delighted to have worked with in her student years. Andrea remains the only student to ever hand me a draft that I didn’t put a single red pen mark on. I’m also thrilled to see Caryn Narvey - an amazingly talented woman I had the opportunity to work with when she was an associate in Calgary - taking the in-house world by storm. Caryn is an absolute star in the McDonald’s Canada legal department and was recently recognized as one of their top employees in the world when she received the prestigious McDonald’s President’s Award. I could not be more proud of these amazing women.

In terms of cases that had an impact, I am very proud of the work Arthur Hamilton and I did representing an intervener before the Commission of Inquiry in the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (also known as the Gomery Commission). Despite working with capped hours and only being paid something like $75/h under the intervener funding allowance, we put together a tremendous written argument at the conclusion of the 136 days of hearings. When the report was released, we saw a lot of our work reflected in the conclusions and even in some of the phrasing choices.

I remember standing at the top of the stairs leaving the Centre Block of Parliament Hill just after 5pm on the day the report was released. I was exhausted (we had been in a lock-up well before dawn to read the report and we spent the rest of the day briefing the future Prime Minister and his caucus on its contents) and I was, momentarily, unable to take another step as the realization that we were in the middle of history washed over me. We knew the government would fall as a result of that report and we knew we had a hand in bringing the truth behind a scandalous misuse of public funds to light. It was tremendously satisfying and remains work that I am very proud of.

5. What are some key challenges and opportunities for women in law?

I think the challenges remain largely the same as they’ve always been. Women and minorities are underrepresented at the highest levels of the profession and that results in a lack of diversity of thought and further entrenchment of existing barriers, stereotypes, and biases that are often unconscious. Even at a firm like mine that is completely committed to achieving a minimum of 30% female equity partners nationally, in the Calgary office where I work, there are no female equity partners and we currently fall short of even achieving 30% of lawyers in this office being women. That certainly wasn’t by design but unless you are conscious and vigilant about it, diversity won’t manifest itself in an environment that isn’t already diverse.

Women also still face the double bind of being labelled “weak” if they are perceived to be acting in a traditionally feminine way and as a “bitch” if they carry themselves with the same confidence as their male colleagues do. University of Calgary Law School Professor Alice Woolley and her colleague Elysa Darling published a paper last year entitled ‘Nasty Women and the Rule of Law’ that examines how we talk about women lawyers and why it matters. It’s a great paper that digs into the intersection between sexist stereotypes and the lawyer’s role. The paper doesn’t solve the perception problems faced by women lawyers but it’s an insightful examination of their roots.

Enough of that ... on to the opportunities! While the profession has been stubborn to change, over the course of my career I’ve seen a big shift in the number of people – men and women – who at least want to see change. That desire for change means we are now seeing more women in leadership positions in firms and, as we move beyond it being just one token woman on key firm committees, women are finding their voices, being heard, and are creating more opportunities for other women to lead.

Clients are also demanding diversity from firms and within the teams working on their files. All of those women that were driven out of private practice and who moved to in-house roles are now controlling the flow of work and forcing change from the outside. It’s fantastic and it’s creating more opportunities for young women in private practice to gain the experience they need to rise through the ranks. More women on the client side also makes business development for female lawyers a little easier.

Finally, reforms to the judicial appointment process have gone a long way toward levelling the playing field for women and minorities. Being appointed to the Bench is now more about your qualifications and less about who you know. That is huge. Recent appointments to the bench have been more diverse and I’m already seeing change in courtrooms. As the old boys are less and less likely to be appearing before their golf buddy or another old boy who will let them get away with belittling opposing counsel because of her age, gender, or accent, courtrooms are becoming less hostile places for women and minorities to advocate on behalf of their clients.

I believe that as each glass ceiling is smashed, it creates a longer runway for the next generation of women to gain momentum before they start hitting barriers. I believe that increased momentum is, and will continue to, speed up the rate at which we smash through each successive barrier and even more rapid change will follow.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Seek out champions, not just mentors. Also, demand that your mentors become your champions.

While I might not have chosen these exact words, I agree with this quote I recently saw from advertising executive Cindy Gallop:

“I want women to strike the word ‘mentor’ from their vocabulary and instead, seek out champions. ‘Mentor’ implies touchy-feely, chatchatchat, shoulder to cry on, warm fuzzies. Fuck that. Women need champions. We need what men have always had, people willing to go out on a limb for us.”

I see young women in the legal profession being mentored but not championed all the time. The partners they work for feed them good work, teach them well, and respect them immensely. But when push comes to shove, many of those partners won’t risk any of their own political capital to advocate for the women they work with. They stay silent as those female associates are denied bonuses, paid at the low end of their compensation bracket, passed over for partnership, and overlooked when industry award nominations are discussed. Male associates rarely suffer the same fate. If a male associate is ‘one of the boys’ he will have champions insisting that he deserves to be paid above market and that he is destined to be a great leader, regardless of whether his performance warrants such praise.

Mentors are great but champions are needed to advance your career, especially in private practice. Seek out champions.
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Thanks Laurie for your candid advice and for taking the time to participate in this series!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Renatta Austin

8/13/2018

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We continue the Women Leading in Law series this week with a profile of Renatta Austin, a family and criminal law lawyer and owner of Eglinton West Law Office. Some of you may remember Renatta from an article in Precedent magazine in 2015 discussing how she was growing her solo practice out of the Great Library in Toronto. Clearly someone who understands the business side of law, Renatta's profile provides insights into the freedom, as well as the responsibilities, of being a law firm owner:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I am the owner of the Eglinton West Law Office. We are a small law firm offering legal services in the areas of family law and criminal law, with a focus on child welfare issues. Our clients tend to be a mix of young, legally-aided parents and mid-income homeowners and renters from the diverse neighbourhoods surrounding our office.

Over the last four years, the firm has evolved from a part-time solo practice, which I operated out of the Great Library, to a three-person firm staffed by two law clerks and me. I made the decision to narrow my focus to the intersection of family and criminal law because of my interest in child welfare issues and due to the demand from the community. I live in the Eglinton West area and was aware of the relatively low commercial rents, growing demand for legal services and lack of lawyers in this part of the city. Once I hung my shingle, I was bombarded with requests for assistance with child protection issues, custody/access disputes and domestic violence cases in both family and criminal court. I saw an opportunity and I took it!

