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Association for Legal Career Professionals, or at Vault.com. Do a simple search at nalpdirectory.com, click on a firm name, and up pops a wealth of information about who works in each firm. Do the same with NALP's Canadian directory and all you get is the gender divide. Even the trailblazer firms in Canada, when asked, would not make their statistics public. Broer says FMC made a commitment to keep the results anonymous because "we want to be very cognizant and careful that we don't make our people reluctant going forward to participate in some way." None of the big three firms in Nova Scotia would publicly share their firm's demographic breakdown either. Canadian Lawyer approached a number of other national firms about participat- ing in an internal survey of their firms as part of a case study on the firm's diversity initiatives, but none would volunteer. Firms had various reasons why they weren't willing to make their statistics public. Both those that are collecting and even those that aren't argue statistics could be easily skewed. Some said they did not want to be ranked. When asked if they thought providing such statistics would show the firm was serious about diversity and inclusiveness issues, more than one firm said if their demographics weren't great it would hurt rather than help them. Others weren't willing to collect num- bers at all, even firms with robust diversity initiatives. In more than one instance, firms having programs showed they were serious about diversity, and having lawyers and staff involved and students asking about it was good enough. "I'd love to tell you I have some beautiful mathematical formula, I don't," says Blakes' Jackson. "But I would say I sit at the table of the execu- tive committee, and now diversity is just something that it's part of when we do our priorities initiatives for the firm. It's always on there. . . . It's just become very mainstream, and I think to me that's the greatest recognition that it is successful." Charles Smith, who served as an equity adviser to both the Canadian Bar Association and the LSUC and is now a univer- sity lecturer, says all the excuses come down to one thing: fear. "I've heard from firms when I was doing some work, they're afraid of the discussion, frankly, they're afraid it'll be rancour- ous and so they . . . look over and they say 'Well, we're not going to go there.' It raises the spectre of employment equity . . . and they translate employment equity as rigid, affirmative action that is irrespective of competence, which is a red herring." Internal statistics help guage progress. Proctor at McInnes Cooper says the firm is always cognizant of its statistics and trying to improve the diversity of the firm. Law firms may not generally be keen to keep track, but law students, equity- seeking groups, minority bar associations, and academics insist such measurements are imperative. Collecting demographic information is not groundbreaking; firms shouldn't be shying away from it. Almost all firms collect statistics on gender — in even more detail now that more than 50 firms are part of the Law Society of Upper Canada's Justicia project on the retention of women — and many lawyers see no reason why that process shouldn't be expanded to include other information. "I don't see why we can't keep these statistics," says Siddiquee. "I mean, for goodness sakes, on the census we have the question asked." Anecdotal stories of success are simply not enough. "If you just go and say that on an anecdotal basis, well a lawyer of course being a lawyer, will be like, 'Well, where's your proof? What basis do you have to say that? Or are you just going on some hearsay that you've heard?'" says Metallic, who clerked for Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache and is an associ - ate at Burchell Hayman Parish in Halifax. Put another way, "you clearly have to engage in empirical analysis or you've got no measurable benchmarks to move forward with," says Lorne Sossin, a University of Toronto law professor and director of the Centre for the Legal Profession. Those benchmarks and employee comments and feedback are integral to creating environments where people want to continue working. "The value in tracking a series of metrics that look at not just the representation of diverse groups in your workplace, but also the experience of those diverse employees, really helps to focus attention on whether and what the issues are, and what progress is being made as a firm is putting in place policies and practices to help respond to those issues, says Canadian Deborah Gillis, vice president for North America of Catalyst Inc., an organiza- tion that began doing research on women in the workforce more than 40 years ago. While most law firms are not collecting stats, law societ- ies are starting to ask lawyers to self-identify in their annual member reports. When the LSUC in Ontario asked lawyers to Enforcing Human Rights in Ontario Mary Cornish, Fay Faraday and Jo-Anne Pickel Kim Bernhardt, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., LL.M. 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