 Welcome back to the Women Leading in Law blog series. Today's post features Maneesha Gupta, an IP lawyer and the founder of Mindful Lawyer Canada, Canada's premier mindfulness community for legal professionals. I think at this point in the pandemic we could all use a little more mindfulness in our lives. Read on to learn more about Maneesha's journey and success in law: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am an Intellectual Property and Technology lawyer practicing in all aspects of IP, advertising, and technology law. I am currently working at TD Bank. I advise on cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, automation and risk management for AI adoption. I started Mindful Lawyer Canada to motivate people to lead inspired lives. The idea was born on Bay Street in 2018. I felt drained, powerless, defeated, and lost. Early on in my career, I also saw that a lot of things were broken in the way lawyers talked about self-care and mental health. I put my hobbies on the backburner and remember how hard it was to attend personal appointments due to limited time and a fluctuating work schedule. I had spent hours looking for an easy-to-access group of lawyers seeking wellness, personal development, and peer-to-peer solutions. Initially, my aim was to create a community meditation space for lawyers. MLC has since expanded beyond that to a suite of corporate wellness programs, weekly mindfulness sessions and events catered to any legal professional. Pursuing mindfulness with peers can be an incredible way to boost our energy, support our physical and mental health, and connect with others. For the law firms, proactive and scalable mindfulness and inclusion helps to retain talent, reduce lawyer burn-out, save money, and improve the health and productivity of employees. I remember within the first week with a post on it, someone contacted me to run a mindfulness event for hundreds of legal professionals. And then the second big tech event was booked, and how inspiring and encouraging that was. The pandemic has taught us that we need connection and community in our lives now more than ever. 2. Why did you go to law school? Unlike most people, I wanted a law degree as a stepping stone to the next chapter in my career. I have a long way to go. I come from a large family of established doctors and engineers, so it took a lot to convince them that this was going to be my path. I paid for everything myself in school and worked multiple jobs to make it all fit. At Osgoode Hall Law School, I loved the faculty, took part in a moot, and enjoyed my favourite course called Beyond Bay Street, which confirmed this was the right decision for me. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Mostly design. Despite all the science degrees around me, I gravitated towards becoming a lawyer. There was no inflection point – a career in law was my "calling" and I streamlined all my goals with that in mind. I am self-driven and proud to be a first generation lawyer. I also come from a close-knit and exceptionally hard-working family. My parents left India more than 50 years ago and from a young age, they instilled in us the importance of standing on your own two feet, honouring your roots, having integrity, and giving back. My parents and I share a strong bond - they are my closest friends, a huge part of who I am, and how I got to where I am. I am also inspired by other women leading in law. Eva Chan is a trailblazer who leads by example. Eva has taught me so much about being focused, authentic, intentional, purposeful, and supporting others. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? While there are many things I am proud of (running full marathons, being a dragon-boater, dance), nothing will beat the feeling of passing my bar exams and being called to the bar with my colleagues. All my dreams came true that day, and my sacrifices and hard work had paid off. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? We have a white-male driven legal profession with significant gender and racial challenges. Consequently, people of colour, persons of disability, women and other gender identities often repeatedly demonstrate their commitment and competence thereby feeling exhausted and demoralized. Earning a law degree in Canada is a privilege – a legal education gives you the opportunity to rise up, influence decision-making and create space for different races, backgrounds, and genders. Don’t waste your time being a passive bystander in your career. No matter what direction you decide to take, invest in your own growth and make it work for you. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Integrity, reputation, and ethics are paramount to your character and career – start and end with these values in mind. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t stay in jobs where you are living an inauthentic life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you Maneesha for taking the time to participate in this series and I look forward to seeing Mindful Lawyer Canada's continued success! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Victoria Perrie, Amee Sandhu, Tanya Walker, Alysia Christiaen, Patricia Gamliel, Megan Cornell, Yola Ventrescu, Hilary Book, Margaret Waddell, Nandi Deterville, Jennifer Quaid, Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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. 
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 I am so happy to start the New Year with another wonderful profile in the Women Leading in Law series. Meet Victoria Perrie a criminal lawyer with Legal Aid Nunavut. The photo is of Victoria straddling the latitudinal line representing the Arctic Circle, at below -50 temperature, in Naujaat, Nunavut, while there for circuit court!
1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am a criminal lawyer with Legal Aid Nunavut. I work in Kangiqłiniq, or Rankin Inlet. We are a small office with three criminal lawyers, two family lawyers, and three court workers. Legal Aid Nunavut has a decentralized approach to service delivery, with offices and organizational leaders spread across the territory in Iqaluit, Kangigłiniq, Iqaluktuuttiaq, and Uqsuqtuuk. What is really special about working in Nunavut the opportunity to travel and constantly meet new people. The office I work at is the regional office for the entire Kivalliq region. Lawyers from my office represent clients in each of the seven communities in the Kivalliq. I travel at least once every three weeks for work – and I love it! There are four official languages of Nunavut. I regularly deliver legal services through an interpreter, and appear in court for hearings which will have consecutive interpretation. Cross-examination with interpretation is a skill you will learn, if you’re working in Nunavut! Learning to speak clearly and concisely is a must to ensure you are communicating with your client and interpreter effectively. Working on Inuit territory has given me the chance to explore the land, learn from elders and develop my litigation skills. From watching the northern lights dance in the sky, making long treks across the sea ice in the back of a qamutik, eating whale, seal, and polar bear, learning to prepare and harvest a caribou, to arguing in circuit courts, the Nunavut Court of Justice, and supporting public legal education – Nunavut really has a lot to offer for personal and professional development. 2. Why did you go to law school? I went to law school to learn colonial law and gain skills to be a better advocate. Throughout my pre-law life, I worked in a number of advocate service positions. I have worked for folks with diverse abilities, with many people living with FASD and ARND, those engaged in sex work, and kids in care. I wanted to learn to better use my voice to support the populations I had worked with, and to help others access justice. I thought a law degree would help me understand how to navigate systems and hone my advocacy skills. Becoming a lawyer taught me just that. Law school also taught me humility, courage, respect, and how to deal with the rollercoaster of stress and anxiety that comes with existing in a colonial institution. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I wouldn’t say I got to where I am today by chance or design, but rather by standing on the shoulders of giants who have come before me. Every ‘career’ decision has been made by following my heart. I have only worked on projects or took employment from places doing work that I believed in. If a firm or organization or project or person leading the work didn’t reflect my personal values or didn’t have a purpose I truly believed in, I wouldn’t engage and moved along. What has got me this far is going with my gut, not giving up, doing things I’m truly passionate about, being brave enough to fail, always trying new things, and sticking to my morals. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I spent a lot of time thinking about this question and trying to decide what I would call my most significant achievement. The answer I’ve come up with is that it hasn’t happened yet. There are many things in my life that I am proud of: passing the bar, publishing papers, starting a theater school for Indigenous youth, speaking at conferences, working internationally, helping clients navigate colonial systems, my family and friends, but none of these individual experiences of pride can be chalked up as greater than another. For me, once a goal has been accomplished, I move on to the next, constantly changing my focus. Stay tuned for my most significant achievement. I can’t wait to find out what it is. My most recent experience of pride, was developing and teaching a for-credit law school course in Rankin Inlet. Working with several community partners, I was able to launch my Indigenous developed and delivered program as a for-credit high school course. This course discussed colonial law, Inuit law, and the differences and similarities between the two. Students learned from elders, community justice workers, and practicing lawyers. This class intended to culminate into a final moot presentation at the Nunavut Court of Justice to a room of Inuit justice participants. Unfortunately covid arrived in Nunavut in November 2020, putting an end to in-class instruction and school travel plans. I am now working to revamp this program and make it even better for delivery in fall 2021. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? White heteronormative patriarchy in colonial Canada is this huge umbrella of oppressive sludge which we all wade through to do our jobs. The “old boys club” of law still very much exists, even though some women are now allowed to sit at the table. Rules of ‘good character’ are set for members of the bar, making it difficult for some to access a legal career. For me, the most challenging notion is that I actively uphold and enforce the colonizers imposed laws, on land where laws have and continue to exist since time immemorial, by virtue of being a criminal lawyer. I think, within this challenge, lies opportunity. Opportunities to address situations of injustice in the court room, at the office, or on a conference call. The opportunity to be actively anti-racist and attempt to provide a trauma free experience for a client. The opportunity to be part of the change and working towards legal revolution where Indigenous opinions and legal frameworks are considered in all situations, by lawyers and judges, in policing, and by justices at all court levels. Each day is an opportunity to advance the concept that the Indigenous laws which exist on these lands need to be adhered to. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Trust your instincts and know yourself. I know after 3 or more years of law school, you’re probably exhausted. It is important to know what kind of person you are, or want to be. If you are uncomfortable with something, don’t do it. Don’t stay in a job or an internship or an article that kills your spirit: you WILL find something else. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Take up space and make your voice heard in the board room, the court room, and in your communities. Don’t do something because it would ‘look good’ on your resume. Do things that you love. If you haven’t already, think about your boundaries, and what they are. Don’t tolerate clients, colleagues or workplaces that cross those boundaries. Most importantly: listen to Myrna McCallum’s podcast: The Trauma-Informed Lawyer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Victoria for taking the time to participate in this series and we all look forward to hearing about your next great achievement, I am sure it will be amazing! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Amee Sandhu, Tanya Walker, Alysia Christiaen, Patricia Gamliel, Megan Cornell, Yola Ventrescu, Hilary Book, Margaret Waddell, Nandi Deterville, Jennifer Quaid, Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.  Welcome back to the Women Leading in Law blog series. Today we are privileged to learn from Amee Sandhu founder of the law firm Lex Integra. I first met Amee at a women lawyers event and enjoyed running into her at various events over the next few years. Eventually we joined the same business book club together. Amee has lots of great advice to share and has an interesting journey through law:
1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I have been a lawyer for almost 21 years. I was called in Ontario in 2000. After a long career in-house, and a few years on Toronto’s Bay Street before that, I started my own practice about 15 months ago. I have also started teaching business law to undergrads, and mentoring with the Law Practice Program at Ryerson University I went through a re-structuring at my last employer and decided that I would start my own practice. My mother, a small business woman, had been asking me since I was called to the bar why I did not have my own law firm. It only took 20 years! I felt that this would give me more control over my schedule and allow me to be more present with my kids. We can have a separate discussion about whether my kids agree that this has worked! My firm is called Lex Integra. I am a solo-preneur. I exclusively practice in the areas of business law and corporate ethics. My clients range from other law firms, tech start-ups/ scale-ups, women-preneur businesses, TSX/ NYSE stock exchange listed companies, crown corporations, and professional firms (eg. accounting, architecture, law). I help my clients mainly in these 4 areas:
2. Why did you go to law school? I went to McGill Law. I went for a few related reasons. In my law school application, I focused on how I wanted to use my skills and degree to help others. My father had succeeded in persuading me (after decades of trying!) by explaining that law was a career where I could change my career direction every few years. He was so right about this! It was actually while I was in graduate school doing my Master of Arts that I realised my original career idea of being an academic was not a good fit for me; I wanted to work with others. From my family point of view, knowing how much my parents sacrificed as immigrants, and how their education plans were thwarted, I wanted to do it for them as well. My dad was on track to being one of the youngest professors of econometrics at his university in India. His move to Canada changed that career path for him. As still happens to many people today, so many decades later, my father’s university credentials were not recognized in Canada. He gained admission to McMaster University to earn his Canadian credentials, but by that point, I was on the way and so he had to find work instead. My mother was the first female in her village in Punjab to go to high school. To do that, she had to leave her village and stay with another family in a bigger, nearby town. This was due to the modernizing vision of my Nana (maternal grandfather) who was the Lambardar of their village and an elected Sarpanch as well. Had my mother’s family not immigrated to Canada, I am sure she would have been gone on to university in India. But instead, my mother and her whole extended family migrated to the UK and then later to Canada. This made it hard for the young generation of her family at that time to continue their education in a traditional sense. You could say I partly pursued my profession because of all of them and what they gave up for our generation. My parents always valued education above all else. As a 10-year-old child, while we were not well-off, I knew I would go to university. I actually thought it was mandatory for all children, considering how my parents always talked to us about it. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Definitely chance. And by seeing change as an opportunity, as opposed to a threat. I always did a “gut check” to see if I was happy or satisfied in my work. Unfortunately, sometimes it took me too long to recognize if I was not. I have been happiest when I can connect my daily work with a broader purpose. When I followed a career path that was based on my values, interests, mentoring, where I had some control over my working conditions and ability to grow and learn, I was and am happiest. Also, respect for those I work with is key. Once I made peace with the fact that I was not going to follow the “typical” career path, I was much more content. I articled at a prestigious large law firm, now called Borden Ladner Gervais. I did not get hired back (that year only about 50% were hired back); I still have great relationships with many I met during that time. I went on to learn a tremendous amount as a young associate at an excellent mid-sized firm with top-notch lawyers. The next big move I made was to go in-house. As a 3rd year associate, I went from Minden Gross LLP to work in the Canadian nuclear industry at Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. I am almost 50 years old now, but if I need advice, I still call my former AECL or Minden Gross mentors, who are mostly enjoying their well-earned retirements now. Once in-house, I was given two amazing opportunities to grow. Each involved leaving the legal department: First, a secondment to the head of commercial operations at AECL, and then years later to become an integrity officer at SNC-Lavalin in the newly created ethics and compliance department. I could write books about what these two experiences were like in terms of the professional learning and growth. Each move ended up lasting 5-6 years. I jumped at each chance, because I knew that I was going to learn from some of the best and brightest people in the world. If I hesitated, it was because I worried about the impact on my legal career – but I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it. But in the end, it made me a better lawyer, because the new roles took me into business operations in such a way, that I understood business drivers, challenges, and risks in a new way. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? Starting my own law firm. I am grateful to everyone who has offered their guidance and assistance. My work on the ethics and compliance team at SNC-Lavalin. We created, rolled out, implemented and operationalized a world-class ethics and compliance program world-wide, across several continents, countries and languages. We changed hearts and minds around the world. I am still asked to speak on panels and conferences regularly. I am so proud of that work we did as a team. As an individual, I am also extremely proud. I have received so many personal messages from employees thanking me for my work. In 2011-2012, I was the lead lawyer on one of the largest deals in Ontario. I was the lead lawyer for SNC-Lavalin Nuclear-Aecon joint venture in negotiations with Ontario Power Generation for the refurbishment of the Darlington Nuclear Power Station. As stated in many newspapers at the time, phase 1 was worth $600 million and phase 2 was in the billions. We negotiated the phase 1 and phase 2 agreement at that time. I must add that I was pregnant with my twins for part of this time. And in my life before kids, running a marathon. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Great question. This is hard for me to judge, because as a woman of South Asian descent, I cannot differentiate how things would have been for me if I was a white woman. I don’t know if I experienced things because I was a woman, or because I was a racial minority, or both. I think one key challenge is that women are both socialised and expected to behave in certain ways. This includes being expected to be polite and “wait your turn” when other people take up space in meetings. Or worse, when you don’t behave according to that script, being told or made to feel that you are difficult to work with. This is even more the case if your cultural background does not conform to the hegemonic culture, and you were raised with other socialization traits. Another aspect of this socialization is for women to take on the emotional burden within families, jobs, among co-workers, etc. This can be a wonderful addition to your life, and to those around you. But it does take time and energy and focus. We are often not aware that we are doing this, or how much precious energy this is taking that we could be spending elsewhere. I have seen it referred to as the third burden that women have, after their job and domestic and care responsibilities. In terms of opportunities, I see tremendous opportunity. With the rise in female business owners, I see an opportunity for female business lawyers to support them. There is also room for lots of disruption in the legal opportunity. When I first left private practice in 2020, I noticed the large percentage of women leaving to go in-house. I understood the question “why can’t we keep women in law firms”? But I also knew that lots of my male lawyer friends were unhappy as well. But they stayed. I always felt bad for my male friends who felt this social pressure to conform in a way that it appeared female lawyer did not. In a way, it seemed that women lawyers gave themselves more permission to leave work environments that were not working for them. That may be different with the younger generations, and I hope so. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career?