I have two fantastic law clerks who take care of a lot of the administrative work that comes with practice, allowing me to spend most of my time in court. We run a pretty tight ship, but I am constantly looking for new ways to be more efficient, to innovate and to grow.  I am very fortunate that I get to do work that I enjoy and bring my whole self to my work.

2.       Why did you go to law school?

My first love was theatre, but I was always one of those kids everyone said would become a lawyer, mostly because I got good grades and talked too much. When I started law school, I thought I would become a constitutional law professor. I majored in Political Science and Criminology during my undergraduate studies and developed an interest in the Constitution, federalism and local governments. I thought academia would be a natural fit for these interests. To my surprise, I found reading federalism cases to be a painful exercise and decided that a policy-oriented role in government would be the next best thing for me. I articled with the City of Toronto and started my career in the municipal sector. A little over two years in, I decided to opt out of a steady paycheque and a pension to pursue sole practice.

3.       How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

I would say both.  The practice I have now was not part of my early life plan. During law school, I recall saying that I could never practice criminal, family or immigration, because I am too much of a bleeding heart to do front-line legal work. I thought I would be better suited to working on broader policy issues with institutional clients. However, reflecting on it, I see how everything I did prior to becoming a sole practitioner led me to where I am today. I have always been a fiercely independent, entrepreneurial and public-interest oriented person. Most of my volunteer work from high school onward focused on women, children and youth.  Given my interest in constitutional law, it makes sense that most of my work touches on the relationship between the state, children and their families, which is a very underdeveloped area of Charter litigation.

Although sole practice was not part of my early plan, once it became clear to me that this was what I wanted to do, I went into goal-setting and execution mode. I recognized that mentorship, continuing education and developing a niche would be important to my success. While I took family law and criminal law courses in law school, I did not article in these areas. I joined practice-specific and solo-friendly legal associations and invested in every CLE course I could find to develop competence in these areas. I also spent a lot of time shadowing other lawyers and observing proceedings from the back of courtrooms. The first couple of years involved a lot of figuring things, some embarrassing moments and many long nights and weekends, but it ultimately paid off.

Hard work was an important part of my journey, but I never lose sight of the role luck has played in my life. I am fortunate to have a supportive family and great mentors and peers who’ve helped me along the way. By hanging around court and putting myself out there early on, I met fantastic mentors who taught me both how to practice law and about the business of law. I still contact them regularly for advice. I’ve also benefited from great business advice and mentorship from other small business owners, including my dentist, my accountant and many of the local business owners in my neighbourhood.

4.       What is your most significant achievement?  What are you proud of?

I have done a lot of things in my 32 years of life, but I am most proud of building a law firm from the ground up and not going bankrupt or losing my mind in the process. Perhaps other than parenting, starting a business is the hardest thing I can imagine doing in my lifetime. It is harder than getting good grades, harder than the LSAT and harder than any case I’ve worked on. I have had to learn how to be a competent lawyer while also figuring out everything from how to negotiate a lease, make money, pay taxes, hire and afford to pay good staff to ensuring that the lights stay on. There are days when it feels overwhelming and I wonder what on earth I was thinking when I made the decision to do this. But each time a client thanks us for the effort we put into their case, a lawyer or a judge compliments the quality of our work, or someone walks into the office and marvels at the fact that I – a young, Black woman who does not look a day over 25 (seriously!)—am “the lawyer”, the significance of the firm really sinks in. I genuinely enjoy my work and I know that this is exactly where I was meant to be. I am proud of myself for having the courage and tenacity to take such a big risk and for making it work. I hope that other young lawyers will see that solo practice doesn’t have to be a last resort and will give it serious thought if they have an entrepreneurial spirit.

5.       What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

I think about this question a lot, particularly in the context of solo practice. I have always been engaged with issues affecting women in the legal profession, but over the past few years it has become clearer to me that we need more women in positions of leadership in law and at government decision-making tables. Much of our legal system, profession and work culture reflects a traditional model of family life that is not in line with modern reality, especially for women.

We know about the glass ceiling and high attrition rates for women in private practice. In some ways, solo practice is a great option for women lawyers. It gives you the freedom to be your own boss, choose your own clients and to control your schedule. It can be a very lean operation, similar to what I had when I first started, or it can take the form of a more traditional practice with a physical office and staff, which I have now. Many colleagues have told me that they decided to start their own practice after having children because of the flexibility and ability to work around their family’s needs. Young women interested in family law, a traditionally “pink” area of law, should know that there are lots of senior women sole practitioners in family law (less so in criminal law). I’ve found these women to be great role models and mentors.

That being said, there are many challenges that come with sole practice. Sole practitioners typically lack a stable and predictable income, there are no benefits or paid leaves, and depending on the type of practice, it can be as demanding as Bay Street. Many family and criminal lawyers have told me stories about returning to work within weeks of giving birth or having to rebuild their practice from scratch after taking a leave. Some of my colleagues who have student debt and lack financial support from family or a partner have told me that having children or owning a home seem completely unattainable for them as sole practitioners.

I often think about what it would look like if I had children, became ill, or suddenly found myself having to care for my aging parents. How would I make it work? What would happen to my practice and my income? How do I balance my desire to do good work with my short-term and long-term needs? What will retirement look like for me? Many women deal with these issues at some point in their career, but it is especially acute for sole practitioners.

Despite these challenges, there are many opportunities for women to have rewarding careers in solo practice. With the right amount of patience, tenacity and willingness to take risks, it is possible to build a practice that suits your lifestyle, is in line with your values, is in an area you enjoy and that allows you to make a living.

My hope is that increasing the number of women in positions of power will help to change our legal system, work culture and broader social policies so that women lawyers can better balance career with other important aspects of life, including family.

