Blog Posts

WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Melissa McBain

12/4/2018

This profile, featuring Melissa McBain a partner at Daoust Vukovich LLP, came about thanks to The Advocates' Society End of Term Dinner this year. A lawyer at my table, Daniel Waldman, told me he enjoyed reading my blog (*blush*) and that Melissa would be the perfect lawyer to profile in this series. I agree. Read on to learn more about Melissa, her career and her advice to new lawyers:

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

I am a partner at Daoust Vukovich LLP. Considered one of the best law firms in Canada for commercial property, leasing and development, Daoust Vukovich LLP has a team of highly qualified lawyers and law clerks serving the specialized needs of clients who acquire, develop and use commercial real estate, whether as landlords or tenants. Our firm is unique and exceptional in that it is the only boutique law firm of its type in Canada. Our approach to the law, in our areas of practice, is practical and "real world". Understanding our clients' businesses is our priority. We provide expert industry knowledge with a business-minded approach, to effectively and timely achieve our clients’ goals. We are also the lawyers who teach lawyers; we are well attuned to new legal developments in the areas of property leasing, real estate and related litigation.

Our firm is also unique in that we have as many women in the partnership as we do men!

My law practice is dedicated to representing commercial landlords and tenants in a variety of commercial leasing matters. Over the years I have developed expertise in managing commercial lease transactions for all types of properties, including office, retail, industrial and mixed-use. My practice includes the interpretation of commercial leases and the coordination of major projects, including multi-location deals and due diligence on acquisitions.

In connection with my law practice, I am also active in commercial leasing and real estate industry organizations. I frequently write and speak at legal and industry conferences and seminars including the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Canadian Law Conference, and the Law Society of Upper Canada. I am a member of Toronto CREW (the Toronto Commercial Real Estate Women’s Association), an active member of the Greater Toronto NAIOP Programs Committee, as well as the Program Planning Committee for the Canadian Law Conference of the ICSC. I was the Vice-Chair of the ICSC 2018 Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference Program Planning Committee and am currently the Chair of the ICSC 2019 Canadian Shopping Centre Law Conference Program Planning Committee.

2. Why did you go to law school?

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what else to do with my honours degree at the time and had no idea whatsoever what I was signing up for! I thought about being a teacher or a psychologist (I majored in psychology), but neither of those options completely drew me in. By fluke, in 3rd year of undergrad, I went with a friend who was interested in law school to hear the Dean speak about applying. Law school was never on my radar before that, and afterwards I thought to myself “hey, I have high marks and that sounds like something that could open a lot of doors, maybe I should apply!”. While that story is not even a little bit inspiring, I believe it is a common one as I met several others in law school with similar experiences!

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

Definitely both. Prior to graduating law school, chance probably played the biggest role and I would probably not describe my path as being ‘strategic’ at that stage in my life. The words “young and foolish” do come to mind! I was a summer student at our firm in 2nd year of law school and returned as an articling student, became an associate, and then was admitted into the partnership. It was at the articling stage that I really started to focus on my career path in terms of where I wanted to go with my legal practice and in the real estate industry. Since then, the trajectory of my career has been largely impacted by deliberate decisions.

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

Professionally, I am most proud of being a member of our firm’s partnership. This is not because of typical assumptions about status or achievement that arise from the concept of being a “partner of a law firm” (though that definitely does help a little when you walk into a boardroom full of 50 year old men), but because I truly have a seat at the table with this wise and wonderful group of individuals. I have a voice and opportunity and I do not take that for granted. With the support and influence of each of my partners, over the last 11+ years at this firm, I have built a thriving legal practice and a strong profile as an expert in my practice area. As a result of this support and influence (and, of course, my own hard work and dedication to my career), I was named in the 2019 Best Lawyers™ in Canada list.

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

In terms of challenges, in my view, there is no denying that the “boys’ club” mentality is still alive in the legal profession. I don’t think I need to belabor this point. Suffice it to say that it is, in fact, real and it still exists. I think it is one of the key challenges for women in law (as it is in many professions), especially when combined with ageism (i.e. those negative assumptions that are made about the capabilities of young women). We still often have to prove ourselves twice and that is a challenge. And, more than that, it’s infuriating.