Thank you Amee for taking the time to participate in this series and for sharing your experiences and advice with us! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Tanya Walker, Alysia Christiaen, Patricia Gamliel, Megan Cornell, Yola Ventrescu, Hilary Book, Margaret Waddell, Nandi Deterville, Jennifer Quaid, Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.  Welcome back to the "Women Leading In Law" blog series, where everyone can read about the personal experiences of some amazing lawyers from across the country and learn great advice on succeeding and leading in law. Today's post features litigator Tanya Walker the founder of Walker Law Professional Corporation:
1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am the owner and founder of Walker Law Professional Corporation. I opened the firm initially on Bay Street ten years ago with the aid of a part-time assistant and a $5,000 loan from my father. Walker Law is now located in the nucleus of the financial district. The firm employs eight full time staff members. At Walker Law, tasks are delegated based on complexity, meaning that a junior lawyer, articling student, or paralegal is provided with the opportunity to work on a client’s file while being supervised by a senior lawyer. This strategy reduces clients’ legal fees because the client is billed at the significantly lower rate of a paralegal or junior lawyer and is only charged for the supervision of the senior lawyer. Not only does this strategy benefit clients, but also the junior on the file. When given the opportunity to work on a client file, the junior staff member tends to experience a higher morale because he or she is presented with the opportunity to learn and develop. Walker Law provides litigation assistance focusing on facets of civil litigation including property, employment and contract law. The firm has been retained to represent clients at various stages of the dispute resolution process. We represent small to medium sized businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies. 2. Why did you go to law school? As a child, I wanted to become a lawyer because I watched the Cosby Show and aspired to be like Claire Huxtable, the black mother on the show who worked as a lawyer. My aspiration was reinforced by encouragement from my parents who observed my argumentative spirit and felt that I would be a good fit as a lawyer. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I owe my success to hard work, my parents, and my mentors. Initially it was my parents who at a very young age instilled in my sister and I “big picture thinking” which meant investing time and energy on things that result in getting you where you need to go. One aspect of that big picture thinking is to believe that any goal that we desire is attainable and to start working towards that goal. Since I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, my parents taught me to be well rounded, to work hard, and to effectively manage my time. Shortly after I was called to the bar, I was accepted to work at a firm on Bay Street. During this time, a law firm was previously hired to assist ours with a complicated litigation matter. I was assigned to be a junior lawyer on the file and developed a relationship with the two partners at the law firm. During my fourth year of practice, the partners offered me the opportunity to open my law firm by renting office space from them. They also agreed to mentor me. After I first opened Walker Law, I started working out at a luxury gym in downtown Toronto in hopes of meeting influential people. It was in my spin class at that gym I met John Campion, one of the leading lawyers in Canada, who encouraged me to run for Bencher and mentored me in running a campaign, to the extent that I saw him as my campaign manager. Overall, having guidance from the right mentors enabled me to be prepared for the right opportunity. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? My most significant achievement is becoming the first female black elected Bencher from Toronto in the 223-year history of the Law Society and being re-elected last year. There are 40 lawyer Benchers that are elected every four years by lawyers and in Toronto you usually require approximately 3,000 votes from lawyers to be elected. Last year there were over 120 lawyer candidates. As a Bencher, I help to create rules and policies that govern and regulate nearly 55,000 lawyers and paralegals in Ontario. I am grateful that my community involvement has been recognized. Last year I received the 2019 Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Gold Key Award, the Lexpert Rising Stars award in 2018. I also received in 2018 the WeConnect International Women’s Business Enterprise of the Year award. I also appear regularly on national television stations such as CityTV, CBC, and CTV as a legal analyst. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? The key challenge that I see is that people in the profession are not accustomed to seeing lawyers that look like me. In the past I have been mistaken as a junior lawyer in court when accompanied by a male junior lawyer. I have also been mistaken as court staff or as someone who is charged with a crime even though I do not practice criminal law. The opportunity is for lawyers to show that they can be from different races, backgrounds, and genders and should not be dissuaded by others to pursue a law degree. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Learn as much as you can because knowledge is power. Consider investing time in your career. When a lawyer assigned me a task on a file when I first started working at a firm on Bay Street, I would only docket the appropriate time for the task but realistically I would review the entire file twice. Once to learn the file in its entirety and a second time to see if there were any outstanding steps that needed to be completed. When I returned to the lawyer, I would explain that A and B were outstanding issues on the file. That lawyer would then request that I ensure A and B were completed. Over time, you learn to develop your skill and expertise and can use the knowledge you have acquired to assist you with other files. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you Tanya for taking the time to participate in this series and for sharing your experiences and advice with us. 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Alysia Christiaen, Patricia Gamliel, Megan Cornell, Yola Ventrescu, Hilary Book, Margaret Waddell, Nandi Deterville, Jennifer Quaid, Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.  I first met the next leading lawyer in this series, Margaret Waddell, at an Advocates' Society Women in Litigation conference. She was the mentor assigned to my table of women litigators. Marg had a lot of valuable and no-nonsense advice to give. It was much appreciated by everyone at the table. Read on to learn Marg's story and some of that advice: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. In June 2017, I opened Waddell Phillips PC with my two partners, John K. Phillips and Julia Tremain. WP is a litigation boutique, which has now grown to a total of 8 lawyers, two contract lawyers, an articling student, Lakehead placement students, summer student and 8 support staff. My practice focusses on plaintiff side class actions, but I still also act on commercial litigation and executive employment matters, and some defence work on class actions. The class actions that we have underway or under investigation cover a broad gamut, including institutional abuse, consumer protection, product liability, medical devices, privacy breaches, and securities misrepresentations. We are always keeping our eye open for the next case that captures our interest, and that meets our firm objective of providing access to justice for victims of injustice or corporate malfeasance. 2. Why did you go to law school? I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer from a very young age. I was inspired by the character of Beth Davenport on the TV show Rockford files. Beth was a strong, independent woman, who spent a lot of time getting her client out of trouble with the law. However, criminal law was never of interest to me. My desire to become a lawyer was more based upon the fact that it would lead to a career that would allow me to be self-determinative, while at the same time I could provide advice and guidance to others who had brushed up against the legal system and needed help. Helping those in need has always been a strong motivating factor for me. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? If you had asked me 30+ years ago what I would be doing now, I’m pretty sure that running my own eponymous firm would not have been anywhere near the top of the list. When I left law school, I certainly knew that I wanted to be a litigator, but more than that, I had no idea. I was pretty naïve – a small town girl with no lawyers in the family or our circle of friends, and no concept of how a business actually runs. I was also very young (I started law school after only 2 years of undergrad). However, along the way I had the great fortune to have some amazing mentors, who taught me the ropes; but also gave me a lot of leeway to learn through my own successes and failures while running files on my own, with only a light touch of supervision. I feel very fortunate to have matured as a lawyer when this was the norm, knowing that it has become increasingly rare for junior lawyers to be entrusted with clients’ cases from the beginning to the end. I also had an abundance of role models – who represented both what I would like to become and what I would never want to be. I believe that you need exposure to the good, the bad and the ugly in order to really come to terms with who you are in this profession, and what you can aspire to achieve. I learned from all these people, and eventually figured out what I really wanted to do, and that meant being my own boss, rather than trying to conform to someone else’s ideal of what the practice of law should look like. As for the practice area, that was entirely by chance. When I was called to the bar in 1989, the Class Proceedings Act had not yet been enacted. That came three years later. Contingency fees had been forbidden in Ontario up until that time, and when the CPA came into force, the thought of taking on such massive cases, and carrying the extraordinary risk that is associated with them seemed potentially foolhardy and definitely a gamble. That was not me. In the early years of practice I was no risk-taker. However, over time, I cautiously waded into the class action world, and the more exposure I had, the more I embraced it. The CPA is such an influential tool for enforcing the rights of the disenfranchised – it gives power to the powerless. It is a serious behaviour modification tool, and ensures that institutional and corporate actors can be held accountable for their misconduct. I like that, and it gives me a sense of purpose to know that I am helping people who might otherwise go without a remedy when they have been harmed. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I don’t think that I have a single most significant achievement. Sure, there have been some great wins along the way, and also some spectacular losses. That comes with more than 30 years in the trenches. But the thing that I am most proud of is to be the only female head of a class action firm in Canada, to my knowledge. I am enormously proud of my firm and the wonderful group of professionals that have joined with me to make it a success. In three years, WP has grown to triple its original size. We have a wide range of class actions underway, and more in the investigation stage. In fact, I have achieved exactly what my original business plan had envisioned, all seemingly without any extraordinary effort on my part to make it happen. I am also immensely grateful to all the lawyers who had the faith in me to refer clients, or who sought me out to co-counsel on actions, and even more so to those that have taken the chance to work with me, when there are obviously safer and potentially more lucrative alternatives available to them. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? The opportunities for women in law are vastly expanded from 3 decades ago. Women entering law are no longer the exception, or seen as a “woman in a man’s world”. I don’t believe that newer calls need to go to the same lengths that those that preceded them had to go to achieve equality. The world is starting to acknowledge that the diversity of views and life experiences that women bring to the profession, although different from their male peers, are equally valid and important. There are more women in leadership roles, and the networks of mentors and sponsors are ubiquitous. These were non-existent when I started in the practice. I think that as the barriers are broken down, and new attitudes take over the profession, particularly about the ways that we practice law, the opportunities are endless. Innovation and technology have made a huge difference and will continue to do so. Women are equally placed to ride that wave, and to design their own futures in a way that suits their circumstances, skills and aspirations. Sure, the big firms will endure, and for many that is the grail that they seek. It will be there for them; but the opportunities for women now are really only circumscribed by their own imagination and desire. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? I don’t have a pat answer to this question. It really depends on the woman, and what she wants to get out of her legal career. The obvious advice is to always be prepared – know your stuff – because to succeed in this profession, as in any other, you have to work hard and be prepared for the unexpected. But that’s a trite response. There are a lot of very hard working, highly capable women with successful careers, and they are not happy. I think that unhappiness comes from compromising your own values and desires. So, I would say, don’t do that. Don’t settle in a job that is sucking away your joy just for the security of a pay cheque. Take risks. And be true to your inner self. If you do the things that make you happy and give you fulfilment, you will be a success. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for these wise words, Marg, and thank you for participating in this series. 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Nandi Deterville, Jennifer Quaid, Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.   We are switching things up a bit today with the Women Leading in Law blog series and featuring Professor Jennifer Quaid, a lawyer who chose a rewarding career in academia (after some time with the Department of Justice and in private practice). For any lawyer or law student curious about a similar career, this is the post for you. While the whole post is filled with lots of great advice, what stood out for me was Prof. Quaid's observations about making mistakes in your legal career. I hope you find it useful too: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I have the best job in the world! I am an Associate Professor and soon to be Vice-Dean Research (as of July 1, 2020) at the Civil Law Section of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. I teach an unusual combination of courses, but one that is tailor-made for me and the areas of law that interest me: general criminal law, corporate law and competition law. Some day, I would like to teach a seminar on selected topics in business accountability – I am working on my Dean! Aside from my teaching load, which is determined in large part by Faculty needs, I have the incredible privilege to pursue research in whatever subjects interest me. This freedom allows me to explore questions in depth but also affords me the opportunity to respond in real time to new issues as they emerge: some of you may know that I talk to journalists fairly frequently. This is the new reality of the modern academic: being able to provide insights in multiple forms to multiple audiences on very different timelines. It is very challenging but you can’t do one without the other – we need deep research on fundamental questions but we also need to keep our eyes on what is happening on the ground. This balancing act keeps me on my toes but is one of the aspects of my position that I appreciate the most. It is intensely satisfying to be able to contribute to public discourse and provide ideas for solutions to the problems that we face as a society. My core area of expertise is what most people call “corporate criminal liability” but the work I do straddles a number of overlapping areas that are linked by a common theme: when and how can law be used to stimulate good governance and ethical business practices, particularly in the prevention of serious harm flowing from the materialization of foreseeable operational risks. These risks tend to fall into two distinct categories: economic (like corruption, fraud and cartel activity) and safety/environmental (criminal negligence, regulatory). I study both types, which means I have written about the Lac-Mégantic derailment and about the SNC-Lavalin case. Many of my research projects are centred on developing effective sanctions and sentencing practice. My current focus is on anti-corruption measures and how to rescue the fledgling remediation agreement regime (Part XXII.1 CrC) which got off to such a rough start in 2018. I have just received funding for a 4-year empirical study that will compare non-trial resolutions in Canada, France and Switzerland. I am very fortunate to have been able to form a network of 4 colleagues (2 French, 2 Swiss – all women!) associated with 3 research institutes to support the project. Their collaboration is crucial since a big part of the study will be talking to those involved in anti-corruption enforcement on the ground in each country: investigators, police, prosecutors, judges and defense counsel. Empirical studies like these are still rare and depend on developing and maintaining good relationships with stakeholders. As someone who has practised in government and the private sector before joining the academy and who continues to engage with the profession, this plays to my strengths. I am very much looking forward to getting started! Outside my formal research projects, I also volunteer my time to the Legal Committee of Transparency International Canada, an NGO which advocates for robust anti-corruption measures in Canada and works to greater public awareness of the costs of corruption worldwide. Being part of the Committee gives me the chance to work with a fantastic group of lawyers from different sectors who are committed to the mission of TI Canada. The final part of a professor’s job is service and I will be doing a lot of that starting July 1st when I become Vice-Dean, Research. In that role, I will be responsible for supporting my colleagues and their research teams when they apply for grants and other institutional support like infrastructure; the search for funding and resources is a fixture of the research world. I will also responsible for promoting and highlighting the research being done by our professors, graduate students and the many research centres and laboratories associated with the Faculty. At this level I expect to collaborate a lot with my counterpart in Common Law, Vice-Dean Research, Penelope Simons. She is an expert on business and human rights and she and I have plans to create a joint research hub focused on business accountability, ethical commercial practices and sustainable governance in order to leverage the incredible expertise we have at uOttawa Law in the fields related to this topical and important subject. More specifically on the Civil Law side, we spent the last year developing a strategic plan for the next 3-5 years in six key areas, including research. As incoming Vice-Dean, I have the honour of launching the first priority projects for the research sector: one is a new micro-program aimed at undergraduate students interested in research. The idea is to introduce students to the different kinds of research that can be done in law (interdisciplinary, empirical, quantitative, socio-legal, etc) as well as in other fields that are useful in studying legal issues. We also want them to have a chance to try their hand at an often under-studied aspect of the research process: knowledge mobilization; in other words, sharing what they discover in ways that people can understand and make use of it. I have two other major priorities for my term as Vice-Dean. The first is to continue the work of predecessors in working toward reconciliation with the First Peoples of Canada. This is a multi-pronged process that will take many years, but in my capacity as Vice-Dean Research, I would like to develop stronger relationships with First Nations researchers and communities, particularly those with which we already have active connections and those on whose unceded territory our Faculty is located. We already have many researchers who are working with First Nations partners and last year we were delighted to welcome on faculty Professor Eva Ottawa, an expert on aboriginal legal orders and a member of the atikamekw community. I would like to build on that base to weave First Nations perspectives into our thinking more broadly. I believe there is tremendous potential for change and new ideas if we are prepared to listen and learn about First Nations legal traditions and history. The other area of priority for me is to see a much greater embrace of multiple platforms to share our research and connect with people interested in knowing about the issues we are studying and what ideas we have to propose as solutions. This means expanding beyond speakers addressing audiences in conventional academic settings and changing things up both digitally (blogs, podcasts, webcasts and live chats) and in person. One idea we are keen to launch as soon as social distancing rules allow is the “university of the streets” model, where researchers go out into the community and chat with people in more informal settings, like cafés, galleries, community centres and other public spaces. 2. Why did you go to law school? When I first went to law school, I wanted to be a litigator, ideally in a big firm where I would be this alpha female partner breaking down all the sexist barriers that had plagued my mother’s generation. I also wanted to fight the good fight – the classic widow and orphan view of the lawyer as social justice crusader. But there were no lawyers in my family and I had no idea what the practice of law was really like. I found that out progressively and where I am today reflects my gradual realization of that my 20-year old’s ambition was not true to who I was as a person and as a lawyer nor was it aligned with my goals. Before studying law, I completed an undergrad degree in Economics at the University of Ottawa. But while I enjoyed taking a lot of different classes from art history to lettres françaises to math, this was always just a stepping-stone in my mind. Moreover, as I came to the University of Ottawa straight out of Secondary V in Quebec (I skipped CEGEP), I was still very young, only 20 when I graduated. As a native-born Montrealer with strong family ties to Europe, I grew up with an appreciation for the world beyond Canada’s borders and a sensitivity to the way language and culture shapes one’s perspective. Given this, I absolutely wanted to study both civil and common law and in both languages. At the time I applied to law school, there were only two schools that offered the National Program: McGill and the University of Ottawa. The National Program at Ottawa was designed as a 3+1 degree: 3 years in one program and 1 year in the “other” program. It was the Droit civil (Civil Law) Section that admitted me so that is where I started in September 1990. Many people do not realize that while our sister Faculty, the Common Law Section is bilingual and has both a French and English language program, Droit civil is taught exclusively in French. Since the University of Ottawa is a bilingual university, students may opt to write the papers and exams in either English or French, but I never availed myself of that option. I had already taken about half of my undergraduate classes in French and I decided that I wanted to prove I was able to do everything in French. Moreover, I found it much easier to take notes and read the source materials in French since the lectures and exam questions were in French too. This was one of the best decisions I ever made since it laid the foundation for a career in which I would move seamlessly between languages, cultures and legal systems. After three years immersed in French and in droit civil I spent a fascinating year learning the common law in English. At the time, the National Program was small (we were about 12) and so we were sprinkled among the first-year classes. We had a lot of fun though our classmates found that we asked strange and unexpected questions. In first-year contracts, taught by the wonderful Don McRae, we were mystified as why the standard approach was to teach remedies first. “But what’s the definition of a contract?” we kept asking, “we need to know that first!”