Canadian Lawyer

n their book Breaking Through: Tales from the Top Canadian Women General Counsel, Kirby Chown and Carrie Mandel interviewed 32 women general counsel, but one interview really illustrated the view of the current generation of female lawyers. One young woman questioned if there is still a need for groups that specifically champion the cause of women. Mandel and Chown, a former litigation partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP and the firm's Ontario regional managing partner from 2002 until her retirement in 2009, had spoken with Bonita Croft, vice president legal, general counsel, and corporate secretary with Trican Well Service Ltd. in Calgary. Croft related how she had done a presentation to a women's group and a young female lawyer commented that as 52 per cent of her law school class was made up of women she didn't expect there to be any bias or any need for a women's support network going into the profession. In response, Croft noted in the late 1980s her law school class was 54 per cent women. Had much really changed? Despite the decades in between, Croft and others contend women talking to women, whether it be at special events or in associations, still has considerable merit. However, "understanding how men approach things is another key to success," Croft told Mandel and Chown, "because to a great extent they still write the rules." But Mandel, a consultant with global executive search firm Spencer Stuart, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and former litigator with a large New York law firm, says the GCs they spoke to for the book said "in the early years it's quite helpful to have female-only networking events and mentoring groups because often women come out of law school and don't have the same intuition around the rules of the game in a corporate environment. Often they think if they are just good technical lawyers and put their head down and do good work they will be on equal footing with their male counterparts." What the authors found was women can benefit from having men and women in their court at different stages of their careers. But some believe women-only groups are not pushing the discussion forward in an effective way; and may even be holding it back. Others argue the environment has improved for women in the legal profession but there are still challenges — they have just evolved. The mother of all women's law associations Flashback to 1919 when Laura Denton Duff and Helen Currie started the Women's Law Association of Ontario. The two women were the 20th and 32nd women lawyers called to the bar in Ontario. Both had fathers who were lawyers and felt there was no support system in place, so they banded together with the other women in their class and started the association. They gathered together a handful of other young female lawyers and law students in the offices of Frank Denton, Laura's father. They planned an annual meeting to welcome new women studentsat-law. Next year will mark the WLAO's 95th anniversary. In the 1980s, WLAO was very active and vibrant and had a "sorority feel to it," says Kathryn Hendrikx, its current president and a lawyer with David Barristers Professional Law Corp. in Toronto. In the 1990s, the association changed to be more about education, continuing professional development, networking, and advocacy. "It's really evolved," says Hendrikx, noting there is now a "high-powered network" of women — such as Laurie Pawlitza, former treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada — who assist when asked. "That's what has made it such a longlasting association. It's evolved as women's issues have evolved. It's business and interpersonal development — an extension of mentorship and sponsorship." Similar efforts have been at work in Alberta since 1996 with the Association of Women Lawyers. It has a membership of about 300 lawyers from law firms, crosses all sectors in-house. as well as students from the University of Calgary. "It is a place where like-minded people can get together and talk and our association tries to advance women lawyers so we provide career development, opportunities on soft skills, and things not available through the Canadian Bar Association, such as marketing yourself or marketing your practice," says AWL president Diane Pettie, vice president and general counsel of Canexus Corp. in Calgary. Thanks to building on its relationships, WLAO has a permanent seat at the treasurer's liaison group at the LSUC. "We are a member of that board and meet four times a year with a variety of associations to voice what's happening within our membership and to advocate." It also sits on the law society's equity advisory group. She says those two initiatives led to the Justicia Project, designed to retain and advance women lawyers in private practice. The association also became part of the Ontario Bar Association counsel. "We were tactical — to be sure we sat around and said, 'How are we going to ensure this association continues another 100 years and doesn't die on our watch?' That was our concern as a board — how do we make it relevant and speak to us, as women in our 30s, as we were at the time, and women in their 50s and 60s," she says. Hendrikx points out while law firms have good internal mentoring programs they don't necessarily help mentor a person interested in pursuing opportunities outside the firm. The associations are broader and the help they provide makes them relevant. Members of the WLAO span private practice, in-house, government, the judiciary, academia, and not-forprofits. While it doesn't publish its numbers, Hendrikx says www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m Jan uary 2014 27

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