Now that I have vented, there are many great opportunities for women in law, there is also no denying that. This blog series provides evidence of that. One of the great opportunities I have experienced in the legal profession is having strong mentors and champions (both men and women). Finding the right mentors and champions opens up a lot of opportunity in the legal profession – these are the people who actively support you, and ensure your experience and career is propelled and that you receive recognition.

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

Remember that you are the captain of your own ship; don't let anyone else take the wheel. You get to decide how you want to live. Don’t worry so much about pleasing other people or living by someone else’s standards or rules. Singer, songwriter and record producer, Santigold, said it best:
“I can say I hope it will be worth what I give up
If I could stand up mean for the things that I believe”

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Thank you Melissa for taking the time to answer these questions and for your great advice!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Erin Best

11/21/2018

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This week we are heading to the East Coast to learn about Erin Best a partner at Stewart McKelvey in St. John's Newfoundland. I was introduced to Erin when I reached out to my network so I could profile more women lawyers outside of Ontario. Read on to learn more about Erin's life before law and her interesting litigation practice. She also has the "Best" first name too! (Okay, that was a painfully bad attempt at a pun but I felt I had to having the same name and all - Don't worry I'll stick to lawyering/blog-writing. . .)

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

I am primarily a litigator. I started out doing insurance defence and found this to be an excellent way to hone my skills since I got to run a high volume of files through the litigation process. Now, as chair of our NL litigation group I have the privilege of being exposed to many diverse areas of litigation. I’m happiest when I am learning something new, so litigation suits me in that regard. I’m currently acting as counsel for our former premier at a public inquiry so I am in hearings full time for about 10 months. I learn something new every day. It’s wonderful.

Another area I practice in is IP. I was a singer before I went into law so I have always had a keen interest in copyright which grew into an interest in intellectual property generally. My intellectual property practice and the pro bono work I do in that area has become an exciting and meaningful part of my life.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I recommend law school to anyone with a thirst for learning, whether you plan to be a lawyer or not. I went to law school because I wanted to be a lawyer. I admire the ethics and the integrity of the profession.

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

I came to law a little later than my classmates and I have always felt like my maturity gave me a little extra perspective. I have worked hard but I think working smart is more important. I always take the time to take stock, think and plan. That time spent planning has been crucial. That being said, law is demanding and I have been lucky to be healthy enough to keep up.

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

I have had some great experiences in the NL courts, but I am the type of person who will always look back and remember what I could have done better. I am very proud of my pro bono work for musicians and artists in NL. I have put in a lot of hours in that area and made friends for life. I felt pretty good when I walked up to the stage to accept my Leading Lawyer Under 40 award, not because I won the award, but because so many people from my firm flew to Toronto to cheer me on. That was really something. As for my most significant achievement, my network and my practice are continuing to expand at a rapid rate, so I think my most significant achievement is yet to come.

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

I see adversity as an opportunity. If something looks difficult, fewer people will do it, even if the reward is great. That is a scenario that attracts me. Sometimes it is just a matter of having the confidence to put your hand up to volunteer for a task. Sometimes you have to be vocal about asserting your willingness and your ability. I constantly seek out role models who can inspire me to build that confidence and I have found many. My firm has a female CEO and CFO, both incredible people. I am a big fan of Eleanor Beaton, Amy Cuddy... I could go on.

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

Go all in.

You read so much about work-life balance these days, but the truth is that balance is different for everyone. Trying to mimic someone else’s idea of balance is futile. For example, we are often told that we need to unplug and take time away from work to manage stress. Leave work at the office they say. Well, I find that funny because it was not until I gave myself over to the practice of law as a lifestyle that I realized what work-life balance meant for me. Law is not a 9-5 job. I prefer to allow my life experience to inform my practice and vice versa. I need to love what I do, otherwise what is the point of doing it? I don’t shut off my lawyer brain when I go home for the evening. Quite the opposite actually. Most of my best thoughts on a file happen while I am walking my dog or watching a great concert or spending time with family. Once I immersed myself in my practice in this way I started to find it more satisfying and ultimately, less stressful.

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Thank you Erin for taking the time to tell us about your practice and your legal career to date. And thank you to my Twitter network for introducing me to Erin!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Gillian Hnatiw

11/5/2018

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This week this blog series features leading lawyer Gillian Hnatiw. I believe I first "met" Gillian a few years ago on Twitter and then subsequently in real life at various legal networking events (yes, the legal community in Toronto is rather small). I have always been impressed with Gillian's unwavering commitment to advancing equality and I love her no-B.S. feminist tweets. Read on for Gillian's reflections on her career, her achievements, and advice for new lawyers.

