The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1183528
www.lawtimesnews.com 25 At the start of 2019, the outlook for new calls was grim: The previous year, a survey found that one in five current or recent articling students faced harassment and discrimination, and alumni and students at University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall were pressing for lower law school tuition. In February, a survey found that first-generation law students were struggling, as more than 40 per cent of law students have a parent "with at least a master's degree, a professional degree, or a doctorate degree." While young lawyers mulled over running for bencher, they found The LSO's 2018 annual report shows that about 12.4 per cent of lawyers in Ontario were male law firm partners, compared to only 4.3 per cent of lawyers who were female partners. That means that, of 3 BAR STANDS UP FOR NEW CALLS AS ARTICLING CRISIS DEEPENS 4 WOMEN PRACTITIONERS SAY ENOUGH'S ENOUGH Nima Hojjati is a recent call who mulled a bencher run Lynne Vicars organized the OBA's Momentum Summit that it was too much to take on amid unpaid work, student debt, the partnership path and the costs of running a campaign. Some of the remaining candidates sprung into action, calling for a new call bencher seat and launching a system to donate a sum of money for every lawyer who was called to the bar in the past decade and cast a bencher ballot. Later in the year, organizations such as the Criminal Lawyers Association and the Ontario Bar Association began collecting and distributing second-hand robes for graduates being called to the bar over the summer. Meanwhile, Ryerson University announced a revamped law school plan — this time, one that would let students skip articling. When Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Merrilee Fullerton rejected Ryerson's initial proposal in November 2018, her statement said "jobs are expected to be more difficult to find" in the legal occupation. "I think many law schools in Ontario are on board with that — having that opportunity for more clinical experience. But they do not by any means want to be seen as having that as the focus of what they do," Yavar Hameed, principle of Hameed Law in Ottawa, told Law Times. "Ryerson is ready to push in a different direction." Still, there will be more challenges to come. Mary Condon, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, said in September that the government is working on plans to further measure the success of law school education. "Given the cost of law school and the way it is expensive to run the kind of rich program that we offer our students, we are always, at least in the foreseeable future, going to have to think very hard at how we generate those kinds of resources," Condon said. 41,576 lawyers in Ontario, 5,168 were male partners out of the 23,594 male lawyers. Of 17,982 women lawyers, 1,770 were partners. With 2019's bencher election, lawyers doubled down: Ontario's representation of women in law is not good enough. Lenczner Slaght released ReferToHer, a list of experienced female lawyers with the aim of increasing referrals to Canadian women in the legal profession. And in February, the law society agreed to add a "gender-neutral" robing space in place of the men's robing room, after outcry that the Lady Barristers' room had 12 lockers and the men's room had almost 70. On Sept. 10, a year of discussions among women leaders culminated with the Ontario Bar Association's Momentum Summit. At the event, legal leaders in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States told the Canadian bar they are looking at legislative, regulatory and cultural changes to combat sexual harassment amid an "inflection point" in the profession.