6.       What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

My advice to women starting their career in law is to claim your space. We are often told to put our head down, work hard, play by the rules and wait for our turn. That approach has not worked for a lot of women who feel like they lack control over their lives and careers or find that they’re still bumping up against all kinds of glass ceilings. I say kick down the ceiling and claim your space. Regardless of where you are in the legal profession, put yourself out there, demand opportunities and push back against the workplace culture and norms that cause women to leave law. Men are not losing out on their investment in a legal education. Why should we?

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Thanks Renatta for agreeing to be profiled in this series. Another amazing woman with some wonderful tips we can all use.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Janis Criger, May Cheng,  Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst,  Jennifer Taylor,  Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Janis Criger

7/20/2018

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The next profile in this series features Janis Criger and offers a glimpse into the life of a "retired" lawyer. Janis also discusses her transition from working at a firm, to taking a break from law to raise her children, to becoming an entrepreneur and starting her own solo practice (and more!):

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I ‘retired’ from active practice in 2015.

I use quotes around ‘retired’ because in 2015 I was elected as a Bencher. This was a very happy thing, as I really enjoy the work. My work now consists of Small Claims judging for two to four days monthly and being at the Law Society about five days monthly. In addition, since I don’t have a practice to tend to, I am flexibly available for Law Society Tribunal work, of which I do quite a bit. I’m really enjoying those two adjudication positions, along with the policy and governance work at the Law Society.

I write reasons for a lot of the cases I sit on, so all told, I probably work 10 – 15 days monthly. Law Society reasons are published on CanLII, if anyone wants to check them out.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I worked in clerical and administrative positions for about five years before I went to law school. None of them really suited my personality or allowed me to use my brain much.

Law school offered the chance to learn interesting, new and complex things that I could use to solve problems for other people. It turned out to be a really good fit.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

More chance than design, I think. For whatever reason, I am not a person who mapped out a career plan. At each turning point in my career and life, I picked the thing that I thought would allow me to use whatever skills I had to be productive and help others, while meeting my and my family’s needs. Money and recognition were side effects, both of which still surprise me.

I enjoyed working as an associate at a firm but did not enjoy having someone else raise my children once they arrived. I felt I was missing all the good parts when my children were young, so I took a couple of years off, then started my own practice in my house. I worked from home for eleven years while my sons grew up.

My break from law coincided with the rise of personal computing and the explosion in productivity software. I used the time off to get up to speed on technology (if you are not doing law, you still need interesting, new and complex things to learn).

By the time I started my practice, I’d been out for about ten years and retained my clerical/administrative skillset. This worked out very well. On July 1, 1995, I started my sole practice with a large, custom-built desktop, a multi-function print/copy/fax, a handheld and a folding keyboard for notes on the go, and a cellphone the size of a brick. In 2007, I hired my first part-time assistant, mainly to assist with scheduling.

A year or so after I started my practice, I became aware that the Hamilton Small Claims Court was looking for Deputy Judges. It wasn’t considered high status work but I thought I could serve the public and give back to the profession by doing that, so I sent a letter to my local Regional Senior Judge and got sworn in. I’ve always thought of it as important work. I’ve been sitting for almost 22 years now, and I still enjoy being on the front line of the court system, helping others solve their problems.

I ran for Bencher because I thought it was a great way to contribute to the profession and the public, again in a way that suits my kind of intelligence – curiosity about complex new items. I was very pleasantly surprised to be elected, and I will run again unless something unforeseen happens.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

In career terms, I’m proud of having argued before the Supreme Court of Canada in Nichols v. American Home, even though I lost 7-0 there. Up to that point I’d been doing quite well, but there was a dissent at the Court of Appeal and leave was granted. I argued that case in 1990 while I was 32 weeks pregnant with my younger son. It is still cited today on the issue of an insurer’s duty to defend its insured, which causes me equal parts of chagrin and pride when I see it.

I’m proud that I’m in my eighth consecutive three-year term as a Deputy Judge in the Hamilton Small Claims Court. I’ve served hundreds of self-represented litigants, assisting them in solving their disputes with neighbours, tradespersons and, sometimes, friends. I’m proud to be the face of the Canadian justice system for new Canadians who have come from places where the administration of justice is less impartial than it is here. Those litigants sometimes cry when they realize the case is being heard fairly. That’s very moving. I’m proud they trust me with their disputes.

I’m proud that I managed to make practicing law balance with the other parts of my life, so that my family’s needs, my clients’ needs and my needs were all properly met over a period of thirty years.

I’m flattered that my colleagues thought I’d make a good Bencher, and proud to be one.

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

There are lots of challenges, both big and small. Some of the small ones are remaining unheard in meetings, being told you’re not available enough because you have children, being constantly asked ‘are you still working part-time’ when you’re putting in 40 hours or more a week at your home office.

Then there are big challenges: balancing life and law, running or overseeing a business (actually very different from practicing law), keeping everything organized, avoiding burnout.

There are, however, significant opportunities and rewards. Lots of people can identify problems; fewer people can solve problems. If you made it through law school and were called to the Bar, chances are you can solve problems. That’s a valuable skill in any setting. Which setting you choose is limited only by your imagination.

A law degree and a call to the Bar also open doors in the corporate (for profit, not for profit and charities) and political worlds, where you can drive social change for the better. People listen to lawyers.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Spend some years with a mentor/employer, even if your preference is sole practice. You need to learn the ropes before you go out on your own.

If you are going out on your own, develop a business plan. Work out how much it will cost you, per hour, to practice law. Divide your projected overhead by one-half of the hours you believe you’ll bill in your first five years, so that the projected cost per hour is higher than it otherwise would be. Make sure you are charging and collecting more than that for each hour you bill. It’s important to make sure you get paid and are making a profit. You can’t help others with their problems if you are consumed by your own.

Make friends with your colleagues. It’s important to have people to talk to who understand this mercurial career that somehow chose all of us. The advantage of being female is you can talk business, you can talk law and you can talk babies all in the 20 minutes before court starts without feeling any sense of incongruity.

Network, particularly with other women. Amplify other women every chance you get and ask that they do the same for you. Be a card-carrying member of the sisterhood and speak honestly to other women about why they need to be members too.

