Canadian Lawyer

26 www.canadianlawyermag.com WOMEN IN LAW FEATURES A CROSS-SECTION of Ontario's lawyers shows that the role of women in firms diminishes as you move up the ranks. In 2016, 8.8 per cent of Ontario lawyers were female associates and 9.8 per cent were male associates. Two years later, 9.2 per cent of lawyers are female associates and 10 per cent are male associates. By contrast, the Law Society of Ontario'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 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. Not only are nearly 75 per cent of partners men, but unlike their male counterparts, there is a steep drop-off in the total number of women lawyers ages 50 and beyond. Where are they? "An inclusive workplace sets people up to success," said Nikki Gershbain, chief inclu- sion officer at McCarthy Tétrault LLP. "It was a numbers game for a time. It became clear that didn't work: It failed to ensure that peo- ple were receiving opportunities. People are leaving private practice in greater numbers than their non-diverse counterparts. It's not because they don't aspire to leadership or ar- en't capable. So, what is the problem?" The LSO has been strategizing on how to reverse this trend since the early 2000s — The invisible woman Where are the women in partnership — and when will firms help women step into the light? Anita Balakrishnan reports from the Women in Law Summit when it reviewed the situation in other prov- inces and found similar issues. These numbers might reflect historical biases, but at Canadian Lawyer's recent Women in Law Summit, women described how even as active practitioners, they can feel invisible: talked over in meetings, doing more "unseen" work at home, working more non-billable hours preparing for maternity leaves, having their financial contribution count for less because of a split between who is client-responsible and matter-responsible. Then there's the business development — fishing trips, hockey games, mixers at the same time as school pickup. A movie clip of Indigenous lawyers showed how they weren't viewed as lawyers — and unlike others, were

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