. Don just smiled. The experience of engaging in comparative law directly like that was invaluable. It opened my eyes to the huge potential in looking at other approaches and in trying to understand where others are coming from. At the end of the day, all legal systems are designed to produce solutions to common human problems. Against that backdrop, cross-pollination of legal principles can provide helpful insights when looking at novel issues. I went to law school at the height of the national unity debates (remember the Meech Lake Accord? That fell apart as I started law school and then there was the Charlottetown Accord – I remember Bob Rae giving a passionate speech in favour at the Faculty, but to no avail). I spent many hours arguing and debating constitutional law and federalism with my civil law classmates, many of whom were indépendantistes, and always in French. I suppose that is where I perfected my legal French, though at the time I still had a slight European accent because I spent my summers working in Switzerland (my mum is from there). But there was always a point in the debate where my classmates would say “Oh, les anglophones …” and then I would say, “I am an anglo, you know.” And then they would say: “Oh, Jen, we don’t mean you. You’re not like them.” I took that as a compliment. We all wanted to be constitutional law experts in those days and find that dream job doing Charter analysis for just causes (most of us never managed it). 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? The short answer is both. The long answer could form the basis of a novel; here is the abridged version. My career is best described as a zig-zag across different practice areas, different employers and different parts of the world that ultimately brought me back to where it all started – Fauteux Hall. If you had told me in 1994 when I graduated from common law that I would be back 22 years later, I would have shuddered, and not in a good way. After I finished Droit civil, I summered at a big Montreal firm. I then returned the summer after to start my articling. I did one rotation in litigation but as I had a clerkship lined up with Frank Iacobucci at the Supreme Court of Canada, I did not remain at the firm for the duration of my articles and never returned. While at the Court I applied for scholarships to go to grad school and through a stroke of luck managed to secure two, but not for the same year. I went first to Cambridge in 1995-96 where I did an LLM. This was an amazing experience that I treated as my reward for working hard at law school. It was at Cambridge, in my Philosophy of Criminal Law seminar, that I first became seriously interested in corporate criminal liability, so much so I elected to write a thesis about it. I then went to Columbia Law School where I was an Associate-in-Law (a 2 year teaching fellowship) while pursuing a doctoral degree in comparative corporate criminal liability. It was as an Associate that I had my first experience teaching and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it (it was beginner’s luck I would find out in later years). I finished my time at Columbia in 1998 and received an LLM for my first doctoral paper. Though I had applied for a few academic jobs in Canada none worked out. I was secretly relieved because I wanted to practice and experience what I thought was “real life” outside the walls of the ivory tower. My experience as a practising lawyer was not typical for my era, where the gold standard was securing a place at a good law firm and remaining there forever. Nowadays, moving around from job to job and doing different types of work is far more common and is viewed in a more positive light than it was then. My first real law job was at the federal Department of Justice in a policy section called the Civil Code Section, which was tasked with the job of ensuring federal enactments reflected civil law principles in those areas where provincial law was incorporated into federal rules (such as bankruptcy). The position was not as stimulating as expected and so I looked around for other options and managed to get a secondment to the Competition Law Division. I had done some of my grad work in this area so was thrilled to go there. I was immediately assigned to a big merger review case. The Commissioner had decided to challenge the Superior Propane acquisition of ICG before the Competition Tribunal and they needed more lawyers to help. Eventually I secured a permanent position at the CLD. It was a busy time for deals in the late 1990s and I loved working on mergers. In those days the lawyers often accompanied the commerce officers investigating the cases (they don’t anymore) and I found the experience of meeting witnesses and stakeholders fascinating. The Propane case, heard in Calgary, was a long slog and it became quite adversarial in the courtroom but the Bureau team was fantastic and we all learned a ton. The Propane case was the first merger case to raise the issue of the efficiency defense squarely and I was teamed up with a commerce officer and an economist to work on developing a new interpretation of s. 96 of the Act. We even travelled to Washington to meet with senior FTC and DoJ officials – all of us were under 30 at the time and we marvelled at how seriously we were being taken. After about 2 years with the CLD, I asked my boss if I could take a one-year unpaid leave to go work in private practice. There was precedent for this – other young government lawyers had done it and private practice lawyers often came to the Bureau on exchange. I wanted the experience because after working on several merger files, I felt like I was at a disadvantage because I did not understand how the deals were put together. I wanted to see the other side, as it were. After weighing different options, I decided to join a prominent New York firm, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in what they call their General Practice Group (in essence, corporate law). Though some had suggested I should join the Antitrust Group (a litigation group), I wanted the deal experience. Things did not go as planned, however. I arrived in January 2001 just as the tech boom started to crash; work dried up. Like many associates I had to take the assignments I was given. This is how I ended up doing securities work, something I never imagined doing. I am embarrassed to admit that back then I did not know the difference between the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In the slow summer of 2001, I attended an information session on the Asia-Pacific practice where I learned that S&C had an office in Melbourne. Not thinking, I ticked the box saying I might consider going there (I really wanted to go to the Paris office but there were no openings). Six weeks later, on September 10, 2001, I was offered a job there, which I accepted. That turned out to be prescient. I was glad to be able to leave my financial distinct apartment on the edge of Ground Zero at the end of 2001. But leaving for Melbourne also meant I was staying beyond my one-year leave from Justice and so I gave up my permanent job there. My experience in Melbourne was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. I arrived in January 2002 to a tiny, thinly-staffed office (2 partners, 1 special counsel, 3 associates –a very top-heavy ratio). They were working at full-tilt because S&C represented about 80% of the Australian public companies listed in the US. Aside from a female lawyer working part-time out of the Sydney satellite office (only 2 lawyers plus her), I was the only female lawyer in the group. Very quickly, I discovered I was out of my depth; I lacked adequate knowledge of securities laws and accounting rules and I had to catch up very quickly under very stressful conditions. Things got really crazy in July 2002 when the US Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The new enactment, intended to rein in accounting and reporting practices that had enabled companies like Enron to mislead investors, turned the US securities world upside down. The legislation required the SEC to enact dozens of regulations on short notice. The SEC began to systematically subject any company doing a deal to detailed review of all disclosure documents, something that slowed all transactions and injected a huge amount of uncertainty into the process. This was especially the case for foreign issuers because Congress had not considered the implications of some rules for non-US companies. One example: SOX banned executives and directors from doing business with the companies they worked for. There was an exemption for institutions regulated by the US Treasury (ie banks), but not foreign financial institutions. It took 18 months of lobbying and negotiation to get the SEC to issue a special regulation to allow qualifying foreign banks to get an exemption. Since we represented all 4 big banks in Australia, we spent a lot of time calming down angry executives who railed against the unfairness of the rules forcing them to switch their mortgages and bank accounts to their competitors. It was stressful to be working in such uncertain legal times and as the only female lawyer, I often felt isolated, though I did bond with the wonderful female support staff. Fortunately, I developed strong working relationships with clients, other counsel and advisors, many of them amazing woman lawyers and accountants with whom I am still touch today. I learned an incredible amount about teamwork, collaboration and compromise from them as we worked through novel, complex and challenging transactions. I returned to New York in the summer 2004, but by then I knew that my days at the firm were numbered; despite working brutal hours, I had not met expectations. To be fair, I also knew by then that I did not want to stay. I had to make a move. The question was where? My spouse had left a good job in Ottawa as a high-tech engineer to follow me to Australia and then to New York. He had worked for about 18 months in Australia but not at the same level. We decided we should go where he could get a job, especially as I was pregnant. We moved back to Ottawa in August 2005 once my 16-week mat leave/vacation time was over. I spent nearly 18 months with my infant son before returning to work. It was quite an adjustment being at home full-time without a business card. I loved the time with my child, but I felt unmoored and restless too. At the urging of the then Dean of Civil Law, Nathalie DesRosiers , I accepted a position as Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Law in August 2006. The job was mostly administrative and was never going to be a long-term position for me, but it gave me the chance to do thinking work while I had small children, which was incredibly important. Caring for babies and toddlers is physically and mentally draining and there were times when I thought I would not manage. But being back in a university environment got me thinking about becoming a professor. The challenge for me was that the world had changed since I was a 28-year old grad student applying for positions in the late 1990s. Securing a tenure-track position was going to take a substantial investment of time, money and family (especially spousal) moral support to build up a competitive file. And at the top of the list was getting a doctorate and scholarships as well as producing peer-review publications. The experience was not unlike getting back into a sport after a long hiatus. It was painful and exhausting to build up the skills, concentration and mental sharpness I used to take for granted. But I also found that once I got back into it, the joy of learning new things and having space to explore intriguing ideas kicked in and I knew I had made the right decision. I was hired by the Civil Law Section in 2013 and received tenure and promotion in 2019. I took a long time, but I have finally ended up in a job I love, working with people I respect and admire and making the kind of contributions that give me a deep sense of professional satisfaction. I would add that I would not be the professor I am without having gone down the windy path I followed. It is not a path I would necessarily recommend, but it forged in me a perspective on law that draws theory and practice together. