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www.canadianlawyermag.com 33 © 2019 Thomson Reuters Canada Limited 00257FO-95940-NP Comprehensive guidance for family justice professionals involved in parenting plans Available risk-free for 30 days Online: store.thomsonreuters.ca | Call Toll-Free: 1-800-387-5164 | In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Order # L7798-8967-65203 $144 Softcover approx. 500 pages February 2019 978-0-7798-8967-9 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. New Publication Making Parenting Plans in Canada's Family Justice System: Challenges, Controversies and the Role of Mental Health Professionals Rachel Birnbaum, Ph.D., RSW, LL.M., and Nicholas Bala, L.S.M., B.A., J.D., LL.M. This informative and practical resource deals with the challenges involved in making parenting assessments in parenting disputes. As the successor to Child Custody Assessments: A Resource Guide for Legal and Mental Health Professionals, the book reflects the new language and thinking about children and their parents post separation. Both beginning and seasoned practitioners will find comprehensive guidance on: • Children and their parents post separation • Special needs children • Children's participation • Evidence Each of these and other important topics includes the relevant social science and research literature, best practice issues for assessors, tips on testifying in court, and how Canadian courts approach and address these cases. Supplemental readings and websites are provided for further information that reflects the ongoing pace of knowledge. the country. They were on the offensive, and the UN came in," she says. "I got a job renegotiating the Timor Sea treaty, which was a treaty governing offshore petroleum development in a disputed area." The experience — which scored her a meeting with the world's top maritime lawyer early in her career — drove home the value of public service and rule of law, as did her other travelling, she says. Working in one of the world's poorest regions exposed the lack of legal capacity in areas like East Timor. She strayed again from the straight-and-narrow legal part- nership stream, this time starting a non-profit for Canadian lawyers to work abroad. "Every young lawyer I knew at that time felt like leaving the practice of law was such a big deal. Could you go back into law? If you were working as a lawyer, this was who you were. . . . Lots of people stayed in the prac- tice of law even if maybe they were interested in doing something else," she says. "I didn't article in Canada. I wrote my New York bar, I worked in corporate law in Indonesia, I worked with the UN, I worked in corporate law here. I started a charity. I had kids, I took time off, I went in-house." McKenna, who was also executive director of the Banff Forum, a public policy organiza- tion for young leaders, says she is sometimes asked how she ended up where she did. The surprising thing? There was no grand strategy, she says. "I really care about the next generation of lawyers," she says. Her advice: "Life is going to take different turns. Sometimes in law, you see it as a very straight path you have to take — and that's not my experience." "It's important that lawyers get out of the comfort zone, outside of the office and go talk to people and be with people. . . . We can't just talk about abstract concepts and agreements."