Look after your physical health, which is the easier part. Looking after your mental health is more difficult. Law is demanding and things will happen that will upset you, knock you off-balance, make you doubt yourself and make you doubt others. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back in there because, most times, people aren’t looking at you, they’re worrying about whether people are looking at them. If you come to a point where you just can’t face the day, get help right away. The M.A.P. is always there, and there are many publicly and privately funded options available to assist.
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Thank you Janis for agreeing to participate in this series and for providing some valuable career advice.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: May Cheng

7/6/2018

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Every time I hear the next lawyer in this series, May Cheng, speak on a panel I learn a valuable nugget of career advice.

And, not only is she a wonderful speaker, she truly cares about helping others. As an example: I first met May at a networking event where I briefly told her about my business. Within days she emailed me to let me know she had passed along my name to another lawyer who might need our services. Word of mouth referrals are a huge component of my business. I truly appreciated her taking the time out of her busy day to pick up the phone / send that email on my behalf. She didn't have to, but she did.

Read on to learn about May's legal career and some more of her helpful career advice:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business.

I am a Certified Specialist in Intellectual Property (Trademark & Copyright) Law, and I have been practising for 25 years in Toronto. I have a specialty practice in anti-counterfeiting, doing Anton Piller Orders for luxury brands, but I also do the full range of branding advice and enforcement work. I have done a lot of injunctions in patent and trademark cases and a variety of infringement litigation in copyright, patent and trademark cases. What I enjoy most about my practice these days is the variety of work, including: deal support, licensing and litigation. It makes for a full work day that is not too predictable and never gets tiresome. Clients make it interesting, since I get to work with local emerging companies and established multinationals from around the world.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I graduated with a BA in Political Science and Law, with no real aspirations to become a lawyer. At the time, I was living in Ottawa and started to work as a client services representative for Rent Review Services. Every day, I told landlords and tenants what their rights were under the law, and I felt like I was handing them a gun. It was empowering for tenants to learn that they were entitled to receive notice, for instance, because the landlord wanted to enter to inspect or do a repair. I also had to repeat, about 30 times a day, that I was not able to give legal advice, but I could only tell them what the legislation said. By the end of a couple of months, I had decided “Damn it, I want to give legal advice!”. I planned to work for the underdog and empower people, possibly at a legal clinic. However, I ended up working at big law and representing luxury brand owners. I do still get involved in lots of pro bono causes and feel good projects, including charitable fundraising, but I do it on my spare time.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

I would have to say a lot of luck, but I certainly worked hard for it. Opportunities were given to me because I had an aptitude for certain types of work and I really immersed myself in my work. I also had some great mentors give me advice along the way, and I managed to try lots of different types of law as a young lawyer, which allowed me to figure out what I liked and what I could not tolerate. I love my work, so obviously I made some good choices along the way.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

Most recently, I rewrote the intellectual property laws for The Bahamas to make them TRIPS compliant as they want to accede to the WTO. This is possibly the coolest project I have ever done in terms of legacy work. I was in The Bahamas in late January for the public consultation workshops to present the legislation, which was a really special moment for me. It didn’t hurt that it was sunny and warm!

The other accomplishment I am especially proud of is having made a successful move about 18 months ago to Osler. I had been at Fasken for 17 years and it was daunting to make a move, but it has gone well beyond my expectations. Women tend to be risk adverse and loyal, but that doesn’t translate to being well treated. No wonder we have a glass ceiling (not just in law) and studies confirming that second year lawyers who are women are already paid less than their male counterparts. Many women are discouraged from making moves in law because they think it will be the same everywhere. I would like to say that is not my experience, firms are different culturally, and I think I have really found an amazing place to work. Hopefully that’s true well beyond the honeymoon phase of my move!

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

There have never been more opportunities for women lawyers, but the challenges remain. How to balance all the demands on your time and manage your stress and workload - those challenges are faced by all men and women in the legal profession. Add to that for women, how to be treated fairly and taken seriously, and how to get the best opportunities. Fortunately, law firms are under huge pressure from clients these days to put forward a diverse team of qualified lawyers to represent their interests, and not just a gaggle of white men. For the women in private practice who have stuck it out, there are huge opportunities to get work from companies who are demanding diversity in their outside counsel, and job opportunities both in house and at larger firms. In a shrinking and mature legal market, firms are pulling out all the stops to gain competitive advantage, which includes having a diverse team.

Women need to make sure they build their own books of business, build their profiles and don’t shy away from responsibility and promotions. Women do make great rainmakers, since business development is really just about building relationships, which women are naturally adept at.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

The legal workplace is undergoing a paradigm shift, but you can be part of the winners’ circle if you are not afraid to apply yourself and look for opportunities for promotion. Nothing comes easy, but it’s worth the effort. What’s interesting to me is that the new generation of young lawyers are doing things their way more than ever, and are redefining success in the process. Success is not just the partner role in the corner office, it can be leaving big law to start your own firm working from home, or going in house with a start-up. Law degrees are becoming more of a calling card for a broader range of professional careers than ever before. Find what you love and go after it. And don’t let anyone tell you what you’re worth!
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Thanks May for participating in this series and congratulations on your recent Lexpert Zenith Award!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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Women Leading in Law: Nicole Chrolavicius

6/29/2018

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Reader feedback has led to this next profile of lawyer Nicole Chrolavicius.

A reader wrote to inquire if I would be profiling any women who had successfully re-entered the practice of law after an extended absence, as she was seeking to return after a leave to raise her children. I reached out to my network and I am happy to say that this is the first of a few "successful return" stories that I will be posting. I hope these profiles will be helpful and encouraging to any lawyers contemplating a return to practice.

Read on to learn more about Nicole, her career as a human rights lawyer, and how she transitioned back to law:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I currently work as Counsel to Pooranlaw Professional Corporation, a leading social justice law firm dedicated to a just society for persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups. I also lecture in Constitutional Law and Legal Ethics in the Osgoode Professional Development LL.M. in the Canadian Common Law program. This dual role is perfect for me at this stage of my life and demonstrates that sometimes professional happiness resides in the road less travelled. By way of explanation, I actually took a five year break from the practice of law (from 2011 – 2016) to be home with my family. The arrival of our son Julien in 2011 was followed closely by the arrival of a surprise set of twins, Luke and Benjamin, in 2012. Having three boys in less than 16 months was not part of the plan; however, my husband and I embraced the “cute chaos” (our catch-phrase) and I decided to take a break from my career to explore a new role as mom to our young boys.