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

I am a partner with Adair Goldblatt Bieber LLP in Toronto. I have broad civil litigation practice with particular expertise in claims for sexual assault and harassment, as well as other types of gender-based violence like voyeurism, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and other forms of image-based violence. In addition, I practice in the fields of administrative law, health law, professional liability and regulation, and employment law, with some general commercial litigation and appeal work thrown into the mix. I really enjoy Inquests and Inquiries, and have been lucky to be involved in some major ones over the years (namely the Coroner’s Inquests into the deaths of Ashley Smith and Katelynn Sampson). I have also been fortunate to do some high level intervention work for organizations like the CCLA and LEAF, which has given me the opportunity to get on my feet at the Supreme Court a couple of times. So every day is different!

Outside of my ‘paid practice’, I am on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), which is dedicated to advancing substantive equality rights for women and girls in Canada through litigation, law reform and public education. It is, in essence, the litigation arm of Canada’s women’s movement. LEAF has been integral in shaping sexual assault laws and safeguarding reproductive rights for more than 30 years.   Although it consumes increasing amounts of my time these days, I am very proud of the work it does.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I don’t have a very good answer! The truth is, I was starting the fourth year of a history degree at Queens and had no clear plan about what I was going to do next. Law school was an idea that I had been tossing around, but mostly to placate all the adults in my life asking ‘what are you going to do?’ Then all of the sudden it seemed like everyone in my program was writing the LSAT and actually applying to law school. I was sort of swept along with the tide. I explored a range of other options, from various post-graduate programs to teaching English abroad, but when I was admitted to U of T’s Faculty of Law in January it became a bit of a foregone conclusion that I would go. I recognize there’s a lot of privilege in my ‘gee whiz, it just happened’ story - and I will say in my partial defense that I worked my ass off throughout undergrad – but that’s basically what happened.

In truth, I wish I had wanted it more at the time. I recall having reservations about whether law school was the right path for me, but nobody I spoke with at the time would validate those reservations. I was repeatedly advised that a law degree would never hurt me (which I admit I’ve come to agree with) and that I would be foolish to pass up the opportunity. Also, I had the good fortune of enrolling in 1999, when tuition was not as crushing as it is today. I was able to make the decision to attend without facing the prospect of spending $100,000 for my degree.

Law school itself was a real mixed bag of experiences for me. First year was very disorienting, in part because I arrived with no clear idea of why I was there in the first place. By contrast, it seemed like all of my classmates had a clear sense of purpose that I both lacked and envied. Firms from Bay Street and Wall Street were omnipresent on the University of Toronto campus and I recall really struggling with all the pressure to ‘network’ and land a big firm job. It was difficult to have credible conversations about what I was looking for in an articling experience when I wasn’t even sure I wanted to practice. I have never been very good with insincerity or just telling people what they want to hear. In hindsight, I know I wasn’t the only one in my class who was struggling with these things, but it sure felt that way at the time.

The law finally started to click for me when I began volunteering at Downtown Legal Services, U of T’s legal clinic. I took it for credit in second year and began hiding out there as much as possible. I ultimately served on the clinic’s Executive in my third year. I sometimes say that I “majored” in clinic. Once I started working with real clients who had real problems, the law started to make sense to me, both as a field of study and as a profession. 16+ years later, it’s the clients that continue to anchor my commitment to practice.

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

I would say a healthy mix of both. In my early years, it was probably more chance than design. After summering at Downtown Legal Services, I articled at Lerners in Toronto. Despite my lingering reservations about Bay Street, it turned out to be a great fit for me. As a student, it is so difficult to know what you are getting into, especially when job offers get made so far in advance and your interests are still evolving. I knew I wanted to litigate, but I was very unsure about private practice. I had this idea that I would be buried in research, miles away from any client, for years. Fortunately, that was not my experience at all. Lerners was pretty small at the time (approximately 25 lawyers in 2002) and I was given a lot of hands on opportunity from the start. To my surprise, I really thrived at the firm. I was hired back after my call to the bar in 2003 and ended up practicing there for fifteen years, first as an associate and then as a partner.

