Estate Planning

Retention of Women in Private Practice

By Hull & Hull LLP

The working group of the Law Society of Upper Canada's Convocation recently reported on the issue of retaining women in private practice.  The objective of the Report was not to identify the problem but rather to propose constructive and innovative solutions for the legal community.  The Report confirmed what has been widely observed for some time - although a majority of law school graduates and junior associate level lawyers are women, they are still leaving the profession in droves.  The departures of women from the law coincide with the ascent to partnership within law firms or senior leadership roles in the wider legal community (no surprise that these years often intersect with child-bearing and rearing years).   

What were some of the constructive solutions proposed?  The working group had several recommendations, including the implementation of the Justicia Pilot project for firms of more than 25 lawyers and the two largest firms in each region.  Participating firms will be asked to commit to adopting programs for the advancement of women, including tracking demographic information within firms and increasing opportunities for networking, business development and mentoring.

One interesting proposal is the establishment of practice locums, or an alternate lawyer program (already established by the B.C. Law Society).  Essentially this would involve providing access to names of those willing to provide a locum service.  This could function to assist women with small or solo firms to ensure a practice was managed by a locum during any absence, and those women looking to provide locum services could remain current, maintain an income and return to practice without having lost their skills.  The Report also cites recommendations from other industries such as business, which conclude that companies with the highest representation of women on their senior management teams not only perform better financially, but have higher employee recruiting and retention rates.

Sarah Hyndman Fitzpatrick

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on May 13, 2008 (boomark / email).