Before that time, I worked for five years as a litigation lawyer in a boutique human rights law firm in Toronto where I represented clients in a range of human rights issues, particularly in the area of national security and racial discrimination. I was honoured to work on such interesting and novel cases including no fly lists, security certificates and extraordinary rendition. I was no stranger to an unusual career path even at that time, having just returned from London, England where I worked for two years running the charity arm of the U.K.’s leading human rights organization and providing free legal advice to members of the public. I ended up in England having left my Bay Street job to pursue a Masters of Law at Oxford University with a specialization in human rights. Sometimes, you have to follow a novel path, even where you aren’t sure where it will lead you.

After five years at home with my boys, I was looking to re-enter the practice of law. They were off to kindergarten and I wanted to revive what had been an exciting legal career, albeit with the flexibility that allows me to continue to enjoy the many joys of parenthood. I leveraged the many wonderful connections with colleagues that I made over my years as a litigation lawyer and took up a part-time counsel position with an exciting law firm. Working at Pooranlaw Professional Corporation has been an incredible gift, as I am fortunate to work with the brightest legal minds and with people who I also consider to be my friends. The firm has allowed me to pursue a flexible work arrangement which means that I still get to be there when my son loses a tooth on the school picnic (true story), while taking up project-based legal work for the firm. The teaching is the icing on the cake. My colleagues at the firm had connections with Osgoode Hall Law School and one thing led to another. The academic in me is still so interested in the principles underlying the laws that govern us, and whether those laws could be otherwise. For that, teaching is a dream come true. It is also much more predictable than practicing, which helps with the unpredictability of my home life!

2. Why did you go to law school?

I went to law school at the University of Western Ontario to explore the theory of the law. I was studying Philosophy at Queen’s University during my undergraduate degree in the late 1990s and I was learning that there were as many ways to conceptualize thoughts as there are ideas. I think that a legal education is very well suited to those of us, among others, who love to dig deep into the foundations of the law. At Oxford, my favourite courses were philosophical and I suppose it is no big surprise that I love to teach. I also remember learning about Socrates, whose dialogues revealed that the wisest people are those who admit to themselves what they do not know. I am humbled every day to be able to learn and to give back and inspire students in the same way that I was inspired as a young person.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

There was definitely a mixture of design and chance at work. By design, I followed my true passions in legal theory and human rights. When I knew that working on Bay Street was not for me and that I wanted to pursue a career in human rights, I sought the education in human rights that would provide me with a reason for those few specialty human rights firms to give me an interview – a masters of law at Oxford University. I also worked hard as of course we must if we are to carve a path of our own making.

However, there is some chance at play as well. I remember being warned against taking a professional step many times in the past. For example, I was told that if I quit my litigation job on Bay Street in order to do my masters, I would never work as a litigation lawyer again (that was not true). I was cautioned against taking so much time out of practice to be home with my boys (but here I am, working as a lawyer). Sometimes we need to take a chance and follow our passions and see what comes.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

I had the opportunity in my legal career to work on some incredible cases, but one in particular had the biggest impact on me as a lawyer and as a person and that is the case of Benamar Benatta. Mr. Benatta was an Algerian refugee who came to the Canadian border via the United States claiming refugee status a few dates before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On September 12, 2001, without a hearing or indeed any due process to speak of, he was placed in the back of a car by Canadian officials, driven over the border in the night and handed over to the FBI as a suspect in the attacks. He was completely innocent. Mr. Benatta spent five years in prison in the USA. After high level negotiations saw his return to Canada in 2006, I took up his case against the Government of Canada for his illegal transfer. His case eventually settled but not without a long legal fight for justice, including some key litigation steps including the following decision: Benatta v. Canada (Attorney General) 2009 CanLII 70999 (ON SC). His case is precisely why I decided to become a lawyer, and I was humbled and honoured to have worked in advancing his quest for justice.

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

I think one of the key challenges (which should really be an opportunity) for women in law is to find flexible work. There was a time in my life when I could dedicate every waking hour to my legal practice (see the case of Mr. Benatta, above!). However, that changed when I had my family. I wanted to be able to continue my work as a lawyer but without sacrificing being a hands-on mom to my three boys. I am all for ways in which we women lawyers can support one another in finding flexible work (including job sharing and other flexible arrangements). In my opinion, the profession itself needs to rethink the ways in which we practice in order to attract and retain dedicated professional women.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Follow your true passions! While it may be easier to follow the safe path, true happiness sometimes lies in that curved, uncertain road less travelled. It may take some time to find it, but you’ll be glad you stayed the course.
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Thank you Nicole for telling your story and providing some great advice.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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Women Leading in Law: Charlene Theodore

6/22/2018

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Our next "woman leading in law" is Charlene Theodore, who is currently working as Counsel for the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association.

I first met Charlene when she was a panelist on a program I helped organize for the Ontario Bar Association's Women Lawyers Forum on networking advice (if anyone can give advice on networking it is Charlene, she is really good at it!) Read on to learn more about Charlene's career path and her career advice targeted at in-house counsel:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I’m a lawyer with a background in public policy and government relations and I have devoted my career to the protection of people in the workplace and in society. I articled and then worked as Policy Counsel for the African Canadian Legal Clinic. I went on to represent unions, acting as Counsel to the Ontario Nurses’ Association, and now work Counsel for the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA). I advise management and staff on the impact of legislative and regulatory changes in the education sector and provide legal assistance to teachers who are disabled or injured at work. I also advise on issues related to benefits and pensions. I love my job and I love that my work has a positive impact on employees of predominantly female workforces.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I was a such a bookworm as a kid. When I was 15 or 16, I read “The Steven Truscott Story”. I remember the feeling of horror that someone my age could be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. You would think it would have driven me towards criminal law, but what I took from that story was the power that lawyers and judges had to right wrongs in any area of society. Once I finished the book, I spoke to my guidance counsellor to find out how I could get into the profession.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

I am very happy with what I have achieved and where I am in my career today. I got to this place by trusting my instincts, keeping things in perspective, being unafraid to make choices that worked for me as opposed to what was expected of me.

