Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J U L Y 2 0 1 5 35 and soon entered into motherhood. "I didn't have a plan to be honest with you," says Paulsen laughing. "Babies came later in life for me. When I was an associate at the firm there wasn't any partners at the table who had children in recent years," says the mother of a four-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy. "I had my first child in 2011 and I think that year six babies were born in our firm, it was quite astonishing, actually. And since that time, in the past four years, we probably had over 10 babies and that includes staff," says Paulsen. "I think it demonstrates that you don't have to give up private practice if you're in the right work environment to have a family." Paulsen gives the partners at Robertson Stromberg a lot of credit for supporting the women of the firm "making sure they have a practice to come back to when they come back from maternity leave." In Saskatchewan there are 602 female lawyers of the 1,684 active practitioners. At the Robertson Stromberg partners table the ratio of men to women is getting close to being equal at about a 60/40 split. "Which is really quite remarkable for firms our size," says Paulsen. "I remember a number of years ago when we were hiring a lot of women associates who started off as articling students and stayed on as associates and then ultimately came on as partners," says Chris Donald, Robertson Stromberg's managing partner. "We noted that we were doing very, very well by the women we hired in our firm. It wasn't anything by design, this was the way it worked out." Donald says around the partnership table there are five partners older than 40 while the other five partners are younger. "We do have some older what we call contract lawyers here who, at one point, were partners but left the partnership but they still stay on and practise as lawyers," says Donald. "And then we got a whole shwack of young associates. I am struck by how young our firm is generally speaking. We just got a whole ton of young people around here." Saskatoon continues to expand in every direction with new residential neighbourhoods popping up seemingly overnight — a far cry from the humble beginnings along the river more than 100 years ago. But as Alberta's once mighty economy proves there is always the possibility of a downturn. Donald is quick to point out that Saskatchewan has not seen that yet. "We have a portfolio of clients that have different needs. So I think on balance we will probably come out okay even if there is a downturn," says Donald. "There are the family law files, the real estate files, there's on-going litigation needs, on-going corporate commercial needs. Those are the kind of things that come in, day in and day out. They drive the firm." I AM STRUCK BY HOW YOUNG OUR FIRM IS GENERALLY SPEAKING. WE JUST GOT A WHOLE TON OF YOUNG PEOPLE AROUND HERE. CHRIS DONALD, Robertson Stromberg RAISING THE BAR. The team at Robertson Stromberg has high expectations - for ourselves and for each other. It's why we all work hard on behalf of our clients and it's what keeps us continually setting a higher standard for our firm. We are one of Saskatchewan's leading firms and belong to networks of law offices across Canada and around the world to help serve you even better. www.rslaw.com Untitled-4 1 2015-06-16 2:02 PM

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