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? When you have had a long career, there are many things that you remember and that make you proud. They are not all achievements in the traditional sense, however. As an educator, I am proud of my students, they have done amazing things with their legal education. Moreover, their energy and enthusiasm are inspiring and infectious. If I were to single out a traditional achievement it would be defending my doctoral dissertation and receiving my PhD from Queen’s (I dropped out of the Columbia program when I went into private practice). Unlike my previous degrees, which had come easily, it was a long and arduous process for me. When I started, I was working as an academic administrator and had two small children. Two weeks into the PhD program I discovered that I was expecting my third child, which complicated things a little! I was hired by the Civil Law Section when I was three years into what was supposed to be 3-year program; I thought at the time, I would be done in another year. Instead, I juggled family, developing and teaching new courses, writing papers and presenting at conferences, and the dissertation, for four more years. It was exhausting and many times, I thought I was going to have to give up. I felt like I was doing everything badly. This little voice in my head keep nagging at me: was I really up to the standard? Was I deluding myself that I could be a researcher at this level? What kept me going, I must confess, was the determination to show my children, especially my daughter, that through perseverance and hard work I could achieve this goal I had set for myself. Toward the end my stress over finishing kept me up at night. But then I submitted the final text and it was like this huge load was taken off my shoulders. The defense was actually fun because I knew my stuff and my examiners were great. And when convocation came around I will admit I was proud to wear my doctoral gown and Tudor cap. In my mind, receiving the degree was a pivotal moment. For the first time, I truly saw myself as a researcher, as someone who can make a contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the public interest. After so many years of uncertainty and doubt, I felt I had found my place and that I belonged. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Sexism is still present in law, the legal profession and in our wider society. You will encounter it in some form or another. But the good news is that it is less and less likely that this sexism will prevent you from pursuing your goals. Don’t get me wrong: it may nevertheless interfere with specific plans, like working at a specific place or being appointed to a specific position, especially if you are subject to harassment or abuse, but these will be temporary setbacks at most. The wider arc of history is on your side. Moreover, the events of the past few weeks in reaction to the tragic death of George Floyd suggest that the tide is also turning – finally – on racism, particularly awareness of the systemic and structural factors that have entrenched it in our society. Be aware of imposter syndrome. We all get it, but especially women. It’s that thought that you don’t belong because you are not qualified enough, don’t have enough experience or simply don’t deserve to be there. Resist that nay-saying voice in your head. Don’t count yourself out before you take a serious look at the circumstances. Ask yourself, am I ready for this challenge, do I have the skills I need, if I don’t am I able to learn as I go? And always consider the opportunity cost of passing up the chance to do something that stretches you. Timing of opportunities is rarely perfect. If you can tolerate being uncomfortable and you trust your assessment of the value of taking on something new, then you should go for it. The greatest opportunities I see for women are in leadership positions. I am joining an executive team in Civil Law that is led by the accomplished and trailblazing Dean Marie-Ève Sylvestre and comprised entirely of women, save one. More and more institutions, public and private, are actively looking to recruit women to senior leadership positions. If that interests you, then seek out opportunities to gain experience and develop skills that you will need. And network, network, network. Increasingly there are strong networks of women like me, who you can draw on for support, advice and mentoring. And we want to help! Networks are how you make connections and become known. How you behave in these networks when you are new and relatively inexperienced will speak volumes to those who have been around for a while. A few tips: be polite, considerate and thankful. This does not mean being meek and mild, it means you acknowledge when others have spent their valuable time and effort on your behalf. My secret weapon is the thank you note – yes, a note, in writing. These days it may be impractical to send a handwritten note, though that is the gold standard in my view, but sending a thoughtful email message, written in full sentences, proof-read with a proper greeting and salutation, is an excellent habit to develop. I also encourage sending notes of congratulation for milestones, new positions, promotions, marriages, births or other accomplishments; you might also consider sending words of encouragement to those going through difficult times, like bereavement and job loss (This pandemic has underscored the importance of proactively staying in touch and reaching out). Doing this systematically means that you never appear opportunistic when you approach someone for help. You have a track record of communications that telegraphs your interest in and concern for others. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? For most of us, starting something is exciting but also intimidating. We worry about not knowing enough or messing up or missing that one golden opportunity we believe will set us on the path to success and happiness. Actually the opposite is true. New grads know a lot, probably more than most practising lawyers. They are sharp and fresh and unafraid of trying new things. They believe in change and are generally unencumbered by the kind of resignation we tend to develop as we age, which causes us to abandon lofty goals, stick with what works or to be cynical. But knowledge is only one part of a lawyer’s job; experience is the element new grads lack. And, as much as we would like it to be otherwise, you do not gain experience – at least not useful experience - unless you push yourself a little, take risks and actually get your hands dirty. I don’t mean dirty in the sense of illegal or unethical, but I mean that you will make mistakes. Mistakes are the best teachers even if they may be awful to live through as they are happening; I say that from painful experience. You cannot expect to get through a 20-40 year career without a full range of mistakes, from small to very big. Though this may surprise you, they are probably not going to be legal mistakes of the kind that cause you to give incorrect legal advice. They are far more likely to be miscalculations of time or resources, misreading of clients’ expectations, mismanagement of people, or misjudging what you thought would give you professional and personal satisfaction. Making mistakes is inevitable and unavoidable. What matters is how you respond – this is how you mature as a lawyer and as a person. All too often women are discouraged from taking risks and told to fear making mistakes. Don’t fall into that trap. Volunteer for challenging assignments, seek out new opportunities, get out of your comfort zone, work with different people. Get line experience: experience in different departments and in different regions is a key asset if you are interested in leadership positions. Do not allow yourself to be siloed in a single unit or service. One caveat: there is sexism and a double-standard, still, in how women are evaluated and how serious their mistakes may be considered. Two pieces of advice: understand what is expected of you and make sure you state clearly what your level of experience is – if there is a serious mismatch, you want that to be known upfront. Second, seek out a mentor who can look out for you, provide advice and make sure you are not being set up to fail. Finally, there is not one path to success and happiness. This is especially important for women lawyers to remember. As I have said to many of my students, a career is a LONG time. Even if you do grad school or started law school later, or take ten years off to have kids, you are probably still looking at 20-25 years of time for your legal/professional career. Over that long a period expect your goals and priorities to change. This is not bad, or a sign of poor planning. It is a sign that you are evolving as a person and a professional and that you are listening to yourself. Do not let others tell you what is best for you or what you “should” do. By all means get advice, consult people, be informed. But at the end of the day, it is your life – and you are the one living it. One particularly important thing is to realize that it is possible to be “good” at something and to hate it. Sometimes we believe, with all our heart, that we should excel at something and we do not. This is not the end of the world, but a sign that you need to open your mind and think outside the box. It took me a long time to make peace with the fact that private practice was not a good fit for me and that it was not my fault, nor was it the fault of the firms I worked for. I had always associated academia with a closed community locked away from the hustle of real life. But when I sat down and was honest about I wanted to do, I realized that the university environment would provide me the space and the freedom to work the way I wanted. Don’t get me wrong – I do not work less hard or less hours, I probably work more. Academic life is stressful and constantly under-resourced. But the essential difference is that I love what I am doing and get great satisfaction from the trifecta of research, teaching and service. Figuring out what matters to you, what your passions are, how you want to contribute to society is critically important and only you can do it. But think of this evaluation of priorities as a map that allows you to travel rather than a set of directions leading to a single destination. Every now and then you might need to stop, reassess and change course. The reasons for this may come from you or they may come from external sources that are not within your control. Regardless, if you think of your professional journey in terms of what it brings you rather that where you are going you will be adaptable and flexible and open to new opportunities when they arise. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Jennifer for this insightful and very informative post! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Maryann Besharat, Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.   I am happy to introduce you to Maryann Besharat, the leading lawyer profiled in today's blog post.
