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www.canadianlawyermag.com 7 "If there's no option for a client, you're upfront with them, and you decline a retainer" Name: Naseem Mithoowani Current position: Co-founder of Mithoowani Waldman Immigration Law Group Key dates: » 2007: Graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School » 2008: Completed articles at Lerners LLP and joined as an associate » 2010: Joined Waldman & Associates » 2020: Launched Mithoowani Waldman Immigration Law Group » 2021: Appointed part-time adjudicator at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal PROFILE Lorne Waldman, encouraged her to do that when she joined. In addition to the experience Mithoowani gained working on varied files at the firm, she says Waldman taught her an important lesson in client communication: "If there's no option for a client, you're upfront with them, and you decline a retainer." Mithoowani practised at Waldman & Associates for over 10 years and decided in 2019 that she had a strong foundation in the law and wanted to launch Mithoowani Waldman Immigration Law Group with fellow lawyer Clarisa Waldman. "It was really just learning the business side of it and implementing" it. She didn' t know it then, but the pandemic would significantly disrupt her practice soon after she launched. "It went from hundreds of emails a day to zero," she says. With borders, immigration tribunals, and courts all closed, no one was thinking about immigration. "It was a scary time. I was in the process of starting something on my own and trying to think about" the pandemic's impact.