As my career evolved, I became more intentional about charting a specific course and practicing on my terms. I have been involved in sexual assault work since my articling year. I was lucky enough to junior for Elizabeth Grace, who is one of the pioneers in the area. From the beginning, the work really resonated with my feminist principles and gave me a deeper sense of purpose. At the same time, it involves a lot of emotional labour and I cannot do it all the time. I’ve always counter-balanced my assault work with other areas of practice. In my early years, I also did a lot of complex corporate commercial litigation with Earl Cherniak and others.   It resulted in an eclectic practice mix, but I really enjoyed it. The intellectual challenge of the commercial work offered a healthy counter-balance to the particular needs of my sexual assault clients. I learned a ton about litigation and built my basic skills.

Five years and two kids into my career, I was finding it increasingly difficult to juggle everything. With Elizabeth’s support, I orchestrated some changes that allowed me to begin practicing in the areas of health and professional regulation. The work was still challenging, but the pace was slightly more predictable. Plus, the tort law principles that animate most medical malpractice claims dovetail with the theories of causation and damages that underpin most sexual assault claims. By narrowing my focus for awhile, I was able to feel more on top of things during a hectic era in life.

Most recently – fifteen years and three kids into my career – I made some very big and very intentional changes to my practice. In February, I left Lerners to join Adair Goldblatt Bieber, a new Toronto litigation boutique that opened its doors on January 1, 2018. At this point in my life, I have a much clearer sense of what I want the next 15 years of my career to look like. I also have a better sense of the compromises that I am and am not willing to make to get there. Lerners changed a lot during my time there. Staying at the firm was going to require me to make too many compromises, and I realized I wouldn’t be happy in the long run. So it was by design that I started looking around for a new home. However, it was incredible good fortune that the exact firm I was looking for – young, smart, dynamic, courageous - came into existence at the same time that I was looking to make a change. I have known and respected Jordan Goldblatt for years, but it was largely chance that made him my partner.

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

That’s a really tough question. Professionally, I think it’s a significant achievement to have built a practice that is both intellectually and personally fulfilling. I’m proud of the work I do for assault survivors, who struggle to secure ‘justice’ through the legal system. I’m very proud of my advocacy on equality issues generally, through my paid practice, my pro bono practice, and my work for LEAF. And I’m proud of the time and effort I invest mentoring younger women in the profession and helping them to advance.

I’m also proud of the fact that I’ve built a practice that is meaningful to me. I’ve always been a feminist. In law school, the idea that I would be able to weave my feminist ideals into a Bay Street practice seemed impossible. But, somehow, that’s the reality of my practice today. It hasn’t been without compromise or sacrifice – there have definitely been points in my career when I have paid a price for rejecting political expedience or refusing to bend to someone else’s idea of what my career path should look like – but I have fought to be valued for who I am, rather than what someone else wants me to be. One of my key mentors, Jasmine Akbarali (now Madame Justice Akbarali!), taught me that if you can’t get where you want to go without being true to who you are, you either have to pave a new road or pick a new destination.

In my personal life, my most significant achievement is my kids. Super cliché, but undeniably true. They’re currently 6, 10 and 12 years old. I am super proud of the interesting, independent humans they are becoming.

Overall, I think I am most proud of the fact that I have built a successful practice while remaining true to myself and investing in life on multiple fronts. It is not easy to balance a public-facing career with the needs of a young family. This is not news to anyone. But I wanted a career and I wanted a big family. I'm so glad I didn’t cave to the pressure to give up one for the other.

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

Some of the challenges are obvious. I feel like I end up talking a lot about babies in these types of interviews, but my kids have had the most obvious impact on my career path to date. The first decade of practice felt like a revolving door of maternity leaves. My grasp on any ‘career’ often felt tenuous. My husband and I graduated from the same class at U of T. We articled in the same year (different firms!) and were called to the bar at the same time. But our career arcs have been very different. In addition to my three maternity leaves – he never took paternity leave – I slowed down for a few years when the kids were really young. We knew that we couldn’t both take a run at partnership at the same time, so we made a conscious decision to prioritize his career for a few years. It was only after our third child was born in 2012 that I committed to building a practice and a profile in earnest. The past six years have been intense. It often felt like I would never catch up and there were many times that I seriously considered leaving private practice. But I am so glad I stuck it out. If you can find a way to hang in through the tough early years of practice and parenthood, it does get better. But you need to stick it out.

