Meet Megan Keenberg, today's leading lawyer. I met Megan several years ago (likely at one of the many networking events we lawyers used to go to - remember cocktail parties?) but I never knew this side of Megan I until I read her wonderful answers in this profile. Her journey to law is fascinating and she shares so many great nuggets of wisdom: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am a partner with Van Kralingen & Keenberg LLP, better know as V|K Law. We are a commercial litigation and employment law boutique, focused primarily on solving business problems. I am a Certified Specialist in Civil Litigation and I manage complex commercial cases involving shareholder and creditor disputes, breach of contract, professional negligence, fraud, and employment issues. I am also a Mediator and Arbitrator, having completed Osgoode’s LL.M. in Dispute Resolution and the Toronto Commercial Arbitration Society’s Gold Standard Course. My dispute resolution practice centres mainly on business disputes, but also includes civil disputes more broadly. 2. Why did you go to law school? I never considered a legal career until the summer before I started law school as a mature student at age 30. Once the idea occurred to me, it seemed clear, in retrospect, that my previous career paths led me to law, albeit in a pretty unorthodox way. Prior to law school, I had a long-standing career as an actor which led me to the New York theatre scene, and a side hustle as a bartender so I could pay my rent. My side hustle morphed into a hospitality consultancy business, and later led to a sweat-equity stake as an owner-operator of a neighbourhood bar in Brooklyn. I gained valuable skills and experiences in these roles that uniquely prepared me for business advocacy – empathy, a sense of narrative, a non-judgmental view of the human condition, communication and presentation skills, organizational and management skills, a very thick skin and strong sense of self, and a deep appreciation for the value of business relationships, especially in a handshake industry. The catalyst to my career change and ultimate decision to go to law school happened early on a Tuesday morning in September, 2001. I awoke to watch the Twin Towers crumble from my bedroom window, and everything changed in a flash. I was seized by a strong need to do something – to offer practical tangible help – and that need has not since abated. In the initial aftermath, I did practical things like delivering food to first responders at Ground Zero and matching employee sign-in logs with lists of missing persons to help identify those presumed dead. The work I had been doing as an actor, a business owner and even the volunteer work I did as a community organizer felt small and fractured in comparison. As the immediate emergency waned, I started, for the first time, to think strategically about how I could make a more significant impact. And I was faced with another pressing challenge – immigration policies changed as a result of 9/11 making it increasingly difficult to maintain my business and life in the US as a foreign national. So, I came back to Canada to start fresh. Since I started acting at a young age, I never grappled with the angsty question about what I wanted to be when I grew up until I was already grown up. At age 30, I started asking myself the bigger questions: what could I contribute? What was I good at? What did I like doing? What did I need? As I reflected on my newly defined goal to make meaningful and tangible positive impacts in peoples’ lives, I considered the broad spectrum of transferable skills I gained in theatre and discovered what was missing from the equation. My main strength had always been my unique approach to complex problem-solving, and until then, this strength had been underutilized. I tend to attack problems on multiple fronts simultaneously, rather than sequentially or linearly, and I am comfortable with dissonance, which allows me to hold opposing thoughts or views at the same time. It occurred to me that if I applied my core competency to the resolution of legal problems, I could make the impact I desired in a helping profession. This analysis coalesced to form a rational basis for giving law school a whirl. I was far from sure about it, but I thought there was no harm in trying. So, I wrote the LSAT in July 2003, and muscled my way into the law school at the University of Ottawa two months later. Luckily, I loved law school and was reasonably good at it. Besides, I faint at the sight of blood, so medicine was off the table. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? It’s both. I took a circuitous route to law that was ultimately triggered by an external event, but there was an element of design in the analysis I brought to my reaction to that event. I’m a big believer in the notion that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Sometimes life throws you a curveball out of nowhere, and there’s no way to prepare. The key is to identify opportunities that arise from surprises and seize them even if they take you off your planned course. I crave stability and revel in routine, but I shine in moments of crisis and change, so I have learned to accept risks and embrace change. It takes practice to develop the necessary confidence that when you leap you will land, and to appreciate that clinging to the familiar is a surer route to a failure. My career path is marked by a series of leaps, some taken pro-actively and others reactively, but all involved lightning fast recalibrations to identify opportunities and assess and accept risks. Throughout law school, I envisioned a career in entertainment law, based on my background in the arts. I summered and articled with a firm that had a strong entertainment law group, and had my future mapped out. Towards the end of my articling term, when I had just wrapped up a rotation through litigation, the firm unexpectedly dissolved. After the initial panic subsided, I looked at the crisis as an opportunity to re-evaluate my career goals and tweak the path I had been on. The entertainment business was still very power-imbalanced and afforded few opportunities to effect real change. I realized that litigation offered me a better platform to play to my strengths in narrative building, presentation, writing, critical analysis and problem-solving, and it appealed more to my helping nature than entertainment law did. I also enjoyed the performative aspect of litigation. So, I took a leap and applied to litigation firms. My top choice litigation firm offered to let me finish my articling term with them but advised me that there was a very low chance of hire-back as they had already made their hiring decisions from their own articling pool. When pressed for my odds, they allowed that I had about a 1% chance of hire-back. I figured that 1% was better than zero, so I took my shot. I docketed >300 hours a month for three months, determined to demonstrate my maximum capacity and capabilities. I campaigned for champions and asked for and received specific assistance with ‘Operation Get Megan Hired’. In the end, it paid off and I was hired against the odds. A couple years later, one of the senior lawyers who was instrumental in Operation Get Megan Hired moved to a boutique litigation firm specializing in the kind of complex commercial work that I had grown to love. Despite being very satisfied with my job, I took another leap and followed my mentor. I flourished in the boutique environment as the small team model allowed me to take on greater responsibility and a more central role on cases than would ordinarily be entrusted to a junior associate. After practicing for the better part of a decade, I once again took stock. I was happy in my firm, and doing the work I loved, but I realized I had made some compromises in personal autonomy and authenticity to get to that professional position and I felt uncomfortable about maintaining those compromises long term. That was when I took the most recent leap to co-found V|K in 2017. It was my first purely proactive leap, not precipitated by any cataclysmic triggering event like 9/11 or the dissolution of a firm or the departure of a valued mentor. For that reason, it felt riskier but in the end, this leap has been more meaningful because I am finally steering my own ship. Creating and co-managing my firm has been a tremendously rewarding experience and fulfills my personal and professional goals. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I am most proud of the firm culture we have fostered at V|K. My partner Alex Van Kralingen and I both came up through highly reputable law firms operating on traditional models. While we valued the exceptional training and experience and lasting relationships those firms offered, we also felt there were gaps and embedded presumptions in the traditional model that could be improved upon. Our analysis pointed to a trickle-down effect on culture stemming from the compensation schemes most firms employ that rewards certain work and undervalues other work and fosters competition among colleagues. We created an alternative compensation scheme that rewards collaboration, teamwork and delegation. As a result, our people-first values are rewarded and reinforced. Our hierarchy has flattened, our mentorship is multi-directional, and collaboration is part of the daily routine. All firm members are consulted about and provide input into firm decisions ranging from recruitment to technology upgrades to business development initiatives. Each member of our team knows that their contributions and perspectives are not just valued but critical to our collective success. It’s been validating to prove that a people-first model is also a lucrative and sensible business model. There’s no cost to the incorporation of socialist values in a capitalist enterprise; in fact, the enshrinement of these values has helped us prosper. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Summer 2005, I landed my first law job on Bay Street, and it felt like I had time-travelled back to the Mad Men era. At orientation, we were directly warned that if we reported sexual harassment in accordance with the firm’s policy, our reputations and careers would be ruined. Instead we were strongly advised to develop a sense of humour and a thick skin. That was 15 years ago, and we’ve come a long way since then, but I think the traditional law firm model rewards and punishes behaviours that are based on gender stereotypes, and results in lingering unconscious bias against women in the profession. The good news is that that traditional law firm model is waking up to the 21st Century. There are more women working in law – and more women in business who are in positions to select law firms for retainers and instruct counsel – than ever before, and there’s power in our numbers. We no longer have to put up or shut up. Together we can identify the problems, demand better, and put solutions in place to implement the better demands we are making. And if that doesn’t work or you’re fed up with the fight, there are countless viable alternative options available to us now, thanks to advancements in technology that have enabled cloud-based document management systems, remote-working, workspace sharing and virtual legal administrative solutions and freelance lawyering. By leveraging off these advancements, lawyers are no longer dependent on the traditional law firm model and the attendant prohibitively expensive capital requirements for overhead to deliver excellent legal work. Opting out is no longer a career killer. To the contrary, it can be what sets you free to soar. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? I give all new lawyers the excellent advice that was given to me by Samuel Schwartz many years ago, which is to conduct your legal career as though you plan to start your own firm in year 10. By setting that goal, you will naturally benchmark your legal and advocacy skills, you will collect mentors and champions and maintain professional relationships with colleagues who may become referral sources, you will focus on business development early and often, and you will learn the business of law. In this way you will make yourself indispensable and self-reliant in whatever legal position you hold and a sought-after candidate for any legal role you pursue. Fun fact: we launched V|K on the tenth anniversary of my call to the bar. Sam was right! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Megan for agreeing to participate in this series. You have provided wonderful advice that I believe will be beneficial to many (including me). I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Yadesha Satheaswaran, France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan.
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I started this series with the intention of including as many diverse voices as possible, which also meant not focusing solely on women lawyers who have established and long-standing careers. I'm excited that for this profile we have the pleasure of hearing from a leading articling student / almost lawyer (yay!), Yadesha Satheaswaran: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am currently an articling student, so I don’t have a business or practice that I can speak of. However, I hope to become a litigator one day and I am fortunate to have gotten a breadth of experience at my firm, Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP. Paliare Roland deals with a wide variety of civil litigation matters, including bankruptcy/insolvency law, corporate/commercial law, labour/employment law, and administrative/constitutional law. 2. Why did you go to law school? I decided to attend law school because of my family’s experiences with domestic violence. Growing up, I saw my mother – a newly single parent and a refugee to this country – try to navigate the criminal, family and immigration law systems concurrently. She had a lot of difficulties, and I knew that she could not have been the only one. I wanted to become an advocate for survivors like her who are often caught in a matrix of multiple legal issues. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I would say “both”. I applied to law school with the expectation that I would work in the social justice sector, helping the most vulnerable and marginalized. I was able to do just that in my second year when I was employed for eight months at Parkdale Community Legal Services (“PCLS”). I loved the clients at PCLS, but I learned that (due to some unresolved trauma) I currently do not have the emotional capacity or mental wherewithal to make criminal, family or immigration law my entire practice. Interestingly, I had a very litigious case load while I was at PCLS, and I appeared in front of the Social Benefits Tribunal and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board on numerous occasions. I realized that I enjoyed both the oral and written advocacy associated with litigation so I broadened the scope of my interest during the 2L Recruit. That’s how I ended up summering and articling at Paliare Roland. I continue to engage in more radical, community-based activism via my extra-curriculars. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? Near the end of my 3L, I was one of 12 students to receive the Dean’s Golden Key Award. The Dean’s Golden Key Award is given to graduating students at Osgoode Hall who have made outstanding contributions to law school life. I was honoured to have been recognized, and to have shared the moment with my best friends. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? I think a persistent challenge for women in law is to be treated equitably – i.e. to receive the same pay as men, to not be asked unsolicited questions about potential motherhood, to be better represented amongst the partnership, etc. This can all be exacerbated by intersections with race, sexuality, disability, religion/creed, class, and/or age. That being said, I think women are uniquely positioned to drive the legal profession forward. We can push for inclusive models of practice, bring differently-situated insights to our clients’ problems, and even develop new areas of law. In so doing, we can dismantle the vestiges of archaic male-centric thinking and make the legal profession our own. Maybe I am a little too optimistic, but I believe that the law can be an oyster of opportunity for women. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, and do not be afraid to explore! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you Yadesha for participating and all the best in your legal career! I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: France Mahon, Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. We head out to Vancouver for our next leading lawyer: meet Frances Mahon! When I was told by the person who recommended Frances for this profile that she had done a "bajillion" murder trials I was both impressed and a little worried about Canada's murder rates. I have now been told it might not be a "bajillion" murder trials, but close :) Read on to find out more about France's practice: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. Mahon & Company is not your typical law firm. We represent people facing serious criminal charges, provide assistance to refugees and other newcomers, and we engage in advocacy and law reform efforts on behalf of individuals and non-profit organizations, with a particular focus on sex worker rights and issues impacting the LGBTQ2S community. In many cases, some or all of these practice areas will overlap (e.g. someone facing criminal charges and immigration consequences) and we bring value to our clients by taking a holistic approach to these intersecting issues. 2. Why did you go to law school? I was an artist before I became a lawyer (still am). Some people think this is an unusual path, but to me it makes perfect sense, since my art practice has long been centred around social justice issues, and there is no question that a creative approach to problem-solving is a valuable skill for lawyers. Right before I applied to law school, I had been working on a documentary with a LGBTQ refugee group in Toronto. Listening to the stories of the brave folks who had been through hell and back made me want to take my advocacy to the next level. I applied to Osgoode Hall Law School, and much to my surprise the school decided that a weirdo artist like me had the potential to be a lawyer. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? A little of both. Although I wanted to be a refugee lawyer when I initially applied to law school, by chance I was enrolled in Professor Alan Young’s intro criminal law class and I quickly became obsessed with criminal law and forged one of the most important relationships of my career. I owe a lot of my initial success to Prof. Young’s mentorship, and criminal defence work is the core of my practice to this day (although I did eventually circle back to refugee work when the opportunity arose). Throughout the rest of law school, I worked as his RA and got to help out with Bedford v. Canada, the Innocence Project, and many of his other initiatives. The best things that Prof. Young taught me were (1) you can be a lawyer and still be a pretty weird and creative person, and (2) you can make a career out of your passion for law reform and social change. When Bedford went to the Supreme Court of Canada, Marlys Edwardh joined the legal team alongside Prof. Young. We ended up spending quite a bit of time together as the team prepared for the SCC, and she eventually offered me an articling position in the criminal law group at Goldblatt Partners LLP in Toronto. I will never forget the years I spent working with her and the team at GP LLP. I got to work on interesting cases with some amazing lawyers, and Marlys taught me how to work hard, think deeply about the law, and to really connect with clients and bring their story to the court. Her intellect and compassion is legendary – she truly is one of the giants of the law and I love her dearly. I moved to Vancouver in 2016 and about 6 months later decided to start my own firm. This was a HUGE leap of faith but one that has really paid off. Three years later, I am working with an extraordinary team of people in a beautiful office (with the coveted north view) in downtown Vancouver. We do work we are really passionate about, get to help our communities, and we have fun while we do it. I’ve somehow managed to create the law firm of my dreams and I can’t imagine doing anything else now. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? Aside from creating the law firm of my dreams? Without a doubt it was representing groups of LGBTQ2S lawyers and law students as intervenors in the Supreme Court of Canada in Trinity Western University v. the Law Society of Upper Canada. I had been to the SCC before, but this was the first time I gave oral submissions (easily the most terrifying 5 minutes of my life). I am so proud that our contribution helped ensure that LGBTQ2S law students can seek out law school positions without the identity-based barrier that TWU’s law school would have imposed. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? One challenge (which is presented by your question) is the binary divide between “female” and “male” lawyers and the assumption that it is only cisgender women striving for recognition and equality. I have a number of trans and non-binary colleagues and they are largely erased from these conversations. For example, the challenges my non-binary colleagues face are numerous: where do I get changed into my robes at the courthouse? where do I go to the bathroom, when there are only “men’s” and “women’s” washrooms? how can I get the Court to recognize my name and pronouns without pissing off the judge? There are countless everyday barriers that are largely unnoticed outside (and even inside) the LGBTQ2S community. Fortunately this is changing, albeit only at the glacial pace of the law. Last year, Nicole Nussbaum, Frank Durnford and I conducted a training session on LGBTQ2S issues for Federal Court judges (through the CBA’s National SOGIC section, where I act as 1st Vice Chair) and the response was incredibly positive. One very senior judge (who shall remain unnamed), after learning about the barriers presented by gendered washrooms, said he wanted to “take a sledgehammer” to the bathroom walls in the courthouse and start rebuilding, which is possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever heard a judge say. We are now looking to expand this training to judges across Canada. I like to believe that people can change, when given the necessary tools, and there are lots of opportunities out there to help your community and be an agent of change if you have the energy and desire to do it. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Make friends, and keep them. A support network is crucial to any lawyer. I remember being told at Osgoode that the relationships we forged in law school would last throughout our careers, and it was the best piece of advice I have ever received. In addition to the benefits of friendship, you will get referrals, advice, a shoulder to cry on, someone who gets both the lawyer side of you and the you-you, and so many other things. One of my closest friends is someone I met on the first day of law school and I honestly don’t know how I would have survived this past decade without her. Be a friend, not a jerk! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for taking the time to provide these thoughtful and helpful answers! I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Sarah Molyneaux, Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Welcome back to the Women Leading in Law series. Today the blog series profiles leading lawyer Sarah Molyneaux: another amazing lawyer who has started her own successful law firm and has chosen to practice law in a way that makes her happy. I love reading these stories! Her opening sentence says it all: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I opened Molyneaux Law in early 2018 with the goal of bringing Hamilton workers, women and LGBT+ folks a local, woman-led option for high quality social justice legal representation. Today, it’s a family firm where I work together with my partner and a paralegal. We handle a broad range of workplace matters, predominately on behalf of unions and non-union employees. While I still enjoy ‘bread and butter’ labour and employment files, as my practice has become busier I have opted to focus on cases on behalf of women and queer workers who have faced pregnancy, parental status or sex/gender discrimination in the workplace and on assisting unions in respect of organizing campaigns. I’m grateful that growing our team has given me the opportunity to really concentrate on the work that is closest to my heart. 2. Why did you go to law school? I did not really know what a lawyer did when I applied to law school. I had never even met a lawyer! But my former high school debate coach and favourite professor both suggested a law degree after I told them my plans of becoming a war correspondent. In retrospect, they were right. I wanted a career where I could help vulnerable people be seen and heard, which I have found in law. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Like most people, I’d say it has been a combination of design and chance. I knew that I wanted to be a social justice lawyer, but I also knew that I did not know very much about being a lawyer when I started on that journey. I was (initially) prepared to be reasonably flexible about what my career would look like. However, in my 1L summer I was assigned to the Workers’ Rights Division at Parkdale Community Legal Services and truly found my niche – this happened by chance, because I had actually applied to work in the Immigration Division. Since that time, I have worked hard to develop the skills and knowledge needed to become a good labour, employment and human rights lawyer. This included a summer position at the Ministry of Labour, volunteering with the Workers’ Action Centre and Caregivers Action Centre, and articling at a union-side labour firm before being hired as an associate at a labour and employment boutique. I know that’s a path that I share with a number of union-side labour lawyers. Today, a lot of design goes into developing our still-young firm. We are deliberate about the type of law we want to practice and the way we want to practice, as well as the way we want to run our business. As social justice lawyers, we are very clear about who we are and this has helped us attract clients who share our values. We are honoured to benefit from a great deal of community support, too, and I believe that comes from our commitment to our feminist and pro-labour values. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? It may be too early to say. But I am proud that I have played a small role in other young women’s pursuit of careers in union-side labour law and litigation. I have already had the unique privilege of working with a handful of women law students and watching them develop as formidable lawyers in their own right. It is a special compliment to have women that I respect ask for my advice, whether it’s about a legal issue or a crossroads in their working life. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? I agree with so many of the other lawyers that you’ve profiled that one of the biggest challenges that women in law face is discrimination against mothers (or potential mothers) as well as aspects of law firm culture which make it exceedingly difficult to balance work and family responsibilities. On top of this, women lawyers continue to face a range of discriminatory conduct in our workplaces which ranges from microaggressions to egregious sexual harassment. For BIPOC women in law, these challenges are made worse by the experience of racism. It’s shameful that many members of our profession are not only hesitant to change but are openly hostile towards the idea of change in these respects. It’s unsurprising that many women leave law practice in favour of fields where they may have better working conditions. At the same time, there are opportunities for women in law. In my experience, women lawyers are eager to lift as they climb, offering mentorship and opportunities to others. This blog series is a great example of a woman lawyer offering up a platform to her peers. I know that the mentorship and friendship of other women lawyers has helped me in my career so far. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? A successful legal career depends on you following your interests or passions and on doing so in a way that is practical. It is easier to excel when you care deeply about your work and your clients, but for many of us the intellectual demands of legal work require the peace of mind that comes with an ability to pay the rent. This is especially important for women who want to pursue a social justice-oriented practice or who want to hang out their own shingle or who, like me, want to do both. So, think about what type of work will reflect your values, but also think about how you can ensure that doing that work will be sustainable for you. For some lawyers, this means diversifying either their practice area or their client base. For others, it means establishing a very clear niche. It may mean experimenting – which will require you to be comfortable with the idea that some experiments will go better than others. Luckily, there is no one way to be a good lawyer and there is no rule that requires you to be the same type of lawyer for your entire career: you are allowed to try new things, to grow and to change. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you very much for participating in this series, Sarah. I love all the different voices and opinions and advice that this series is producing. I wish this series was around when I started out in law :) I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Richa Sandill, Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. I know this next leading lawyer through my volunteer work with the Ontario Bar Association and in particular the Women Lawyers Forum. Richa Sandill is the current Chair of the WLF and an employment lawyer. She provides some great encouragement and advice to all lawyers and to new law grads in particular: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I am a Staff Lawyer at Scarborough Community Legal Services (shout-out to the SCLS team!) practicing in Employment Law. Scarborough Community Legal Services is one of Ontario’s many amazing frontline community legal clinics. As an employment lawyer in the clinic system, my focus is on advising and representing low income workers across pretty much every employee-side employment law issue. This ranges from wrongful dismissals and severance negotiations, to Ministry of Labour Claims, Small Claims Court and Superior Court litigation, Employment Standards Appeals at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Employment Insurance advice and appeals, and my not-so-secret favourite, Human Rights Tribunal litigation. A lot of my work also interacts with other aspects of poverty law such as social assistance, immigration, and housing. Being a clinic lawyer also means that I get to collaborate with other lawyers and community organizers in the clinic system on workers’ rights issues. Conducting public legal education in the Scarborough community and actively identifying opportunities for law reform as it relates to employment law are also part of my role. 2. Why did you go to law school? I grew up in a first-generation Indo-Canadian household which fuelled me with a passion for social justice, and that’s what ultimately led me to law school. Growing up with two cultures meant that I got to see the world a little bit differently. I learned early on what it meant to have to deal with patriarchy, what it meant for not every rule or norm to make sense, and what it meant to question things. Amidst all that though, my mom and my Nana (maternal grandfather) played a huge role in how I developed into the person that I was by the time I decided on law school in the United Kingdom in 2010. In 1970s and 80s India, where the general expectation for women was marriage, my Nana was busy pushing his three daughters to excel in academics and their career. So, it was no surprise that he and my mom made sure to instill the same passion and drive into me many years later. They encouraged me to be a bookworm, to study the world map, to write as much as I could, and to work hard. Through those readings, I discovered the paths that women like Nellie McClung and Clara Brett Martin forged through their challenges to the law. The Famous Five honestly inspired me to no end and made me want to be a lawyer from the first time I discovered them at age 12. My mom was also a huge part of why I went to law school. Despite all kinds of challenges as a single parent, my mom raised me to be a feminist, to have a voice and be a voice for others. Her drive made me want to be in a job and a path that allowed me to help people and make a difference. I try hard not forget these reasons, and feel so lucky that I did end up in a role that reflects them in many ways. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Chance, and a lot of getting outside of my comfort zone. With my mom’s support, I was able to go to law school in the United Kingdom directly after high school. I completed my degree there and came back to Toronto in 2013 as a National Committee of Accreditation or “NCA” candidate. I was young, lost and honestly had no idea how to navigate the Toronto legal market. This was only seven years ago, but there was in my experience much less awareness in the profession of the NCA process back then compared to what there is now. This meant that I had to hustle. Alongside doing my accreditation exams and working a full-time non-law job, I joined every bar association and attended every networking event I could find. I zeroed in on employment law as my area of practice interest early on in this journey. So, I began to also cold email (harass?) every employment lawyer I could find in Toronto whose practice I found interesting. It was tough – you’ll recall that I said above how much of a bookworm I was, so networking did not come naturally to me. There was a lot of embarrassment, a lot of rejection, and a lot of times where I genuinely worried if I would ever get an articling position, let alone become a lawyer. Yet somehow the world put the best people in my path during that time. Countless lawyers who had never met me before gave me their time and their advice over coffee – for some reason, most often at the Starbucks at First Canadian Place. Others saw things in me that I might not have seen in myself at the time. For example, at one of those networking events in 2014, I met three incredible women that Erin you know very well: Linda Silver-Dranoff, Judi Huddart, and Maryellen Symons, all of whom encouraged me to apply to the Ontario Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Forum (OBA WLF)’s executive committee. That is what started my path towards being as involved as I am now in the OBA and in the profession. Being around the WLF and its incredible executive committee also really gave me an awareness of issues that women face in the profession even before I started practicing. Those years really influenced how outspoken I am today about equity, diversity, and discrimination. I also met the incredible Geri Sanson at another event, who was then Chair of the OBA’s Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights section. Not only did she encourage me to join that section’s executive as well, she was also such a supportive voice throughout this time for me. She introduced me to other human rights and employment lawyers, some of whom became mentors for me down the road. Today, I am proud to be both Chair of the WLF and a member of the South Asian Bar Association Board, and I can directly attribute that to this phase of my journey. It was also through that harassing cold calling that I met Stuart Rudner for coffee in 2015. A few months later, I had finally finished my NCA exams, and was temping as a legal assistant for different law firms while figuring out what to do about articling. That’s when I got a call to temp at an employment law firm in Yorkville for a brief week. That firm turned out to be Rudner MacDonald – and Stuart remembered me! And I ended up getting along with everyone in that firm so well as a temp that they asked me to come back for another week. And then another week. And then three months later, I was still there – and ultimately ended up staying there, articling, and becoming an employment lawyer. My passion for social justice never left me though, and I knew that as much as private practice presented opportunity for me, my heart was somewhere else. So, in 2019, I took the leap and began applying for jobs in the clinic system. I was actually away in India when I got a phone call from my now Executive Director at SCLS to come in for an interview. Of course, the interview was scheduled for the day after I landed. Fortunately, jet lag didn’t get in the way, and over a year later, here I am, doing a job and working with a team that makes me so incredibly happy. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? Honestly, the fact that I am here, doing the meaningful work that I get to do every day in the clinic system for the clients that I do makes me prouder than anything else. I get to work on the kinds of things that I went to law school for to begin with. I might be biased, but the community we serve in Scarborough and the clients I get to work with are some of the most resilient, wonderful, and diverse that I have ever had the chance to work with as an Employment Lawyer. I work with a lot of recent immigrants and relatively precarious workers, many of whom do not speak English and are far more vulnerable to abuse as a result of their unfamiliarity. But they are some of the strongest people I have ever met. I learn so much from them and their perseverance in the middle of adversity every single day that I get to represent them. The fact that I can be that difference in enforcing their rights, being their voice in a system that might otherwise not recognize their experiences, or challenging discriminatory practices in the workplace, is more than I could have ever wanted from my work. If I have to pick single achievements, two other things come to mind. One is my election to the position of Chair of the OBA WLF this year. As I mentioned above, the WLF has been so integral to who I am as a lawyer thus far. I am so proud to have had the chance to make my own contributions to it as its Chair this year. The other is with respect to my work on unpaid articling in 2017 during the Law Society of Ontario’s Dialogue on Licensing. My colleagues Litsa Dantzer, Laura Abitbol and I conducted a survey of over 200 recent articling/LPP students to understand how prevalent unpaid positions were. We also anonymously documented stories of harassment and abuse as a result of the power imbalances in such articling setups. We used that towards our submission to the Law Society’s Dialogue on Licensing review in 2017. While I can’t say that it was directly because of our work by any means, the subsequent transitional training model that the Law Society adopted in December 2018 did include a requirement for paid placements. I saw a lot of horrible things happening to NCA students articling for free during my time, so even if we were 1% of the difference, that makes me incredibly proud. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? I think as a woman in litigation, I am cognizant of the ever-persistent micro-aggression tactics that are still used towards women lawyers, and particularly the younger ones. For example, older male opposing counsel walking up and asking “oh you look so young! Where did you go to law school?” or “don’t get so emotional over this.” Or, as a racialized woman, just the never-ending refusal to say my name right (it’s not Reeeesha!) But I want to focus on the opportunity side of things. The women that inspired me to go to law school, practice in my chosen area, and join the OBA fought hard so that women like me did not have to think twice before doing any of those things. There is so much opportunity for women today to become leaders in the profession and experts in their practice areas. Just ask the WLF – we do an entire series called Pathways to Power which showcases this! (and which just won an award at the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations – not to brag or anything). The world is your oyster if you know what you want, are willing to work hard, and go for it, come what may. The age that we are in also sees an opportunity for women to really raise their voices, particularly in light of the #MeToo movement. This is an unprecedented time in which issues that should have gotten a voice years ago are now being spotlighted. Use this opportunity to use your voice for yourself and your clients. Use your voice to challenge the norm. Use your voice to keep making our profession and our world an inclusive place. Look for the opportunity to become a voice for someone else who might not have one in the justice system – and don’t just give them your voice. Listen and give them the voice that they need and deserve. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? These are challenging economic times for new law school grads. I’m sharing my story above in detail hoping that reading it will give someone else advice and hope should they find themselves in the shoes I was in back in 2013. I would also say that you need to know what you want and be persistent. Look for opportunities for growth even in the middle of challenges. Realize that everyone has gone through the same learning curves as you are, and it’s ok if you don’t know everything yet – because no one does. Build authentic relationships with the colleagues and other lawyers that you meet. And most importantly, be yourself. I cannot stress this enough. Law is definitely one of the more traditional professions, and all firms/workplaces come with their own cultures. Like any other relationship in life, you are going to be so much happier if you find somewhere that accepts you for you. As you develop as a lawyer, stay true to yourself – so for example, you don’t have to be an aggressive personality to litigate. You don’t have to be a networking person to thrive in private practice. As long as you find what fits your passion, you will find a way to get where you need to be. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you so much for your words of wisdom and encouragement Richa! I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Vivene Salmon, Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Today's post features a true leader, Vivene Salmon the current President of the Canadian Bar Association and Vice-President, Country Compliance Manager, Global Banking and Markets Compliance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) represents 36,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada and is considered the voice of Canada’s legal community. The CBA is actively engaged with the Canadian legal community and provides quality legal information and training to its members. The CBA partners with leading thinkers and innovators within the legal profession, and disseminates knowledge about global and national trends about the justice system. The CBA is dedicated to supporting the rule of law and improving the administration of justice in Canada. 2. Why did you go to law school? From an early age I knew I wanted a career in law and/or journalism. I loved reading and I have a natural aptitude for writing. I can remember from a very early age sitting around the family dinner table listening to CBC radio and talking about the issues of the day with my parents and their friends. I was, and still am, passionate about public policy issues – to me being a lawyer has always been a calling not a job. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I think most professional opportunities in life blossom at the juncture of hard work meeting opportunity. If you don’t put in the hard work in advance; it’s pretty hard to get opportunities to come your way and then leverage those opportunities into new experiences. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? My most personal experience that I am proud of us is learning how to swim as an adult – once a week swim lessons and two times a week swim practice for two years. It was worth it! My most significant professional experience is becoming the first racialized person, first female in-house counsel and ninth woman to lead the Canadian Bar Association. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Unfortunately, it seems sometimes not much has changed to advance women in the legal profession since the release of the CBA’s iconic Touchstone Report in 1993. For racialized women, our trajectory in the legal profession can seem even more discouraging and disheartening. While women lawyer’s compensation is on average lower than their male counterparts – racialized women lawyers earn about 60% of what white men lawyers earn. It appears things are equal starting out in law school, but they are certainly not equal in the long haul. Or in other words, some are more equal than others. Despite the challenges and barriers still to be broken, I think progress is being made; but a lot more still needs to be done. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? I think it’s important to have confidence that you’re as smart as anyone else. Everyone brings something unique to the table. As much as possible, know what you want; but don’t be afraid to deviate off the path well-trodden and take some risks in your career. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Vivene for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. Vivene also has a great podcast series with the CBA called The Every Lawyer: Conversations with the President. I was fortunate to recently be her guest, along with Kimberly Gale, and we discussed starting a solo practice. This podcast has featured several interesting guests, including Omar Ha-Redeye, Ian Holloway, Camille Cameron, Jordan Furlong and Ronit Dinovitzer. I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Kim Whaley, Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Today's profile features Kimberly Whaley, founding partner of Whaley Estate Litigation Partners. Kim is a force to be reckoned with in the areas of estates & elder law! Read on for Kim's story and her helpful and practical advice on how to build your own law practice: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. In or about 2001, I joined an all-women LLP where I ran my own practice and later in or about 2004, started my own firm, in both instances, specializing in Will, Estate, and Trust Disputes; Fiduciary Litigation; Dependants’ Support Claims; Fiduciary Accounting litigation; Capacity Proceedings; Guardianships; Power of Attorney Disputes; Consent and Capacity Board Tribunal Matters; End-of-Life Decisions & Medical Assistance in Dying; Elder Law; Elder Financial Abuse; Solicitor’s Negligence; and, related wealth succession litigation and appeals. I also run a mediation practice restricted to these specialized areas. I have had the good fortune of having had my practice recognized by the Canadian Lawyer, Top 5 & Top 10 Estates and Trusts Boutique in Canada since 2014, and numerous recognitions by peers including in, Global Law Experts, Best Lawyers, Law Day, Lexpert, Who’s Who, Chambers and Partners Canada, National Law Journal’s List of Divorce, Trusts and Estates Trailblazers, Canadian Lawyer, Corporate International Magazine Global Awards and Martindale-Hubbell. I am a certified specialist (CS) in trusts & estates law by the LSO, and a qualified TEP (trusts and estates practitioner) with STEP worldwide, an academician with the International Academy of Estates & Trusts Law, and a distinguished fellow of the Canadian Center for Elder Law. As a woman lawyer, a single mom, and having being legally trained in England, I faced a few challenges in starting my Ontario legal career in 1998. Balancing being a lawyer, business owner and mom took some effort. For example, I recall, the conundrum of having to deliver my child to school on time, yet, having to be at an 8:30 am court in chambers appointment at the same time, this of course, took routine juggling - preferring of course to be at court meant taking my child to court and delivering her to school afterwards……Late! And, on another occasion, hoping that as she sat in the front row on Christmas Eve day at 361 University as I argued a motion that she did not leave, or talk to me, or for that matter anyone else! If only these were the extent of my struggles, maybe they are just the fondest memory struggles! 2. Why did you go to law school? Cliché as it may sound, I went to law school to give a voice to those unable to advocate for themselves. A strong sense of right and wrong prevailed in my inner psyche, and, incensed by my own perceptions of the wrongs, wanted a career opportunity to permit me the ability to right some of these wrongs, not standing idly by waiting for someone else to do the fixing. I liked education. My favorite year of schooling was the year I completed my Masters of Law in International Human Rights Law. I had the good fortune of an extraordinary academic mentor who challenged me and pushed me and who has reached great achievements in his own life and careers: Sir Malcolm Evans (Professor). I had an amazing, rewarding experience that taught me to think, and explore. I am not going to sugar-coat this, I really wanted to work in the Hague-still do! Nevertheless, the journey takes us in many directions with many avenues of exploration, and where I am now in the journey still fulfills my reasons and rationale for having gone to law school in the first place. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I am where I am through chance and circumstance, not necessarily by design. I was born and raised in Canada. However, after graduating from Western I worked for a year in Toronto for the Royal Bank after being fired from the family business that I worked in from age 5 (yes age 5!), albeit I never ever wanted to work in it - so finally 16 years later…success, I was fired! I then moved to England to attend Law School, did an LLM, and worked at Allen & Overy and then Beale & Company. I was a construction litigator and with an affection for architecture, enjoyed my professional career. It was not an original choice, but an opportunity I was given and I chose to pursue it. After 10 years in England, I moved back to Canada to restart my legal career including doing abridged articles and attending the Law Society’s Bar Admission Course, writing four full law school courses & exams by self-study and working in the corporate department at Borden & Elliott, all the while becoming unexpectedly very pregnant with my now aged 21 beautiful daughter, Sammi. I was unsure of my plan….maybe to pick up my career as a construction litigator….though BLG was gracious enough at the time to offer me a job in their then busiest department -Mutual Funds! The thing about “plans” is that they do not always work out the way you expect. I sought advice from senior lawyers about what areas of litigation were (a) growing; and, (b) underserviced. I was looking for a way that I could build upon my business skills and practice law. The area of Estate Litigation kept coming up, so I started to investigate opportunities in that field. After spending a few years at two boutique firms learning all I could about estate litigation, I rather foolishly, started my own firm in or about 2004. I started out with my amazing Bibi Minoo - my estate clerk who was with me at then, Dickson MacGregor Appell and has been with me for virtually my entire estates career, and one associate lawyer in a tiny little office! We have now grown (we grow and we contract) to include me (just a girl I always say!), and 12 professionals, 5 litigation clerks, an office manager, office coordinator, in-take coordinator, a team of IT support, a book keeper and a marketing web/blog manager as well as others from time to time…My first associate left me and is legal counsel at the Ontario Court of Appeal - I forgive her though! I enjoy mentoring my team. We moved offices in November 2013, growing from 1500 square feet to 6000 square feet….with an astounding increase in rent and consequently, in the occurrence of night terrors! There have been both rewards and challenges in growing my practice, but I wouldn’t change a thing…well, that I would admit to anyway! The most rewarding for me personally, is the mentoring and teaching and watching young lawyers grow, learn, and come into their own. It might sound cheesy, but I love watching the transition to independence and confidence. My daily goal is efficiency and to maintain and improve on a comfortable and nurturing work place, a place to thrive and grow and learn…. Once I achieve this, if ever, hopefully I can resign to someone who will accept my resignation! 