Maryann was introduced to me by Maneesha Gupta, who wrote the following about Maryann: "Maryann has been very inspiring to me and I would love for other female lawyers to hear (and benefit from) her story. From the moment she stepped on stage, she captivated our audience with her confidence, bright mind and unforgettable wit. Having put out many fires, Maryann drew on practical perspectives from her own career in a way that was empowering and encouraging to any female lawyer." Please enjoy the profile: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am the Vice President, Legal Affairs & Compliance Services at Intact Financial Corporation which is the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada and a leading provider of specialty insurance in North America. I am responsible for providing legal services and solutions-oriented advice relating to a broad range of legal issues including insurance-regulatory, compliance, ombudsman, marketing, internal investigations and employment matters. I oversee interactions with several regulatory bodies and am responsible for managing all aspects of Intact’s ethics, privacy and whistleblower programs. My goal is to provide pragmatic advice regarding strategic initiatives of the company. My approach to providing legal advice is to simplify the issues, highlight the real risks and offer easy to understand solutions that balance legal risks with business opportunities. I work with a fantastic team of professionals who bring new meaning to the phrase ‘legal eagles’! They’re sharp, bright and so much fun. Every day is entertaining, engaging and intellectually stimulating. Who says insurance is boring?! 2. Why did you go to law school? My childhood dream was to become a lawyer. As the child of immigrants, I grew up with a deep appreciation for higher education and the understanding that every generation needs to strive to be better than the previous one. My father was in law school before his family emigrated to Canada and he was unable to complete his studies. He’s well read and a bit of an academic without the official credentials. He heavily influenced my desire to become a lawyer with his wit, intelligence and oratory skills. In me, he saw the combination of leadership, social advocacy, drive, curiosity and brute hard work. His gentle prompts along with my mother’s tireless support played a significant role in my decision to go to law school. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Design, chance and a bit of both. The primary force was chance. I went in-house during the economic recession in 2010 after practising on Bay street for a few years. I was not familiar with Intact, but I connected with the general counsel during my interview and the role appeared to be exactly what I was looking for….different. The position entailed creative thinking & writing, high levels of collaboration, and a multi-disciplinary approach that looked at problems from different angles. I knew I possessed these skills, and I wanted to use them more in my practice. I loved the job from day one. In fact, I kept wondering when I would feel like it was a drab to go to work, and that day never came. I quickly became highly engaged in my role and over time, I became personally invested in the development of the Legal team, the company as a whole and in my career growth within Intact. This is where ‘design’ came into the picture. At some point, I realised that I would like to play a leadership role at Intact and I began developing a plan to grow my legal skills, understand the business and enhance my leadership footprint. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I am most proud of becoming a lawyer. It was a significant achievement for both myself and my family. I found law school intellectually and emotionally challenging. During my undergraduate, I thought I studied hard, but law school took it to a new level. It was a privilege to study the law and I was impressed with how bright and dedicated the students were (if not intimidated). Law school pushed my academic boundaries and helped me enhance my research, writing, analytical and advocacy skills. It also helped toughen me up, because there are all types of characters in law school and it’s easy to get distracted by minor irritants. I was a little naïve about things and law school helped illuminate human behaviour. I was fortunate to have great family support during law school. Not only did they encourage me to become a lawyer, but they wholeheartedly pushed and cheered me on during law school. When I received my degree and walked across the stage, I fondly remember feeling like this degree also belonged to my parents. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Let me first start off with the key opportunities: In my experience, women in law are like a sisterhood. There is a great sense of community amongst women in law and we try to rally and support each other. I have benefited immensely from generous women who have coached me and now I am in the privileged position of paying this forward to younger women in the profession. Another key opportunity is to help progress and modernise the practice of law such that we move away from zero-sum outcomes and pivot towards a more balanced and conciliatory approach. Lastly, there is more progress that needs to be made on ensuring the practice of law is a sustainable career that does not destroy marriages and family life. This is not a women only issue and I am pleased to see the proliferation of men that are also helping set healthy work life boundaries. Gender and race discrimination along with pay equity remain key challenges. These issues permeate all workplaces and are not limited to the practice of law. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Strive for marginal improvements – instead of perfection, aim for progress. Every week do one thing to marginally improve. Embrace brevity and simplicity – don’t write for lawyers, write for the average person. If you learn to master this skill, you will become a client magnet. Support the business operations – become a student of the business and understand the key challenges and opportunities. Let failure be your teacher, but keep a few successes in your pocket – the greatest learnings come from failure, but always keep reminding yourself of the big or small wins so that you don’t overly analyse and criticize your shortcomings. The more failures you have, the better you get at extracting the learning from the experience and not dwelling on your wounded ego or hurt feelings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you Maryann for this wonderful advice and information about your practice! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Cynthia Mason, Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.  Today's profile features lawyer, trademark agent, and entrepreneur Cynthia Mason. I love how Cynthia has created a practice and business that reflects her values. And she has a great story on why she went to law school! 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I have focused my law practice on helping businesses protect their brands. I started my career at a large Bay Street firm, and for the last 6-years, I have been protecting brands through my own law firm, Mason Professional Corporation. Earlier this year, I launched a new business under the name Markably. It’s an online provider of trademark registrations and brand monitoring and enforcement services. 2. Why did you go to law school? I certainly never had any burning desire to be a lawyer! I had finished my undergraduate degree in biology, and I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with my life. This may sound totally flaky, but my dilemma really was solved in one evening at a Halifax restaurant. I opened a fortune cookie that said, “You would make a good lawyer.” I thought there could be something to that, I am a problem solver at heart, and I love interacting with people (and, of course, cookies never lie). So, I applied to law school and never looked back. I still have that fortune framed in my office. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I think I’m where I am today as a result of a lot of hard work mixed with a little bit of luck. The lucky aspect of my career came from working with an amazing mentor straight out of articling. He taught me many things about selflessness and client service. But I also worked really hard to build on those early lessons. I think I have reached where I am today by constantly reflecting upon and improving myself, my services and my business organization. I’m not a person who can walk through life without a clear plan. I really don’t think success happens by chance, and anyone who thinks that it does is seriously selling themselves short! 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I’m really proud of the fact that I have a profitable business that I love, and I have the flexibility to be present for my family when they need me. After spending more than a decade at Bay Street law firms, I never imagined it would be possible to have a rewarding legal career and still be able to prioritize my family every day. Outside of that, I am pretty darn proud of the fact that I have built legal technology and brought it to market. I took a process that I have refined over the course of my career (registering trademarks), and I’ve systematized and simplified it so that anyone can register a trademark. I’ve learned a lot of new skills in the development of this technology, and I’m excited to learn more about digital marketing, pitching to investors and expanding to other countries. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? I think raising children and managing clients will always be a challenge for women in law. Regardless of how helpful and involved your spouse or partner is in family life, I think a lot of women want to be the primary caregiver in their families. But they also want to have a fulfilling legal career, and these two things are frequently at odds. I think the opportunity here is that women will lead the way in re-defining what it means to have a successful law practice. When I began my career, success was defined by the number of hours you billed and how much money you drew. I can already see it’s evolving, and I think women are the main drivers behind it. Success is really about how many people you can impact in the amount of time you choose to give. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? My advice is to be very clear with yourself about what are your personal values. It’s very difficult to be happy in a job, law firm or company that does not align with your values. I spent a big part of my legal career at a firm that did not share my values, and I tortured myself trying to model myself after their leadership. I regret not looking outside of my immediate surrounding for role models. They’re definitely out there, you just have to explore with an open mind! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Cynthia for participating in this series and congratulations on the success of Markably! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Roots Gadhia, Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.   Today we have the pleasure of learning from criminal defence lawyer and law firm founder Roots Gadhia. Roots has the best law firm name: Roots of Law! Read on for some tips and advice: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business Roots of Law is a Professional corporation that employs 3 and half lawyers (one to be called in June) and a legal assistant… all women. We have a dog and a new born baby that has been in the office since his birth. Part daycare doggie care and law firm we all get along well and work together on files as a team. Clients will meet each one of us at some point and have access to us 24/7. The team model is designed for mentorship and sanity. We enjoy working together and we also socialize together. As a criminal defence firm with my 23 years of experience I have developed a loyal client base that refers clients and returns to us most of the time. We do everything from murders to guns and drugs robberies and sexual assaults. We have a system in place whereby we stay on top of disclosure requests, files and applications with constant client input in their files. 2. Why did you go to law school? I wanted to be a lawyer from the age of 9. The decision to be defence counsel came during law school but the desire to work within the legal system came early when I realized the inequities that certain people experienced because of their race or heritage and I wanted to make changes that would be significant to someone's life. Be in the room if you want to be heard. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Both. I never thought I would be a business woman and run my own firm. Learning that part of the practice was invigorating. Ensuring that my practice would grow and that I could mentor other lawyers over the years while still turning a profit and doing the type of work I set out to do was gratifying. I love this career path, it is exactly where I want to be. Not a single day is the same, I control my own schedule, the people in my practice are those that I want here and want to be here. I get to mentor young women and men and the rewards are far greater than just money… although I live a very comfortable lifestyle. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I am a good advocate for my client and a great mentor and employer. Right now I am still keeping my staff employed and we have worked around Covid to maintain client relationships. Each client we have represented has been treated with dignity and compassion and although not everyone goes on to turn their life around, those that do are my greatest accomplishments! 