A related challenge lies in the fact that the ranks of women in private practice tend to thin as you become more and more senior. Where do they all go? Think of all the firms you know. How many of them include (let along start with) the name of a woman? Thanks to the systemic barriers that have traditionally worked to push women out of private practice – the ‘old boys’ networks, the ‘mommy track’, the everyday sexism women face in boardrooms and courtrooms – they are few and far between. This can make it harder for women to find mentors and sponsors to help them advance to the next stage of their career. I’m only in my sixteenth year of call and already it feels like I beat some significant odds. However, I am encouraged by the fact that many of the women in my cohort are treating this phenomenon as an opportunity to support and amplify each other. I am part of some amazing women’s networks and I really feel like I have some incredible allies out there. And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there are many men in the profession who are extremely supportive as well. My current partners are all male and it’s hard for me to overstate how supportive they are of my practice and my plans.

Which brings me to opportunities: I am optimistic that the profession is finally starting to appreciate the importance of diversity. Not just as a watchword, or as a feel-good initiative, but as a necessary ingredient to running a successful firm or business. Study after study has demonstrated that a plurality of voices lead to less group think, better decision making and, ultimately, a stronger organization.

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

1) Take the long view. It is marathon not a sprint. For many reasons, the early years are daunting: the hours are long, the expectations are high, the financial pressures significant. If you are like I was at that stage, you will spend a large part of everyday feeling like you have no idea what you’re doing. It feels like everything is riding on your performance on a day to day basis and that you can’t afford to take a breath or a break. But there is a long arc to anybody’s career. It is important to take the time to invest in yourself long term.   Check in with yourself every 6 months and make sure you’re still happy with the direction your career is heading. If the answer is no, invest the time to course correct.

2) Seek out mentors and sponsors. It’s hard to overstate the importance of having someone you trust to show you the ropes and help direct opportunities your way. Mentorship is a bit like dating - you have to click with someone for it to really work, and you’re likely to have a few false starts. Stick with it. If you can’t find someone within your firm or organization, get involved in an external organization that lines up with your area of practice or identify someone who looks like they have the career you want and reach out. Put yourself in the path of the right person.

3) Be true to yourself. Sometimes, the advice to lawyers in their early years is to say “yes” to everything that comes your way. I only partially agree with this. Yes, you should be willing to give up some sleep and social time for opportunities that will help you build the practice you want. Yes, you should network broadly and pay attention to building your reputation. But that doesn’t mean you should say yes to absolutely everything. Be sure to safeguard your personal relationships and your mental health. Also, give yourselves permission to recognize there are many ways to be successful. Be sure that the goals you’re pursuing are, in fact, your goals.

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Thank you Gillian for taking the time to answer these questions so thoughtfully and for giving us a glimpse into your career.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Melanie Sharman Rowand

10/19/2018

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A few months ago, a reader of this blog series asked if I could profile women lawyers who successfully re-entered the practice of law after taking some time away. The leading lawyer profiled in this post, Melanie Sharman Rowand, did just that: successfully returned to practice after a nine year break. Read on to learn more about Melanie's practice, her experiences and her tips for lawyers starting their legal careers:

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

I am a patent agent and lawyer in the IP and Regulatory Group at Torys LLP in Toronto. I have an advanced degree in botany/biology and specialize in the life sciences sector – including food and agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. My clients range from start-ups and universities to leading national and international corporations. I use my science background every day and am always learning something new.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I was in graduate school and felt that law school would open up a variety of career options. My game plan was to become a patent lawyer, which was what I ended up doing.

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

Both – plus a lot of hard work and the good fortune to work with progressive colleagues. My career path was unusual in that I took off 9 years after my second daughter was born. I stayed in touch and was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to return to my old firm. I worked very hard to establish myself in the early years of my practice and I worked very hard to relaunch my career when I returned to work. There are a lot of talented and experienced women who took time off when their children were young and are looking to re-enter the workforce – there is a lot of untapped potential out there.

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

Relaunching my practice was my biggest challenge and proudest accomplishment. I have been back at work for four years now and it almost feels like I never left. However, I have come back with a little more life experience and maturity, which can be helpful when interfacing with clients.

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

There are tremendous opportunities for women in law. But for those women who wish to have children, there can be a tension between the timing of their biological clock and the partnership track. On the positive side, women (and men) have more options than ever before. Law firms are becoming more open to alternative working arrangements, and there are an increasing array of in-house options to choose from.

