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REGIONAL WRAP-UP Thomson Rogers, hopes the project will help his firm find ways to keep more as- sociates. "We're trying to create an en- vironment where we're going to retain all our associates, including our female associates, and we're trying to come up with a way in which we can organize our practice so that it's not only feasible but it's something someone would really want to get involved in," he says. SmithValeriote LLP lawyer Michelle Dwyer is the point person for her Guelph, Ont., firm's Justicia contribution. She says the 20-lawyer office's six female counsel and two articling students run up against the same challenges as colleagues across the province and are eager to compare notes. "How do you put in the hours and get there before the daycare closes at six? How do you meet your commitments to the firm, to the community, while most of the time –– I think it's fair to say –– also being the primary caregiver and grocery shopper and dentist-appointment maker, and all those sorts of things?" says Dw- yer. "We all have a lot of balls in the air. It's just a question of trying to make sure that there's a way of keeping them all in the air and also keeping your own health and sanity." The Justicia project was approved by Convocation in May, along with a suite of other offerings aimed a making pri- vate practice more accessible for wom- en, such as a parental-leave benefit and locum service. A report released in April indicated that while women represented about 51 per cent of Ontario's popula- tion in 2001, female lawyers at that time made up 32 per cent of the legal profes- sion and 24 per cent of the lawyers in private practice. Women currently rep- resent 37 per cent of the legal profession and 28 per cent of lawyers in private practice, stated the report. The report estimated that firms incur turnover costs of $315,000 when a four- year associate leaves. The LSUC is still signing up law firms for the Justicia Think Tank project. Con- tact Josée Bouchard at (416) 947-3984, or e-mail jbouchar@lsuc.on.ca. — ROBERT TODD rtodd@clbmedia.ca private life. He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1962 and spent his first nine years with the federal Department of Justice's tax litigation section. He was eventually appointed director in 1968. He leſt public life and worked in private practice until he was appointed to the Tax Court of Canada in 1991. He was appointed associate chief judge in 2000, Former Tax Court chief justice Donald Bowman. onald Bowman, the former chief justice of the Tax Court of Cana- da, has joined Fraser Milner Cas- grain's national tax group. Bowman had reached the mandatory retirement age for judges — 75 years old — however says he wasn't ready to retire. He joins FMC and part of his role will be to help mentor and advise younger lawyers. "People feel that they can come and talk to me and my door is always open," says Bowman. "That was the sort of approach I took when I was chief justice too." This is the second time Bowman has made the adjustment from public to www. mag.com NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2008 11 IP Strategies Built to Last