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www.canadianlawyermag.com 23 Building the pipeline she didn't have Ventresca is candid about where the Embrace Equity Summit came from. "I came out of the public school system, and I hadn't had anyone in my family who was a lawyer before me," she says. "I didn't have the blueprint or the language for it." That gap is why she helped conceive the Embrace Equity Summit, a program that has reached more than 500 female-iden- tifying students before university, framed around imposter syndrome and the possi- bility of a career they might not have pictured for themselves. She's candid about how much work remains, too. "We've done a lot of good with women in the law generally," she says, "not well with individuals from equity-deserving groups, especially at the partnership level." It's a rare moment where a winner profiled for her own success points just as directly at where the profession still falls short. What she'd tell another managing partner Asked what she'd change first if another leader wanted to replicate her approach, Ventresca points to decision-making itself – getting the empirical evidence on what your people are experiencing before making struc- tural decisions, then acting on what you hear. She still remembers how disorienting that responsibility felt on day one. "I feel terrified. I'm responsible for all of you now, and how can I know what to do for you if I don't know what your lived experience here is like?" she says. Failing to act on what you hear, she says, breaks the trust that made people speak up in the first place. CHANGEMAKER. Paul Saunders is helping law firms prepare for the AI era through strategic leadership, innovation, and organizational transformation. His work has shaped how leaders think about strategy, compensation, data, technology, change, and long-term resilience. That vision continues through The Fortified Firm, a new advisory venture focused on helping law firms build lasting capabilities in the age of AI, enabling adoption and transformation with confidence. thefortifiedfirm.com | stewartmckelvey.com Learn more about The Fortified Firm.