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

(i) Work hard to distinguish yourself early in your career. If you establish a solid reputation now it will open doors for you later. Get as much experience as you can and be proactive in shaping your career by seeking out work that interests you.

(ii) Foster connections with colleagues and classmates and treat everyone with respect– remember that it is a really small bar with lots of mobility so your fellow classmates and colleagues may be future clients, employees or employers.

(iii) Tap into the women’s networking groups – they are fantastic.

(iv) When an opportunity falls in your lap, don’t be afraid to run with it.

(v) Work hard and do your best, but don’t be overly hard on yourself – if you have a setback, dust yourself off and keep going.

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Thank you Melanie for taking the time to answer these questions (these questions can be hard to answer!) and for sharing your experiences with us.

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Meg Chinelo Egbunonu

10/5/2018

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This week this blog series focuses on an internationally trained woman leading in law: Meg Chinelo Egbunonu.

I first met Meg at an OBA event, after which I connected with her on LinkedIn. I have been impressed with Meg's blog posts, her insights, and her real "go get-em" attitude. After practicing for several years in Nigeria, Meg was recently called to the bar in Ontario on September 28, 2018. Congratulations!

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

I am an internationally trained corporate-commercial and business lawyer, recently transitioned into the Canadian legal ‘market’. My past international experience as a lawyer cuts across diverse areas of work, including Corporate Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate & Project Financing, Banking & Securities Regulation, Business Regulatory Compliance, Legal Advisory, and Litigation. I have practiced as in-house counsel and in private practice, while advising a range of clients from small businesses, to multinational organisations, regulatory bodies and non-governmental organisations.

I just concluded the Ontario licensing process, and I am integrating into the Ontario legal space.

2. Why did you go to law school?

My first instinct is to blame this on Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s “Miss Marple” stories!

From a very young age, I realized that I enjoyed activities which required a highly analytical thought-process. Every time I read mystery books, I would solve the mysteries at the middle of the book, then finish the book to corroborate my theories of who committed the crime. Local Nigerian games like Ludo, and “Ayo” which required a lot of calculative thinking in winning, were my favourite games.

I also found out rather early that I was a good advocate, often leading my secondary school in inter-school debate victories, and winning the best debater prize. I was that person who would speak up against injustice as a youngster- which, as the culture at the time was that a child was only “to be seen and not heard!” and being the only girl and the last child with four older brothers - surely taught me to stand my ground and ensure my voice was heard, in order to obtain desired results... even in the most mundane things (like sharing the Christmas chicken with my brothers).

There was no “aha!” moment: law was my natural first choice, despite my father severally suggesting banking to me. And even though I harnessed my creative talents as a youth in poetry, writing, and dancing, when the time came to choose my course for my undergraduate studies, it was law or nothing else.

You could say that I just always wanted to be a lawyer.

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

I think it is a combination of both, with a little more of deliberate action on my part. My journey has surely been an interesting one.

Having graduated from the Nigerian Law School, I had started out in practice as a Criminal Litigator. In my first year, during the compulsory National Service program of Nigeria, I was moved to the Corporate Commercial unit by the mid-sized law firm I worked in.

At first, I despised Corporate Commercial and Business Law litigation and transactional work. My only exposure to law had hitherto been criminal litigation.

With time however, I began to pick up an interest in corporate work. I began enjoying literally tearing down and reconstructing commercial agreements. I began to understand the dynamics of Boardroom politics, and became a certified Corporate Governance professional as a Chartered Secretary in the United Kingdom. I subsequently had considerable in-house experience, which exposed me to the practicalities of managing a business, even as a lawyer.

When it was time for me to do post-graduate studies, I did not have the finances to fund my Masters degree. So I searched for scholarships, and was eventually awarded a double scholarship by the Schulich Law School and the Faculty of Graduate Studies of Dalhousie University for a Masters degree in Business Law. The program introduced me to a higher level of analytical thinking and exposure in global business and commercial law matters. More importantly, I got personal exposure into law practice in North America, and that was when the seed to become a North American lawyer was born.

But I went right back to Nigeria after my program, eventually joining one of the best and biggest law firms in Nigeria as a corporate-commercial lawyer. So when the opportunity to return permanently to Canada presented itself, it took me a long time to make the decision and eventually make the move, as I was leaving what I considered my ‘dream-job’, a life of comfort, and amazing colleagues for a future I was not sure of.