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Finding a safe place. Women are constantly being bombarded with expectations and denigrated by men in a male dominated industry. Being with other women who are like minded ensures a working environment that they can grow and developed their skills. Our opportunities are boundless as long as there is an environment where we can flourish. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Find a good mentor and taking a chance on yourself. Women play it safe too often and don’t always believe in themselves. Learn something new every year. One thing, a language an art, an instrument, computers… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Roots for participating in this series. I love your final tip. It is so important to keep learning, and it doesn't have to be law related. In fact it is probably better if it is isn't. Such a great reminder for me. 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Evelyn Ackah, Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.   I'm excited to profile leading lawyer Evelyn Ackah today. Evelyn and I are members of a wonderful monthly Zoom group chat (which started pre-COVID and pre-Zoom craziness!) with a couple of other lawyers who have launched their own practices. Evelyn always has wise advice, guidance, and encouragement to give to the group. She has a wealth of information, and I am happy she has shared some of that information in today's profile: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. Ackah Business Immigration Law is a boutique immigration law firm based in Calgary, Alberta with offices in Vancouver and Toronto that serves clients from all over the world. Our team helps businesses and individuals’ cross borders seamlessly into Canada and the United States. Corporate immigration is about people - and the businesses that hire them. We transform lives by creating immigration opportunities for people to live their dreams, expand their businesses and create a legacy for future generations. We provide expertise in all areas of immigration law ranging from corporate immigration to personal and family immigration matters. We provide comprehensive immigration services to clients representing; corporations, institutions, not for profit organizations, and, to individual clients. As immigration advisors, we provide assistance with timely and strategic legal advice relating to the constantly changing immigration laws and regulations in Canada and the United States. As an immigrant from Ghana, I understand the immigrant process on a deep emotional level. I was 5 when I moved to Canada and met my Father for the first time (a very common immigration experience). I want to help others achieve their dreams of a new life in a new country. I’m proud to say at Ackah Law we practice Happy Law! Our team works so hard for our clients because success means changing someone’s life forever. We assist corporations and individuals to obtain Work Permits, Study Permits, Visitor Visas, Permanent Residence, and Citizenship. We also handle cross-border issues related to inadmissibility or criminality, among a long list of immigration-related issues. Ackah Law also assists corporations from around the world who want to establish branch or subsidiary operations in Canada or to nearshore in Canada to expand their businesses and create jobs in Canada. 2. Why did you go to law school? I have always talked a lot and had my own opinions. I grew up discussing and debating with my family at the dinner table every night. When I was out doing the same, people would always say to me, you should be a lawyer, you’re always discussing current events or politics or arguing a position. Growing up in Vancouver, I didn’t know any lawyers in the Black community at that time and I couldn’t visualize myself as a lawyer or think that it was a realistic goal. As I started undergrad at Simon Fraser University, I found myself drawn to Political Science which I majored in. I had always been actively involved in the African community and with Feminism and Social Activism and believed in the importance of giving back to my community. In university, I started meeting more lawyers and judges in my community and even one of the first Black judges in Canada who became a mentor to me, and he encouraged me to look into law as a career. I felt that law would give me the added credibility to advocate for the causes that were closest to my heart. I took a gap year off after my undergrad to work two jobs and save for law school and write the LSAT, and I was accepted to law school and the journey began! I attended the University of British Columbia in 1994 and was one of 4 Black people in my entire faculty of 550 students. It wasn’t easy, but I loved the learning, the stimulation and the competition. It changed my life. I was the first in my immediate family to attend university and the first lawyer in the family. I have a younger sister who is also a lawyer. I always say that the sacrifices my parents made as immigrants to Canada paid off as they created the opportunities for their children that they never had and from a very early age, we knew that was our focus: to make them proud and to become independent women who contribute to their community. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? My journey has been so interesting over the past 20 plus years. After finishing law school, I moved to Toronto as I had secured articles at a mid-size Bay Street law firm. I was called to the Ontario bar in 1999. I practiced corporate/commercial law for a couple of years at a boutique law firm and didn’t enjoy it that much. I had an opportunity to move to a global accounting firm that was launching a multi-disciplinary practice and I joined the corporate immigration law group where I began my immigration career. After six years, I joined a global law firm as a senior associate and helped grow the corporate immigration practice. After that, I was recruited to another international law firm as a partner and became the National Head of the Immigration Law Group. I loved working with corporate clients and helping them achieve their business goals using an international workforce, but I didn’t love the 18-hour days, 7 days per week. I moved to Calgary with that same firm in 2008 to be closer to my family based in Vancouver. In 2010, I decided it was time to make some changes, both personally and professionally. I launched Ackah Business Immigration Law to focus on what I do best and to do it my way and on my own terms. I started a law firm that allowed me to bring all of myself to the office every day and that allows others to be themselves as well. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? Personally, I am most proud that at the same time that I was birthing my firm, I was becoming an adoptive single parent to two babies – my twibilings. Part of the reason that I was ready to leave big law was that I knew I wanted to be a mother and I was going to do it on my own – needless to say, flexibility was going to be incredibly important to me. The firm opened in December 2010 and my babies arrived in July 2011 – my life changed and all for the better. They are now 9 years old – a boy and a girl and our adoption journey is quite unique and beautiful. I am so grateful to be their parent and to have the love and support of my family and friends to help me raise them into these amazing little people. Today, together with my fiancé Howard, we live and work in Calgary and are proud to be part of such a vibrant community. Professionally, I’m very proud that Ackah Business Immigration Law will celebrate our 10th anniversary in December of this year. It has been a lot of hard work and personal and professional development to not just be a great lawyer, but to become a leader and an entrepreneur. We survived the 2017 economic downturn in Alberta, and we continue to grow the firm even through the COVID pandemic. We helped our clients to #PivotAndThrive through the COVID crisis, just as Ackah Law has had to pivot and thrive to grow for the past 10 years. Being successful in business means never standing still, and not looking backwards. I’m continuously working with my team for new ways to achieve success and grow our business and to set new goals towards excellence. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? I believe women in law don’t need to compete with each other. We need to build the type of support system that has long existed for male lawyers. I try to mentor and hire immigrant female lawyers and articling students so that I can give them that first opportunity to help them launch in Canada. It’s not easy starting over when you move to a new country, but I’m proud that I’ve helped others in this way. Our society isn’t colour-blind - and it shouldn’t be. Children need to be proud of their heritage and celebrate their differences. Growing up in Canada as an immigrant gave me a strong foundation to pursue my career goals – even when there were few role models that looked like me. As a Black woman in law, I’ve always stood out and people always remembered me because I am so visible. Rather than shrinking from that high visibility, I decided to turn it into a positive. I always wear bright coloured suits and bold accessories and try hard not to look like a traditional navy-wearing lawyer and it works for me. I feel confident and am able to focus on building relationships and being approachable and never worry that I don't look like I fit in. As a lawyer, I’m selling my skills and services to my clients. I don’t only represent myself, I represent my law firm. It’s critical that I project success and confidence and knowledge so that Ackah Law’s clients know I will use my skills and experience to help them achieve their goals. At Ackah Law, we don’t sell dreams, we sell success. From my personal experience, I know that women have the flexibility and management skills to maintain a healthy work / life balance while building a business. Not everyone wants to be a business owner or entrepreneur - but for women who do, law offers many opportunities and career paths. Men seem to have no problem delegating, while women lawyers often think they have to “do it all.” Learning to outsource work, to hire a team, and to delegate tasks allows you to be a #HappyLawyer. Law is still a very traditional field - but there are new, innovative ways of practicing law and running a law firm that are ideal for female legalpreneurs that allow for flexibility and creativity. This need to delegate also applies to your home life. No matter how equal your partnerships are at home, I still see women lawyers carrying the domestic load. I think women need to also get comfortable with asking for help whether it be a nanny, babysitter, cleaning lady, personal chef or extended family help. They need to know that by outsourcing, they create more space to enjoy their family and loved ones and do their hobbies. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? In business - as in life - nothing is more important than relationships. Relationships are built on integrity and trust. Our clients trust Ackah Law to give them our best possible legal advice, and in return they stay with us and refer their contacts to us. I can’t do it all - my relationship with the Ackah Law team means that I trust my team members to give our clients the best possible results for their situation. We practice happy law - our team takes pride in changing the lives of individuals for the better. Networking is vital. Find a number of different mentors and sponsors in your career – not just one. Create a personal board of advisors that you can stay in regular touch with and call on. Once you benefit from your mentors, it’s important to pay it forward and mentor a young lawyer or law student yourself. I really believe in the power of setting goals – big or small to move you forward in life. Spending time creating daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals for all aspects of your life are vital to keeping you on track and pushing you forward. I’ve started doing Vision Boards as well to help me see where I want to be in 3 to 5 years and I really see how it works to keep you focused and making decisions that are in alignment. Giving back makes the world a better place for all of us. I am a member of International Women’s Forum and I am a board member of Operation Eyesight and Enterprise 4 Change. I participate in a number of charitable activities and events throughout the year that benefit the community and I also do pro bono work on a regular basis for the arts communities in Alberta. Lastly, I think young women lawyers need to focus on taking care of themselves – their physical, mental and emotional health. Law can be a grind sometimes, so it’s very important to take care of your body - exercise, meditate, eat well, sleep well and find things to do that you love that are completely removed from law. Always listen to your heart and your gut and don’t let fear stop you from reaching your goals! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for participating in this series Evelyn! 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! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Carrisa Tanzola, Sarah Leamon, Robin Parker, Lorin MacDonald, Karen Yamamoto, Victoria Crewe-Nelson, Lynne Vicars, Kemi Oduwole, Anne-Marie McElroy, Jennifer Gold, Jordana Goldlist, Megan Keenberg, Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., 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.  |
 
  Erin C. Cowling is a freelance lawyer, entrepreneur, legal career consultant researcher & writer, and President and Founder of Flex Legal Network Inc., a network of freelance lawyers.
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