Women are getting more equitable treatment by corporate Canada, and the financial sector is
leading the way, a panel discussion
at Borden Ladner Gervais heard.
The discussion at BLG’s offices
in Toronto, hosted by media personality and lawyer Paula Todd,
brought together high-level
female executives from law, communications and finance to discuss the state of gender equality
and diversity.
Despite improvements in
some sectors, there’s still room
for substantial change across the
board, Todd said. “We know that
women are still in the desperate
minority when it comes to senior
and board positions.”
Panelist Lynn McGrade, a part-
ner at BLG, told the 60 or so atten-
dees that she was skeptical of the
issue when she began her career.
“I grew up with boys with no
gender inequality issues, I believed
you worked hard and didn’t
bother people with gender issues,”
she said.
“All that changed when I was a
young partner and working on a
client file for a year or more. I had
a junior working with me and one
day I got a call from the senior
partner, who told me that the client
was going public and that since
theirs was an all-male team, and he
knew I had kids at home, they were
going to give the file to my junior.”
She was stunned and hurt, she
said, but realizes it was a wake-up
call. “It was probably good for me
in the end because after that I
knew these issues existed and I
would have to deal with them.”
Creating equality in the work-
place is more than just fairness, it’s
about the bigger picture of divers-
ity, which in turn is good for busi-
ness, the panel heard. Women
bring different skills to the table;
PHOTO COURTESY OF BLG
Leaders gathered at Borden Ladner Gervais’ Toronto office recently discuss the advancement of women in professional
services. From left, panelist included Kirby Chown (formerly McCarthy Tétrault), Jill Fairbrother (Ketchum Public
Relations), Carrie Mandel (Odgers Berndtson), Lynn McGrade (Borden Ladner Gervais) and Nathalie Bernier (KPMG).
they’re seen as better at building
consensus and collaboration.
The banking sector has led the
way, the panel was told, with
innovative programs that promote
gender equality and diversity, and
those best practices are spreading
to other sectors.
Kirby Chown, former regional
managing partner at McCarthy
Tétrault LLP, agreed, saying it’s
not for lack of talent. “The number
of women in law schools has risen
dramatically to 60 per cent in
Quebec and 50 per cent in
Ontario,” she said. “They come
into the law firm yet tend not to
advance into partnership.”
But inequality is still evident:
Nathalie Bernier, managing
partner at accounting firm
KPMG, said there is a clear dis-
connect when a presentation
team consisting of white males
arrives at a client’s only to find
women, men and visible minor-
ities on that team.
Addressing gender equality
issues can’t be done piecemeal, she
said; the wider corporate culture
itself needs to be changed.
“I had a lunch recently with 15
women coming out of school who
we are trying to recruit,” she said.
“I was prepared to talk about out
gender equality programs and
work-life balance, but they looked
at me like I was from another
planet. They wanted to talk about
opportunity and career move-
ments, working abroad and being
involved in the community.”
The point, she said, is not that
the incoming generation is naïve
but that those women will have to
make a life choice about whether
they have children and when, and
that will change everything for
them. They just haven’t gotten
there yet.
Still, she said, the workplace is
changing for both men and
women. The incoming genera-
tion sees work as a thing not a
place — technology gives them
more flexibility on how work is
accomplished.
Benchers renew mobility deal
JEREMY HAINSWORTH
B.C. Law Society benchers
have renewed indefinitely the
Territorial Mobility Agreement
(TMA), allowing lawyers to move
from one jurisdiction to another.
The TMA was due to expire
Jan. 1. The presidents of Canada’s
three territorial law societies
requested in May that the TMA
be extended.
B.C. benchers initially
approved the then-new protocol in 2006 to assist lawyers
who wished to become members of Canada’s three territorial law societies.
For B.C. lawyers, the agree-
ment means they will be able to
become members of any of the
territorial law societies without
having to complete course work
or exams. Transferring lawyers
are required to certify that they
have completed a reading
requirement set by the territor-
ial society.