But I made that move, wanting “more”: a larger exposure on an international-scale to the kind of corporate commercial/business law work that I had come across when I advised international clients.

And I have not looked back ever since.

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

This is a rather humbling question, as I feel like I am just getting started, and there is a world waiting to be conquered.

Aside from my practice of law, I am passionate about (and have been involved in various advocacy causes regarding) female empowerment, child rights, social justice and good governance. To that extent, perhaps, I could say that a significant achievement has been being recognised for my activism, and given the privilege to speak at a regional TED event, about not being confined by the boxes and stereotypes created by society, which boxes (at the very least) perpetuate mediocrity, and (at the most) contribute to harming us.

Another significant personal achievement that comes to mind was my creating and becoming the chief content creator of Meet My Busy Mind which is an analytical online platform dissecting a range of issues, from Beyonce’s newest song, to the kidnapping of school girls by the terror group Boko-Haram. I have had a lot of feedback from people on how this blog has positively impacted their life, and the high point for me was earlier this year when the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers featured one of my articles from the blog in its quarterly magazine. The blog is my immediate platform for expressing my voice, and encouraging the next generation of Nigerian women to let their voices be heard.

Professionally, my most recent achievement has been my breaking into the Canadian legal market. While it is a process I cannot say I have completely concluded, I have made significant progress, especially in light of the strides I have made and the time within which I concluded the Ontario lawyer licensing process.

Prior to now, I had heard how arduous it was to break in as an internationally trained lawyer, and from my personal research, the licensing process would usually take between 18 months to three years to be successfully concluded.

But I began the licensing process last year, writing all NCA (National Committee on Accreditation) exams at one sitting last October, writing the Bar exams this year, and meeting the other requirements of the Law Society of Ontario, culminating into my being called to the Bar of Ontario on 28th September. This is two days shy of the day I landed in Canada to begin this life.

While I am still interviewing and exploring opportunities to begin practice here, I am proud of myself for being able to conclude all the exams in a space of 9 months, obtaining my licence within less than a year of having permanently moved, and thankful for the formidable network of mentors and friends I have built in the Ontario legal community.

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

For a profession such as ours, one prevailing theme I have observed that cuts across in both Nigeria and Canada is that the legal profession is more male-dominated.

Naturally, women would have the additional expectation of proving themselves more than their male colleagues, while navigating prejudices such as being seen as “emotional” (as against passionate), or aggressive (as against ambitious). Until that glass ceiling is shattered globally, it has often resulted into female lawyers having to do more and hold themselves to higher standards than their male colleagues.

There are also the unique challenges which the intersectionality of being a racialized, immigrant female presents; dealing with a myriad of issues including having to convince prospective employers on the transferability of your skills to the Canadian market, while finding innovative ways to satisfy usually unaired (but strongly present) questions that domestic commitments would not hinder your ability to pull your weight as your male counterparts.

Notwithstanding, there are opportunities which abound for women in the profession. There are opportunities for entrepreneurship as sole practitioners or freelance lawyers. For those like me from a Big Law background, there are opportunities in private practice and in-house counsel positions.

I believe it boils down to sheer grit, determination and not giving up, despite the number of times doors shut in one’s face. Since the profession is a highly competitive one, it may require being a little bit more innovative, and even running with trends that others are still grappling with, such as Artificial Intelligence, or Commercial Transactions in emerging economies.

The beauty of our profession is that you can really be anything, and go any direction you want to.

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

Be courageous. That would be my advice.

Being courageous does not mean you will not seek guidance at various times, or that there will not be pitfalls in your career. It does not promise that you will not have 7.30am – 2.30am work-days, or that you will not grapple with fear.

Rather, it is being courageous that will enable you to volunteer on that new brief, do the first-time research on the work, and achieve groundbreaking success for the firm. It is courage that would be with you when you are thrown into a different area of law than that which you are used to. While fear will see you making initial mistakes, and feeling lost 95% of the time, courage will push you to rise above the mistakes, apply yourself to the job at hand, and eventually shine through the assignment.

And when it is time to make the fearful career risks, it is courage that will help recognize opportunities, while listening to your gut instinct.

Courage is the hallmark of the lawyer as an advocate or a solicitor.
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Thank you Meg for taking the time to answer these questions and for sharing your experiences with us!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Lisa Jean Helps

9/26/2018

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This week we are fortunate to hear from Lisa Jean Helps the Founding Partner of Helps Law Corporation and one of the leading criminal defence lawyers in British Columbia.