One of the best decisions I made was to accept an offer from the International Bar Association for an internship in their International Commercial Law Program in the summer of my second year. The conventional thing to do would be to take a job at home that would lead to an articling position. Accepting that job took me out of the running for those coveted summer jobs at home, and also paid nothing but a stipend for living expenses. It exposed me to the the intersection of human rights law and commercial law in the global economy. I came home from England with no clue as to where I was going to article but with a wealth of experience and no regrets. My experience in the UK did lead to a great articling position where I had the opportunity to advocate against racism before the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination for Racial Discrimination, as well as federal and provincial legislative committees. My specialized human rights experience opened the doors for me to do the work I do now.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

I’ve never shared this publicly before but in my third year of law school I was sidelined with a bout of severe depression and anxiety. Those feelings of extreme sadness, the paralyzing panic I would feel before every exam - I thought they were just the normal reactions to the pressures of law school. Having to deal with a diagnosis like that in the final year of law school and manage this new reality and the stigma that comes with it during articling and at the start of my career was too challenging to articulate. That I made it through without derailing my career and ended up happy and healthy in both my professional and personal life is my most significant achievement. I have “pinch me” moments of gratitude daily because I know how close I was to losing my career before it even started.

5. What are some key challenges and opportunities for women in law?

I’d like to use this answer to speak to women working in-house or those aspiring to an in-house role.

This work can be very rewarding but also very isolating. You can very easily become disconnected from issues that affect the Bar as a whole. Additionally, when you work in house you have to navigate both the legal landscape and the particular corporate landscape of that organization. Both of which can present challenges for women in male dominated workspaces. I think it’s important to make sure you have a presence outside of the legal department. Sit in on meetings, offer to assist work groups and committees, - it will inform your legal work and dispel the common notion that we’re needed for “just” transactional work. It’s also important to develop relationships with other in house counsel and other lawyers. They can be an important resource for how to manage your client relationship. Volunteer for a Bar or lawyer association and get to know lawyers outside of your company, industry or sector.

I hope we are getting closer to the point where the opportunities are starting to outweigh the challenges. Until we get there, women need to be vigilant about advocating for themselves at work and making sure they are not sidelined when professional opportunities arise.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

I hear from a lot of young women in our profession who are unhappy with their work or the pace of advancement in their field. You need to put in the time and gain experience to have full agency over your career - you can’t circumvent that. That being said, earning a law degree in this country bestows privilege. You didn’t put in all of that work to be stuck in a job you hate. Always know that you have options - at every single stage of your career.

Speaking specifically to black female lawyers, don’t ever lose your connection to your community. Seek out networks with other black female lawyers and other professionals that you can rely on while you navigate your career path. The reality is that path and your obstacles will be different than those of other women. When you make it, reach back and create opportunities for other people of colour whenever you can.
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Thank you Charlene for taking the time to provide such honest and open answers.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst,  Jennifer Taylor,  Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Dyanoosh Youssefi

6/13/2018

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I first met our next lawyer in this series, Dyanoosh Youssefi, in 2014 when she was running for the position of City Councillor for Ward 16 (soon to be Ward 14). What I liked (and like) about Dyanoosh is that she is a politician who seeks to improve the lives of all of Toronto's citizens (not just the ones who may vote for her). While Dyanoosh lost the 2014 election, I am happy that she has decided to run again (election day: October 22, 2018). We need more women in politics and a more diverse and inclusive city council. Dyanoosh would be a great addition. Read on to learn more about Dyanoosh's professional roles (lawyer, writer, politician, non-profit founder....) and how she fit a "traditional" life into her "untraditional" career path:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I do a lot of different things and integrate social justice issues into everything that I do. I am a non-profit leader, a legal studies professor, a writer, a social justice advocate, a life time volunteer, and a former criminal defence lawyer. Four years ago, I added politician to that list. My career path is untraditional, unpredictable, and risky, but I am compelled to take this path. Since a young age, I’ve had the desire -the need- to make the world a better place. My life and my career path have always been about the “how.”
When I was a criminal defence lawyer, I cherished the work- helping some of the most disenfranchised and marginalized people in society is an honourable job.

I am a writer and I love it- I believe that raising awareness is one of the most effective and honest methods of affecting change. My hope is that my occasional writing on criminal and social justice issues encourages greater public awareness, engagement, and ultimately, change.

I founded and run All IN, a non-profit that advocates for inclusive communities. Because we are a start up and it is one of the many things I do, All IN is run on a meager budget and exclusively through volunteerism.

I am also a (hopefully soon to be elected) politician. Politics is the culmination of my various volunteer, advocacy, and outreach efforts. It is, for me, the best way to build inclusive communities and to effect long-term change for all of our benefit. I ran for Toronto City Council in 2014 (came pretty close to being elected) and am running again now.

2. Why did you go to law school?

Cliché but true: to make the world a better place. Before- and evening during- law school, I didn’t have a particular job in in mind that would allow me achieve my goals, but I knew that law school could give me some of the skills as well as the credibility I needed to get close.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

A lot of idealism, plenty of purpose, perseverance, and work, work, work. The alternative of taking a more traditional route (which would allow for more financial stability as well as a more accepted measure of “success”) was just not an option for me.

In 1983, when I was 12, my family escaped from Iran and emigrated to Canada via Spain. We came with very little, and my parents worked very hard. I did not have all the material things that my peers had, but we certainly had what we needed.

I have not had family or other connections that lead me to law or to politics. The paths I’ve taken are completely untraditional, and often puzzling, to my family. At the same time, compared to other young feminist social justice-oriented lawyers I know, my choices were unusual. None of them took off the amount of time I did to raise their children. One even told me it was a terrible mistake. I often felt out of place with my other feminist colleagues, because I took off years from my practice and a fully engaged public life to raise my kids. That decision has meant that I constantly have to reinvent myself as I enter new fields that can accommodate my schedule and fulfill my professional needs.