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? My most significant achievement is actually my beautiful, clever, talented daughter, Sam. Being a mom has truly been my most rewarding job, passion, and hobby all in one. I am more proud of her than anything else in my life and I am privileged she still lets me hang out with her! I have loved teaching legal courses at Queen’s University, the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall and last year, taught the inaugural Estate Litigation Course at Western University. Most persistently however, I love being an avid and passionate advocate for the rights and protections of the elderly. Intent on educating the public at large, government advisors and officials, community groups including medical professionals, the Police, financial sector professionals, government, ministers, and other community-based groups on the many criminal and civil abuses of the elderly. Currently I am involved in advocating for seniors during the COVID-19 issues facing seniors in long term care and like facilities. I feel honored to have been the Civilian Co-chair of the Toronto Police Seniors Community Consultative Committee (TPS SCCC) since its inaugural year in 2017. This advisory committee is a liaison group that consults with the Chief of Police on issues of abuse affecting older and vulnerable persons and uniquely trains and educates both the Toronto Police and Ontario Police on issues of elder abuse. I have presented in every province in Canada (this is how I have seen our country), more than once on issues of elder law and elder abuse and developed my own webinar series on capacity. I have presented at international conferences on ageing throughout the Unites States, in Turkey, Japan, and the United Kingdom. I consult regularly within stakeholder groups including the Seniors’ Roundtable Ontario Securities Commission, Seniors Expert Advisory Committee (SEAC), the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE), the International Federation of Ageing (IFA), the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE), banking institutions, the Baycrest Foundation where I was made an honourable member. I blog, tweet, am active on social media and have a newsletter, released monthly for over 10 years now. I have enjoyed being a long-time volunteer both active in the community, within the Ontario Bar Association, and Canadian Bar Association, Law Society of Ontario. I am past chair of OBA Elder Law Executive, which I co-founded 3 short years ago, and am an honourable member of the CBA Elder Law Executive. I have been involved in various boards and executives including the editorial board for the Ontario Bar Association JUST Magazine, and awards committee as well as others including past chair of the trusts & estates executive. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Opportunities are all around us, focusing on opportunity as opposed to challenges, restrictions and limitations will give you the freedom to grow and thrive beyond such challenges to heights you never imagined. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? i) Know Your Stuff – Be a Technically Strong Lawyer: At the same time as you build your practice, you need to continue to build your knowledge of the law. NEVER stop learning, you can never know it all! Establish a list of willing mentors that you can ask questions of and bounce ideas off. Thank your mentors: chocolate…wine….whatever it is…be kind and take time to thank! Be human! Don’t take too much and make sure you give back! Once you’ve learned how to be a great lawyer, learn to be an excellent experienced lawyer. Become a subject matter expert, the “go-to” person on a particular topic, or niche area of law. As you develop your expertise you will develop your “personal brand”. ii) Network - Show Up and Be Seen: Some people hate it, some thrive on it, but it is unlikely that you will build any sort of business or practice without some sort of networking. You need to find a way to network that works for your personality and is enjoyable for you. Otherwise, you won’t do it, and it won’t work. Get out there and be yourself. The key point is to find something that works for you: be authentic. iii) Speak and Write: Part and parcel with networking and building your profile, are speaking and writing. I can’t understate the power of having your name out there attached to publications and speaking engagements. It builds profile. Get involved in the organizations that you belong to, if you can, and let others know that you are interested in speaking engagements. And always be authentic, write or speak about what interests you about your practice. iv) Keep the Referrals Coming: Maintain, work on, and develop relationships that are worth keeping. Every relationship requires effort. First: do excellent work. No one will refer another file to you if you don’t. Second: say thank you. Whenever anyone refers work to you, make sure you show your appreciation. Also, support your relationships with referrals back where appropriate. v) Look After Yourself: You can build the best practice in the world but if you aren’t healthy - both physically and mentally - enough to run it, it’s not going to be much good to you, or those you work with. You can’t build a practice if you are sick, depressed, or worse….dead. Take your vacations, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, spend time with your children, your family and friends. Learn to say “no”. Learn when to delegate. Finally, DONT panic!!!!! ….like I do every day to this day- this is good advice but I have not mastered how to follow it yet……if you don’t get work right away from all that you do– keep planting the seeds. The people you are reaching out to may not need you right away - but by building your profile, reputation, and competency – one day!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you Kim for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. I am sure many lawyers will benefit from your advice on how to build a law practice. I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Alisia Grenville, Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Today we have the pleasure of (virtually) meeting and learning from Alisia Grenville: Lawyer, compliance officer, board member, fashion designer, and author. Originally from Montreal, now living in Switzerland, this woman is ah-mah-zing: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I help companies build high performing teams by making them examine and reconsider their corporate cultures and determine that they can shift the way they do business by getting people to shift their behavior. After years of building compliance programs for many companies in several different industries, I knew something was missing in the compliance program and what makes it “effective” or an “activist” program. There has been too much of a focus on framework and metrics like prevention, detection and monitoring. Anytime one spoke about ethics and behavior, it sounded soft and unmeasurable. Now I have gracefully combined compliance and ethics by focusing on transforming corporate cultures. When I focus on behavior, I get to speak about compliance and ethics from a humanistic perspective. 2. Why did you go to law school? Law school was an after-thought. I never wanted nor thought about becoming a lawyer. However, when I graduated and started working, without a title in the corporate arena, I soon recognized that I would not be able to get the commercial experience, opportunities nor salary I was looking for. I quickly saw all my friends with law degrees and those who were in law school had big jobs at big firms and it seemed as though their lives had purpose because they were never available to meet and were working downtown in big buildings on the 36th floor of some tower. I was looking for purpose and I thought becoming a lawyer would give me some. That said, I knew I wanted to live in Europe and so I applied to law schools outside of Canada and went to law school in England. For me law school’s purpose was to open up possibilities that I could not see looking through my narrowly framed myopic view master. I have grown since then. Wisdom takes time. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? I do not believe in chance; I believe in destiny. By following my love of languages, I was able to incorporate my legal knowledge into the world I wanted to create by having the two worlds harmonize. Doing only one, each separately, would never have been enough. By combining them and with each of these core strengths leaning on each other, I have been able to compose my own professional melodic symphony. I live in Switzerland, in the French speaking Canton of Vaud. I grew up in Montreal, Quebec and so being in a bilingual environment is both natural and essential to my very essence. I help companies design new ways of seeing operational greatness by embracing cultural, ethics and compliance through enhanced behavioral structures. I don’t talk about compliance and ethics, I have them live it. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I am proud that I stopped talking about being a part of a management team of someone else’s company to becoming the management team and CEO, not only of my life, but of my own company and brands. I started ADG Compliance and Consulting upon return from the Middle East with my family. But because I never believe in putting all my eggs in one basket, I started a fashion brand to uplift and support girls. My daughter, Maren, is the namesake for MaRen Designs. (www.marendesigns.com) My mom’s personal denial of breast cancer and her story is what gave me the courage to want to change the way girls and young adolescents see and value themselves. That also led to my children’s picture book series, Sela Blue. (www.selablue.com). I love being able to have children see the world differently: with new friends to make and new worlds to imagine! 