When I first reached out to the Twitterverse back in December 2017 for "leading lawyers" to profile in this series, Lisa was quick to respond with several wonderful candidates. This showed me she is clearly the type of lawyer who never hesitates to lift up and celebrate those around her. And of course, her candidates all suggested that I profile Lisa as well. So here it is!

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

I started Helps Law Corporation in 2004, at the conclusion of articling, mostly from my apartment. We’ve definitely grown! We now have a large office space across from the Court of Appeal in downtown Vancouver. I have two staff members, a student and an associate now. We are mostly criminal defence trial counsel, although we also take on appeals (which accounts for about half of my actual work) and regulatory hearings at regulatory bodies for professionals, like the Teacher Regulation Branch and College of Dental Surgeons. We also do immediate roadside prohibition work, the administrative sanction that has replaced criminal impaired driving charges.

2. Why did you go to law school?

I was working in the book industry for the Great Canadian Book Company as an assistant buyer and I loved it! I was the restock manager for the entire country. GCBC was owned by Hachette, which was headquartered in Paris and I was told the easiest way to move up the corporate ladder was to get a law degree. So I went! I’d always been interested in the law, but a lawyer who came to my high school’s career night was so discouraging, I went into books instead. I often feel so lucky that I ended up where I’d always wanted to be.

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

You can never underestimate the power of mentorship. I knew from my first semester at UBC Law that I wanted to be a criminal lawyer (I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to my amazing boss, Anna, at Hachette for never going back…) but it seemed like such tough going. I was encouraged by then-Dean Joost Bloom, and Richard C.C. Peck, the latter of whom helped me find my amazing principal, Paul Danyliu, to article with. From Paul, I knew what kind of cases I wanted to do and it was just a matter of working toward getting them.

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

I am proudest of the mentorship I have been able to return. I’ve been the principal to seven articling students, and literally hundreds of criminology and law students. I am so proud of how many of my “kids” go on to fulfilling careers that are right for them.

Otherwise, I’m proud of building a good business and of always being prepared for court! I loved being at the Supreme Court of Canada for R v Sinclair, the leading case on right to counsel, and I’m proud of being asked to ad hoc as a prosecutor. I also love lecturing to the police and feel very honoured to do so to the municipal undercover unit and at the RCMP training centre. It’s unusual for criminal defence counsel to be asked!

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

Key challenges are always going to be that you are held to a different standard than your male peers. There is always going to be a judge or other counsel who treats you as though you have less authority or less right to be there. However, I believe that, because women are socialized to be considerate of other’s feelings and to value empathy, there is a huge opportunity for women to excel as trial lawyers. A good trial lawyer can always figure out where the witness is coming from and what they’re motivated by; this kind of imagination is crucial, and I think women have it in droves. We haven’t been taught that women have an advantage as trial lawyers, but we do.

I do see the practice widening in scope. Women are starting to push past the natural barriers of the practice thanks to women-led firms and family-centric practices. I think we’re going to see huge strides in the next generation as the practice starts being flexible to accommodate women and men who want to be parents and skilled trial lawyers at the same time.

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

I just wrote a whole article about this, which can be found on my linkedin page here.

However, for women specific advice, I’d say this: find amazing mentorship. It’s out there. Go out to events and meet people, especially something like the Trial Lawyer’s Association of BC’s Women Lawyer’s Retreat,and talk to women who are doing the work you want to be doing over the course of your career. I have never had anyone turn me down for a coffee and a talk, and even just hearing a reassuring word is sometimes all you need to keep going.

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Thanks Lisa. It is so true that a kind or reassuring word can be so powerful for someone who needs to hear it!

ICYMI: Previous posts profiled 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. Sign up to have these profiles sent directly to your email address and stay tuned for the next post soon!

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

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

9/14/2018

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

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

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

2. Why did you go to law school?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Laurie Livingstone

9/3/2018

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

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

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

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

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

2. Why did you go to law school?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Renatta Austin

8/13/2018

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

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

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

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

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

2.       Why did you go to law school?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 Comment

WOMEN LEADING IN LAW: Janis Criger

7/20/2018

3 Comments

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

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

I ‘retired’ from active practice in 2015.

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

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

2. Why did you go to law school?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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