I believe that if you are both committed to having a “public” life and are traditional, in that you want to be home with your kids when they are little, you are in for a tough battle, both internally, and with a work force that cannot recognize or appreciate a “renaissance woman’s” resumé.

Fortunately, I have a supportive family who has helped me with my children. I had a partner who supported my dreams, though we certainly had our (gender-based) challenges in dealing with family and careers. And I am tremendously fortunate to have had amazing colleagues who have given me support and mentorship. Without their guidance and friendship, everything would undoubtedly have been much more difficult.

In some ways, life would have been easier if I had gone to Bay Street.   I may also have achieved a higher status and had greater recognition if I stuck to one career path all these years.    But Bay Street was never the reason I went to law school. And recognition can come at any stage in life.

In any event, I always say that women live longer so that we have more time to do all the things we want to do, and to make up for the time that many of us spend out of public life in order to raise a family!

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

Maybe it’s still on its way? At least I hope that it is.

I am proud of many things. I am proud of having genuinely made a difference in my clients’ lives, when I practiced as a criminal defence lawyer. I am proud of having started All IN, a non-profit that advocates for inclusive neighbourhoods, and brings together the interconnected issues of housing, employment, poverty, policing, criminal justice, and equity and fairness. I am proud of having run for public office in 2014, and now again, in 2018.

I also feel pride in persevering, continuing to care, and staying committed to making the world a better place, despite the internal and external challenges that always persist.

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

The challenges facing women reflect those that face society and many other previously male-dominated professions. Women still are not often heard or taken as seriously in the boardroom (I have faced this in various settings.) Women of colour often face additional obstacles, of course. And women who want to raise families still carry a greater burden and face more challenges than their male counterparts. Of course, things are changing, particularly as more women assert themselves and more men want to have a more meaningful role in their families and an equal partnership.
What I see though is more entrepreneurship, where women (like Flex Legal’s founder), design and define their own work outside the traditional parameters of law.   This is certainly an area where there are more opportunities for all the exceptional and creative women in law. My hope is to see more of this innovative entrepreneurship in social justice fields as well.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Look deep within your heart. What is the thing that you wanted to do as a child? What is the thing that still makes you cry? What is the thing that tugs at your heart? Pursue THAT.
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Thank you Dyanoosh for your comments and for sharing your personal story and experiences with us.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst,  Jennifer Taylor,  Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! The series will continue until December 2018.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Shannon Salter

6/6/2018

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The next lawyer featured in this series is another great example of someone who is using her legal degree in a new and exciting way outside of the traditional practice of law.

Shannon Salter is the Chair of the groundbreaking Civil Resolution Tribunal in British Columbia, an online dispute resolution forum accessible to the public for small disputes. It is truly addressing the significant access to justice problem we face in this country. Read on not only to learn more about this fantastic initiative, but also about Shannon's wonderful advice to new lawyers and her three "calls to action" for women in law:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business.

I’m the Chair of an access to justice initiative called the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT). It’s the first online tribunal in Canada, which helps people resolve everyday small claims and condominium disputes, wherever, whenever it works for them. We give people free legal information and tools, and support them to reach an agreement through negotiation and mediation. Where people can’t agree, tribunal members make a binding decision, which is enforceable as a court order. The whole process is simple, using plain language, and can be done on a smartphone from your couch. Our goal is to transform the justice system by bringing it to the public and building it around their needs. The CRT is in a period of intense growth. This month the provincial government announced that the tribunal’s jurisdiction will expand to include a significant number of motor vehicle personal injury disputes beginning next April.

2. Why did you go to law school?

Like many of us, I went to law school because I thought it was a meaningful way to help people protect their rights. In practice, and particularly through pro bono work, I realized that legal rights are meaningless unless there are accessible ways to enforce them. That’s why I’ve committed my career to finding ways to transform and reorient the civil justice system to meet the needs of the people to whom it belongs.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

I think a little bit of both, with the help of a very supportive spouse and a healthy dose of luck as well. I started my career in civil litigation, doing a lot of pro bono work, before undertaking an LLM at the University of Toronto in 2010. When I returned to Vancouver, with a baby in tow, I decided to focus on administrative law and quasi-judicial work and was appointed Vice Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal. I think all of these experiences, combined with teaching administrative law and legal ethics at Allard, provided a diverse mix of experience, perspectives, and skills which were very helpful in building the first online tribunal in Canada (and possibly the world!). I obviously had no idea I would be doing this when I was in law school, but being part of the CRT is my dream job and I pinch myself every day that I get to work with wonderful people on issues I care about deeply. I’m very lucky.

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

I am very proud of the Civil Resolution Tribunal, as you can probably tell. Behind this tribunal is an incredibly committed, diverse, thoughtful, and creative team that I’m grateful to work with every day. The tribunal is the first of its kind in part due to the use of technology, but I’m most proud of our non-technology innovations, which mostly have to do with creating a culture of inclusivity, learning, and continuous improvement. We are pioneering a fundamentally different model for the justice system. One that focusses on empowering people to be active participants in the process, and supports them to resolve problems collaboratively. One that recognizes that people have a context, and strives to accommodate their needs in order to treat them with dignity and respect throughout the process. The CRT is showing that there is a better way, and it’s so exciting to see our model being expanded in British Columbia and also adopted in other jurisdictions, including in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.

5. What are some key challenges and, importantly, opportunities for women in law?

Women in the legal profession face many barriers, from all different directions, and in my view the situation hasn’t improved much in decades, despite the work of some incredible pioneering women, and despite many reports detailing the obstacles women face. Women in law deal with harassment and discrimination on a daily basis. We disproportionately bear the burden of balancing family and work obligations, and we are set up to fail on both fronts. We are regularly re-explained, undermined, talked over, underestimated, and overanalyzed. And, of course, all of these issues disproportionately impact women of colour, Indigenous women, LGBTQ folk, and women with disabilities, among others.