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? Erin, I will not focus on challenges because challenges are a matter of perspective and our own mind creates what it perceives to be “challenges”. Do you know that the Simplified Chinese for challenge is composed of two characters meaning “danger” and “opportunity”? Now don’t get me wrong, in the current corporate male dominated set-up, women globally in law seem not to be able to ascend nor rise through the ranks in the traditional law firm structure as they should (when we know that 60-65% of law school graduates are women, why do they only make up less than 10% of partnerships in firms around the world?) and, thus, feel that to be “successful”, they have to take on male dominate character traits. I say, please call “bs” and don’t follow the model. The only reason women feel confined to follow that male dominated model is because we don’t believe that success can look different, have and or can be measured by different metrics. The key challenge, therefore, is to break free from the classic definition of the success narrative and what makes a successful legal career by espousing and promoting only one model. I, personally, made opportunities for myself and did not follow any path because I did not believe that I had to. To some, did I step “dangerously”? Absolutely! But I saw each step, even though some may have gone wrong, as potential opportunities. And when you are not confined to or by a belief paradigm, then you don’t know if “you are making a mistake” or are in a “crisis” because what you are doing is natural, authentic and have no set determined outcome that you must reach to be considered “successful”. You define your success! And well, because I did not believe nor wish to be defined by those metrics, I made-up my career as I went along and followed my own path. Rightly or wrongly, it was mine. When I got to Europe, still in private practice, I was not a fit for many firms; and they did not hesitate to tell me that because they did not know what I had done (it did not make sense to them) and I looked “suspicious” to most. That said, years later, I landed my first in-house job not because of what I knew, but because of what I was willing to learn. This changed my legal trajectory because that is how I got hooked on Ethics, Culture and Compliance. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Don’t box yourself in! There are so many opportunities on the legal spectrum. Actually, my advice, if I could speak to my 28 year-old self, would be to not follow the traditional path. Of course, if partnership is your ultimate goal, then I guess so. But hopefully, in this age of transparency and knowing how customized and tailored one’s professional career can be, don’t box yourself in and don’t settle for “this is it” or “this is as good as it gets”. This degree opens so many doors and avenues on the planet when you believe there is abundance and are not afraid nor act in fear, thinking you have to take the first job that comes your way because no other job may come by you, then you are seeing your world through a narrow lens and usually are being guided by your very narrow minded thoughts. And believing what you think may be the first problem in your analysis and self-awareness. So, engage with your degree in areas of your interest. If you love movies or entertainment, then look into how you can work on licensing of products or distribution of film or television programming. In my case, I studied languages and speak four fluently and have lived in eight different countries. I was able to leverage my law degree by applying to international companies around the world and because of my love of languages, languages skills and those who speak them, people, I did not limit my professional scope to only English-speaking countries. It all seemed to come together for me when I was being recruited for my role as Chief Compliance Officer with a major Europe company located in Geneva, STMicroelectronics. The CEO was Italian, to whom I reported, and the COO was French. The first lunch we had together during my interview I had both of them in the company’s private corporate dining room, each peppering me with questions in both Italian and French simultaneously. Law did not even matter; it was about the other skills and attributes that I could bring to the business: I was open, vulnerable and even though none of those languages are my mother tongues, I put myself out there. Now, they thought, if she can do that, what else can and will she bring to us talent wise. So, make sure you incorporate your legal knowledge into something that makes sense for you. If I had done so earlier, I would have definitely chosen to go into entertainment and / or journalism and I would have been a talk show hostess today or news anchor! Wonderful mix for legal experts. But no regrets from my side though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wow. What a fun path for a legal career. Thank you Alisia for taking the time out of your busy schedule to participate in this series. I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Frances Wood, Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Welcome back to the Women Leading in Law blog series. Today's post profiles Frances (Frankie) Wood. I have had the pleasure of meeting and volunteering with Frankie at the OBA. She brings joy to any room that she is in. Read on for some great advice: 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. Wood Gold is one of Peel Region’s largest family law boutique firms, with offices in Mississauga and Brampton. We started our firm in 2008 with a goal of creating a firm that worked for our own needs – both Jennifer and I had small children at the time and we wanted to create a firm in which we could provide excellent legal services and also have the family lives that we wanted for ourselves. Since our inception, while our primary focus has been on providing top notch services to our clients, we have equally diligently fostered an environment in which individual lawyers and staff can thrive in their own way, guided by their own respective goals and ambitions. 2. Why did you go to law school? I first went to law school at the University of Edinburgh. I had every intention of staying in Scotland and making a life there, but ultimately I chose to return to Canada. I then studied for 2 years at the University of New Brunswick in beautiful Fredericton before returning to Toronto for articles. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? A little of both. I certainly never intended to practice family law. I had planned to practice civil litigation in downtown Toronto. When my firm collapsed a year and a half after I was called to the bar, I found myself for the first time in my life actually wondering what I wanted to be when I grew up. While I tried to figure that out, I joined a colleague who was practicing family law in Mississauga. 20 years later, I am still practicing family law in Mississauga, although I still live in Toronto. That was the accidental part. Between 2000 and 2008 I practiced with various colleagues, but without ever really finding my place. Jennifer Gold and I used to chat, in the way one does, and say “one day we should start our own firm, set it up the way we want.” One day in the winter of 2008 she called me and said “We’re starting our own firm.” I started to respond with the usual “that’s a great idea”, when she interrupted me. “No, we are doing it. I am giving notice today. We have 30 days to set it up.” The next 30 days were a whirlwind. We had no idea how to run our own business, we had to find a location, set up the bank accounts, the software, buy equipment, design a website… everything! My daughter was 9 months old at the time and Jennifer’s was 2. We have each had a second child along the way. It was crazy, somewhat reckless, but also incredibly liberating. From the beginning, we deliberately crafted a firm which honoured every colleague’s unique needs, goals and ambitions. 12 years on, I still consider myself incredibly fortunate to be practicing law with Jennifer and our amazing team. 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I have done a lot of things in my 20+ years of practice that I am proud of. I have been President of the Peel Law Association, an executive member of CDLPA (now FOLA), and Co-Chair of LibraryCo. In each of those roles one of my key platforms was the preservation of the county libraries across the province and I am extremely proud of the work that we did on that front. I currently have the privilege of sitting as Vice-Chair of the Family Law Section of the OBA and one of the central west representatives to OBA Council. I am also a member of the OBA Women’s Law Forum. Each year brings its own opportunities and challenges; the OBA does an amazing amount of work on behalf of lawyers across the province and in the promotion of diversity, inclusion and access to justice and being a part of that is incredibly enriching. But what I am most proud of us is the firm that Jennifer and I have put together. We currently have 9 associates and 1 LPP candidate. Jennifer and I have deliberately created a firm that honours and promotes diversity & inclusion both for team members but also in how we practice law. While creating a viable business, we have also been able to actively promote access to justice, provide services to some of the most vulnerable residents in our jurisdiction, all while fostering an environment in which every member of our team can achieve their own respective goals. 5. What are some key challenges as well as opportunities for women in law? I think one of biggest challenges is that we are taught from an early stage to define success according to the same standards of success that have been established my previous generation of (mostly) white, male lawyers. While the world has changed in many ways, measures of success – billable hours, income, making partner, the corner office – for the most part, have not. Women lawyers are led to believe that if we just work hard enough, we can “have it all.” But of course, until there are 48 hours in a day, that is actually impossible. So, we are set up to fail. Some years ago, I was asked at an event about how women could be successful in law. The audience were all students or young lawyers. I told them that the first step in achieving success is to define what success means to you. Not what it means to your family, your friends or your colleagues. Not what you have been trained to think it means. But really sit down with your thoughts, think about your life, what you really want, and create your own definition of success. And then go and get it. And that is why I think that our biggest challenge is also our biggest opportunity. We have the chance to redefine what success means and to create work environments in which we can each pursue our own respective visions of success. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? See above. Also, don’t let anyone ever make you feel that you do not deserve to be exactly where you are. For too many years of my life, I was inexplicably drawn to men who mistreated me, both personally and professionally. I have worked in my share of abusive environments – the details are irrelevant now – believing that if I were strong enough I could handle it and that if I was upset it was because I wasn’t tough enough. I now have wonderful personal and professional relationships. My advice to any woman starting her legal career is to define her own success and never accept poor treatment from anyone. ------------------------------------------------------------ Such great advice. There are many lawyers out there working in an area of law or for a law firm that is not a good fit for them (or is an abusive place), thinking that if they just "toughen up" it will get easier or they are "weak" if they can't "make it" in that environment. This is such backwards thinking, but an easy emotional trap to fall into. Thank you Frankie for reminding us to define our OWN success and go after it. I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Maggie Wente, Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. Today's profile features lawyer Maggie Wente. Several people reached out to suggest that Maggie be profiled and I agreed wholeheartedly. (If you are on Twitter, you should definitely be following her too!) 1. Tell me a little about your practice or business. I have a diverse practice that serves First Nations clients across Canada, although I primarily work in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Ontario. My firm, OKT LLP is a full service firm for First Nations clients. My practice is reasonably evenly split between litigation about equality rights (mostly concerning children’s rights and access to equal government services) and section 35 rights (aboriginal rights) and solicitor’s work, primarily in the area of First Nations governance. That usually means assisting First Nations in running their governments, from their HR matters, their agreements with other governments, their provision of social services, their lands management, and their duties and obligations as a government. I also work with a number of First Nations not for profit organizations that service urban Indigenous communities. I travel a lot – last year I took about 35 work trips all over the country. 2. Why did you go to law school? I am one of those people who always said she wanted to be a lawyer, even though I never knew a lawyer as a child (my parents didn’t even go to University). My mother is Anishinaabe and First Nations issues have long been my passion, despite the fact that I haven’t ever lived at my First Nation. My grandmother went to residential school. I knew there were injustices and I have always wanted to address injustice, especially the injustice I saw within my own family. When I was in my undergraduate degree (philosophy at McGill) there were periods that I didn’t want to be a lawyer – it seemed very establishment and I viewed myself as very anti-establishment. I was torn between law school and social work school – and then I chose both, by going to U of T’s law and social work combined program. I wanted to change the world – and I still do. 3. How did you get to where you are today? Design? Chance? Both? Definitely both, with a big dose of mentorship and people taking a chance on me. I didn’t intend to practice when I went to school and always thought I would do social work. At the time, tuition was low enough that that was an option. But as I went through both degrees I found myself thinking more and more that law was a place you could change the unfair laws and policies, and social work wasn’t very anti-establishment at all. Although “Aboriginal law” was a thing then, there wasn’t nearly the kind of opportunity there is now. It was obscure, and job prospects were few. I knew it would be hard to find a spot, and so I focused on another area of social justice that I loved – labour law. I articled at Cavalluzzo and worked for a union briefly after my articles. Shortly after I started working for the union, OKT LLP posted for an associate, which was absolutely my dream job. I felt bad about leaving the union so soon, but when I was offered a job I couldn’t turn it down. OKT was so tiny then – we were only 7 lawyers including me. It was a big change and what they don’t tell you about “Aboriginal law” is that you don’t really spend all your time thinking about section 35 of the Constitution. You spend much more of your time thinking about…well, everything else – property law, contract law, trust law, tax law, administrative law, environmental law, and so on. My law school Aboriginal law course didn’t really touch at all on the things I was doing day to do at the firm. But I had amazing patient mentors who knew so much, I was eager, my fellow associates were great, and I learned a lot in those first few years (and still do today). 4. What is your most significant achievement? What are you proud of? I often tell prospective associates or students that if you want to practice in Aboriginal rights law, you have to get real comfortable with losing. It seems like there are lots of court victories in Aboriginal rights – but those cases aren’t litigated every day. Day to day, your clients are still struggling to meet their basic needs and vindicate what seems like obvious rights. It sometimes feels like you are writing the same letter every month for 5 years trying to achieve a gain for them. Undoubtedly my biggest achievement has been my work on the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society v. Canada case – which is about inequality of funding for child welfare services provided to First Nations children. I represent Chiefs of Ontario at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal as interveners, and have done since the remedies stage of the hearing, which is ongoing. In seeking remedies, COO was successful in getting some programs and services funded by Canada at the actual cost of providing the service. One of these is the “Band Representative” program which allows a representative of the First Nation to present the Nation’s perspective at all stages of a child’s child welfare involvement. That program hadn’t been funded for years and now that First Nations are accessing funding, we have seen amazing results. The research says that First Nations children losing connection with their communities, land, language, culture and kin in the child welfare system leads to terrible outcomes. The Band Representative program seeks to preserve those connections and keep children as close to community as possible. We have seen programs make transformative changes in young people’s lives and it has made me so happy to be a part of this work. First Nations have accessed tens of millions of dollars for this program since 2018. And when can anyone ever say they won unlimited money for a client? I can never top this one. 5. What are some key challenges, and more importantly, opportunities for women in law? A challenge which I surprisingly still face despite the considerable greying of my hair is just the everyday sexism I have to put up with from opposing counsel, some of whom aren’t even senior to me. Lately, even, I have been called kiddo, missy, been mimicked in court in a sing-songy voice, and am told how many years men have been practicing as a way to exert authority. This happens so often I actually have a chart on my office door where I and the women lawyers in my firm keep track. When I was more junior it did what it actually was intended to do – made me feel like crap and cowed me. Now that I am much older and much more confident I routinely just tell people they are being sexist jerks or and tell them to stop and return to speak to me when they can do it respectfully– which is not a popular response. That’s ok though, I’m not here to make friends, and certainly not with sexist jerks. Opportunities? Well I think there is so much opportunity for women to use all the skills in our practices that we are conditioned to have as women. Things like listening well and being empathetic and attentive and caring are incredibly useful because it makes us better at serving our clients and at reading opposing parties. And lately, I see women starting their small and innovative firms in ways that clients are really responding to and so in terms of coming out of last century’s business model, it seems to me that women are leading the way there, which is borne often out of a desire to get out of the traditional male dominated practice models that serve men’s needs, interests, and schedules. 6. What advice would you give a woman starting her legal career? Firstly, you can’t expect that it is any different than it is. Firms are firms and ultimately businesses that are resistant to change and you aren’t going to singlehandedly change law firms and what they demand from people. There is a certain amount of acceptance that is required if being in traditional private practice is what you want to do. Secondly, rely on your friends and mentors. My law school friends and lawyer friends I have met along the way are so important to me. You never know when you might need to ask a question or a favour or just lean on someone for support. Anyone who knows me knows that I have hundreds of friends and I wouldn’t have it any other way. No obligation to go that far in terms of numbers but it’s important to remember that you’re not alone and people have done this before you. Stay in touch. Thirdly, everyone has imposter syndrome to some degree (or at least every woman I know) and in the first years of practice it is totally normal to feel underwater. Just remembering that can be helpful in itself. But remember that it’s not that you aren’t good enough. Don’t let imposter syndrome hold you back, and figure out ways to think differently about yourself and your work. As the saying goes, act like someone with the confidence of a mediocre white man. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love Maggie's last line and must remind myself of this from time to time. Thank you Maggie for taking the time to participate and share your wisdom. I started this blog series because I was tired of hearing about women leaving law and wanted to hear about women leading in law. The "Women Leading in Law" series focuses on good news stories and highlights amazing women succeeding in the legal profession. Each post includes the profiled lawyer's answers to six questions. Prepare to be inspired! ICYMI - previous posts profiled the following amazing lawyers: Anita Szigeti, Neha Chugh, Christy Allen & Nancy Houle, Suzie Seo, Kim Gale, Alexi Wood, Melissa McBain, Erin Best, Gillian Hnatiw, Melanie Sharman Rowand, Meg Chinelo Egbunonu, Lisa Jean Helps, Nathalie Godbout Q.C., Laurie Livingstone, Renatta Austin, Janis Criger, May Cheng, Nicole Chrolavicius, Charlene Theodore, Dyanoosh Youssefi, Shannon Salter, Bindu Cudjoe, Elliot Spears, Jessica Prince, Anu K. Sandhu, Claire Hatcher, Esi Codjoe, Kate Dewhirst, Jennifer Taylor, Rebecca Durcan, Atrisha Lewis, Vandana Sood, Kathryn Manning, Kim Hawkins, Kyla Lee, and Eva Chan. |
Erin C. Cowling is a former freelance lawyer, entrepreneur, business and career consultant, speaker, writer and CEO and Founder of Flex Legal Network Inc., a network of freelance lawyers.
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