PROFILE By Vawn Himmelsbach Legal trailblazer SickKids' Megan Evans goes where few lawyers have gone before
Trying to figure out a career path is difficult, especially when the one you have chosen doesn't even exist yet. For Megan Evans, director of the legal services program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, forging a career in the not-for-profit health-care sector was challenging, since many hospitals don't have in-house counsel, and that's what makes her current job so interesting. It was an interest in social justice and
the rights of disadvantaged groups that led Evans down this path. The Hospital for Sick Children, or SickKids, is affili- ated with the University of Toronto, and is Canada's most research-inten- sive hospital and largest centre dedi- cated to improving children's health in the country, integrating care, research, and teaching. The staff includes pro- fessionals from all disciplines of health care and research. Most people think of not-for-profit
organizations as small, locally focused organizations. But SickKids has an annual budget of more than $600 mil- lion and does more than $100-million
When you're coming into an organization that
doesn't have an established legal function, you have to be a diplomat . . . There are people who can't wait for the lawyers to show up — they can't understand how such a sophisticated organization has operated as long as it has without in-house counsel.
— MEGAN EVANS, Hospital for Sick Children
INHOUSE JUNE 2009 •
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