That said, I think we have some tremendous opportunities in this moment. The #metoo movement has brought an increased awareness of some of these issues, and a willingness to confront them. I think there’s a real opportunity for women to shift power in the legal profession towards equality and inclusivity. I recently talked about three ways we can do this in a keynote at the Women in the Law dinner. It’s posted here, but basically my calls to action are these:

1) Apply for everything. Don’t wait until you think you’re more senior, more ready, more experienced, or more qualified. Women underestimate their own abilities and qualifications and I see this every time I assess a candidate pool or do an interview panel.

2) Invite other women to apply for everything. Often women don’t see themselves in positions of authority, and are less likely to apply for these roles than men. An invitation from another woman can be the vote of confidence and nudge we need to throw our hat in the ring.

3) Be the persistent, unapologetic voice of accountability. In every organization I’m a part of, whether it’s the CRT or a board position, I raise equality and diversity issues in a matter-of-fact, helpful way every single time until they have been addressed. There’s usually not all that much resistance to thinking about these issues, it’s just that no one has ever put them on the agenda. Sometimes the inequalities women face seem so big and insurmountable that people don’t know where to start, or even that they might, unwittingly, be part of the problem. So use your spot at the table to make inequality visible, and make it impossible to ignore.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Apply for everything (see above)! But also, identify women in law you admire and invite them for coffee. This is another thing that men seem to have less trouble doing than women. We think we’re bothering people, but most of the time, people are flattered that you admire their work and are happy to share their experience. I know I am, and I almost always make time to meet with young lawyers. Ask how they sought out opportunities, what they wish they had known when they were just starting out, what they like and dislike about their work, and how they manage their non-work obligations. Share the kind of work you’re interested in and ask them to keep you in mind if they see related opportunities come up. This is particularly important if you are choosing a non-traditional career path. Follow up with a thank you and keep in touch. My theory is that most mentors aren’t volunteers; instead, they are adopted by the mentee. I learned the value of mentorship later than I should have, but still, most of the fantastic lessons and opportunities in my career have come through some truly incredible women mentors, and I will always be grateful to them.
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Thank you Shannon for taking the time to answer these questions and for your wonderful insights and advice!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired!

The series will continue until December 2018. If you have suggestions of women to be profiled please reach out.

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Bindu Cudjoe

5/29/2018

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I have long admired the next leading lawyer profiled in this series: Bindu Cudjoe, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Technology & Operations Legal & Chief Knowledge Officer at BMO Financial (now that's a title!).
We first met as colleagues at McMillan LLP and I've been watching Bindu's career skyrocket ever since. Read on to learn more about Bindu's in-house role and her confidence that one day we will have a more inclusive and diverse profession:

1. Tell me a little about your practice or business:

I started out in practice as a secured lending lawyer, representing banks as they made large loans (cross-border, syndicated, collateralized) to their clients, first at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and then McMillan LLP.

Now I am in-house counsel at BMO Financial Group where I have had a variety of roles, from senior counsel for the Canadian Commercial business, to associate general counsel in Capital Markets covering corporate banking, trade finance and correspondent banking, and then into management-focused roles, first as Chief Operating Officer for the legal and compliance group (overseeing HR, finance, real estate, communications and the outside counsel management program for the bank) and most recently as Chief Knowledge Officer for the legal and compliance group (overseeing our group’s technology and knowledge management initiatives, project management and board reporting and the enterprise’s eDiscovery and litigation support work). In addition to Chief Knowledge Officer, I am also the deputy general counsel for the legal team supporting technology, operations, real estate, marketing, procurement and information risk (including cyber risk, privacy and data loss/retention). It’s been quite a ride!

2. Why did you go to law school?

Fundamentally, I wanted to learn a lot of stuff, and help people. I studied business for my undergrad, and while I seriously considered management consulting, I pursued law because I loved the idea of unlocking the language of law to help people navigate the complexity of issues in their lives. I think it’s a great privilege to have the training and discipline that the legal profession requires and to be able to apply that understanding to solve problems for our clients, and for us, our customers.

3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both?

Design, mostly. I am very goal oriented and struck out to complete school as efficiently as possible, and then to climb the law ladder as efficiently as possible. So when I got to partnership (brass ring! Goal reached!) at McMillan, I had to take a hard look at myself, my purpose, and my professional priorities, and think about what I wanted to do when there was no obvious next goal. My desires to learn and help people remained so I chose to leave one terrific organization to join another terrific organization to learn and apply different skills, in a different environment.

At BMO, I have been able to apply the commitment to client service, technical legal excellence and entrepreneurship that I learned in the law firm environment and develop new skills around business operations, people management and driving change to take on new roles and accountabilities, where I continue to learn and help people (our clients and my team). The chance part is that the step I took has led to opportunities I couldn’t have imagined!

4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of?

My family. I have an enriching professional life and it is made all the better because I am a partner to my supportive husband (20 years this month!), a mother to three beautiful children, and a daughter to my loving parents. I didn’t let fear of not being able to “do it all” drive trade-offs on the ‘what’ [but believe me, there are trade-offs on the ‘how’!] and I am proud that I am an example to other women, bumps, bruises and all.

5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law?

Setting unrealistic expectations for ourselves and then not allowing anyone to help us. Goals are not expectations. No one is perfect. No one can do it all on their own. We need support, encouragement and community. We need to learn how to face and overcome challenges (big and little), and thrive. And that takes practice.

Developing resilience is our greatest opportunity – it is what keeps us trying even when the systemic barriers remain, when we stumble over difficult clients, when we struggle to juggle all of the responsibilities we have at work and home. The drive to keep trying is powerful, and it means that one day we will see meaningful inclusion throughout society so we can reap the benefits of diverse perspectives and experiences.

6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?

Be excited! What a great time to start practicing – everything is up for grabs! Clients, economic forces and technology are changing how law is delivered and by whom, and is the chance for women to take their seat at the table. Women clients (in big organizations and in their own creations) are increasingly influential. Let’s build a truly inclusive world so women and men can contribute and build together.
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Thank you Bindu for taking the time to participate in this series!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee , and Eva Chan. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired!

The series will continue until December 2018. If you have suggestions of women to be profiled please reach out.

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