The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50815
Baby steps to support new parents in law to turn for information and insight. The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and the Nova Scotia Lawyers' Assistance Program have launched the profession's first parental-leave support program. Reality has helped to shape the new L initiative in two ways. First, it is not a finan- cial compensation program. "That was just not feasible," says NSBS president Marjorie Hickey. Instead the program offers lawyers access to resources — human and other- wise. Up to six sessions of parental-leave coaching are available along with the opportunity to meet one on one with another lawyer who has taken parental leave. There is also information on the NSLAP web site that answers questions lawyers have before, dur- ing, and after leave. "These are very simple resources in many ways, but they fill quite a gap. They provide a comfort," says Hickey, a partner with McInnes Cooper in Halifax. They're also easy to understand, she adds. For example, one resource is a plain-language interpreta- tion of benefits. The emphasis is decidedly on new par- ents, potential or expecting, a reflection of the second reality facing the legal community. "There was a lot of discussion about what kind of program would be of assistance," says Hickey. "Some of that discussion was based on the reality that many women leave the profession when they start a family. One of the purposes of the gender equity commit- tee is to look at recruitment and retention of women in the profession," she notes. "This is a very natural followup to that." It's not only lawyers who will benefit from the new parental-leave support pro- gram, which is based on an initiative up and running in Manitoba. Law firms also get a helping hand. The resources include a model policy on maternity and parental leave. "Sometimes firms, especially smaller firms, don't really know where to start," says Hickey. Now they do. — DM awyers in Nova Scotia who are pregnant, adopting, or thinking of starting a family now have a place NOVA SCOTIA'S Nova Scotia's first female lawyer is gracing the Halifax Law Courts — 92 years after she was admitted to the bar. A portrait of Frances Fish, the first woman to graduate with a law degree from Dalhousie University, is now hanging in the provin- cial courthouse. When Fish was called to the bar in 1918, women were not even considered "persons" under the law. The provincial government amend- ed the Barristers and Solicitors Act making women eligible for admission. Unveiling the portrait is Nova Scotia Barristers' Society president Marjorie Hickey and Heidi Schedler, NSBS gender equity committee co-chairwoman. CENTRAL GOING WHERE NO JUSTICE HAS GONE BEFORE yer, judge or citizen seeking justice has gone before. The $6.2-million project more than five years in the making has a mandate to develop and test information technology that could computerize the civil justice system in Canada, perhaps creating a model that could eventually be of use to legal system administrators around the world. "There have already been attempts S in the past to work toward an integrated legal information management system in Canada but they all failed," says Karim Benyekhlef, director of the Research Centre in Public Law at the Université de Montréal, and one of three Montreal law professors who will lead the project. To ward off the possibility of failure this time, Benyekhlef, working with col- laborators Nicolas Vermeys, a UdeM professor with a PhD in law and a mas- ter's degree in information technology law, and Fabien Gélinas, a professor of constitutional law and international dis- pute resolution at McGill University, has lined up support from major players in upporters of the new Cyber Justice Laboratory in Montreal are aiming to go where no law- The cyber law court at the Université de Montréal. the Canadian justice system, including judge and lawyer groups, departments of justice, provincial attorneys general, and civil society groups. "We want to develop a justice system that is more efficient, faster, and less costly," says Benyekhlef. "The number of civil trials in Quebec and Canada are in decline. We want to facilitate access to justice because that is an integral part of any democracy." Until now, small IT legal projects, such as the introduction of e-filing and case-management systems, or court www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com JAN UARY 2011 9 C ontinued on pa g e 10 FIR S T FEM A LE LA WY ER H O N O URED lISA NEIly/NSBS