The Benchers of the Law Society of BC have approved a report from the Retention of Women in the Law Task Force that presents a business case for retaining women lawyers in private practice.  The members of the task force are:

• Kathryn Berge, QC (Chair)
• Gavin Hume, QC
• Richard Stewart, QC
• Jan Lindsay
• Jennifer Conkie, QC
• Anne Giardini
• Rosanne Kyle
• Maria Morellato, QC

SUMMARY

This business case supports the retention of women in private practice by highlighting the business advantages of retaining and advancing women for small, medium and larger law firms in BC. Retaining and advancing women to leadership in private practice makes good business sense for firms, with the potential to increase revenues by responding to the changing demographics of legal talent and client demands, and to decrease expenses by reducing the monetary and opportunity costs of turnover and attrition.

The companion Report of the Retention of Women in Law Task Force to the Law Society of BC calls on the Law Society to implement the following initiatives:

• Adopt, Publish and Promote the Business Case;
• Task the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee with Monitoring and Promoting Existing Law Society Programs and Resources;
• Enhance Existing Law Society Programs;
• Consider the Feasibility of Creating a BC Think Tank for Regional/Mid-Size and Smaller Firms; and
• Consider the Feasibility of Additional Law Society Programs.

This business case calls for proactive engagement and implementation measures on the part of the Law Society and law firms in BC. The next step will be for firms to consider best practices or a toolkit to identify and implement strategies for creating effective change

INTRODUCTION

The practice of law requires a sound business foundation that allows talented lawyers to serve the firm’s clients based on their skills and abilities, regardless of gender. Given the demographics of the legal profession in BC, and the fact that law firms will continue to need to compete for talent, law firms need to seek and maintain advantages in the competition for talent and for clients. Law firms that fail to engage women lawyers and prevent their departure in disproportionate numbers will be less able to compete against those that do succeed in retaining and advancing women lawyers. Law firms cannot continue to lose talent and incur the costs of lawyer turnover. Keeping and developing talent increases efficiency, client service, lawyer morale and future recruitment ability. The rewards are measured not only through increased profits but also through the development of a stronger and more sustainable firm culture based on merit, flexibility and diversity.

The business advantages of retaining and advancing women lawyers are significant. Firms that are able to provide quality services and value to clients on a consistent basis will be well-positioned to ensure their financial stability and to attract new talent and new clients in an increasingly demanding and diverse market. This holds true during the current unprecedented economic downturn and will remain true for the eventual upswing.

The business case does not advocate special treatment for women, unwarranted costs for firms, or conflicts between lawyer expectations and client expectations. It stresses the competitive advantages of creating firms that retain and advance talented lawyers, with a focus on serving clients in effective ways that make business sense and people sense. It shows the advantages of engaging men and women in creating innovative and positive change in the practice of law.

SETTING THE CONTEXT

Watching Women Leave Private Practice

Women have been entering the legal profession in BC in numbers equal to or greater than men for more than a decade and in substantial numbers for thirty years. Yet women represent only about 34% of all practising lawyers in the province and only about 29% of lawyers in full-time private practice.

The under-representation of women in private practice in BC starts with the disproportionate number of women who are no longer practising within five years of call. Of all women called to the bar in 2003, only 66% retained practising status in 2008 (40% in private practice) compared with 80% of men called in the same year (66% in private practice).

While the experience of individual firms may vary, in general women are not reaching partnership positions within firms in significant numbers. A recent survey in Ontario found that almost all firms reported having women in numbers equal to or greater than men at articling and junior associate levels. However, most firms reported a disproportionate loss of women at the senior associate level and significantly fewer women than men as partners.

Canadian and US statistics indicate a range in the proportion of women partners from fewer than 16% of equity partners to about 20% of partners in large and medium size firms. While the Law Society of BC does not collect partnership data from its members, its Retention of Women in Law Task Force has reviewed the data from other jurisdictions and, for the purposes of this report, considers it reasonable to conclude that partnership proportions in BC are within a similar range. Despite the hopeful perception that this disparity will resolve itself over time as more women progress through the legal pipeline, in reality the pipeline itself is leaking lawyers – women lawyers in particular. Some research suggests that at present rates women will not reach parity with men in law firm partnerships until at least 2088.

Facing a Shortage of Lawyers

The legal profession in BC is aging. Over the last ten years, the number of lawyers in the older age ranges (50 – 65) has increased significantly. In contrast, the number of lawyers in the younger age ranges (25 – 40) has remained the same or has declined. In 1998, 77% of BC’s legal profession was under the age of 50, the average age was 43, and only about 18% of lawyers were between the ages of 51 – 60. By 2008, only 55% of the profession was under the age of 50, the average age increased to 47, and 29% of lawyers were between the ages of 51 – 60. In addition, out of about 9,800 practising lawyers in BC, over 1,100 were over age 60 and almost 200 were older than 70.

If these trends continue, the profession can expect to lose many older lawyers to retirement without a corresponding increase in the number of younger lawyers. The result will be a net reduction in the number of practising lawyers at a time when the general population and demand for legal services are both growing. The population of BC is increasing and society and business arrangements are growing more complex and litigation is becoming more common. Notwithstanding measures such as more work conducted by paraprofessionals, more tools for public self-help, greater use of technology, greater reliance on in-house lawyers, and legal outsourcing offshore, it is anticipated the demand for legal services will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

The effects of age and gender may be even greater for smaller firms, where losing just one lawyer can have a significant negative impact. In smaller communities, where there are fewer lawyers available and a smaller percentage of women practising law, lawyer attrition can have great implications for access to legal services. The legal profession is facing a looming shortage of lawyers and, in order to serve the public, needs to stem the outflow of lawyers in general and women lawyers in particular.

THE BUSINESS CASE

Competing for Clients

In terms of corporate work, firms recently surveyed in Ontario noted increased pressure from clients to have greater representation of women in the firms retained by them. This trend is now being noted in BC. A growing number of Canadian corporate counsel clients are themselves women who expect more diversity in the firms they retain. Larger US corporations and multinational clients, many of which do business in Canada, are also more likely to expect law firms to promote diversity and consider diversity to be an important factor in hiring decisions. In fact, over one hundred US-based corporate counsel have signed A Call to Action – Diversity in the Legal Profession, a pledge to select outside counsel based “in significant part” on diversity performance. Moreover, they agree to end or limit relationships with firms that consistently fail to show “meaningful interest in being diverse”. Signatories include Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Target, Boeing, Intel, Starbucks, Johnson & Johnson, UPS, Pfizer, Coca-Cola and Xerox. Some large Canadian firms are already being asked to provide information about diversity in requests for proposals from multinational companies doing business in Canada.

Canadian law firms need to remain competitive in the global and regional markets. Firms that commit to diversity may have an important competitive advantage in both the fight for clients and the fight for talent. For smaller firms that are not necessarily competing for multinational corporate clients, retaining women lawyers still provides an important business advantage. Research shows that women entrepreneurs are one of the fastest growing segments of the Canadian economy. Four out of five businesses are started by women and there are more than 821,000 women entrepreneurs in Canada who annually contribute more than $18 billion to the economy. The number of women-run businesses is rising 60% faster than those run by men. These businesses are a growing segment of the client pool and firms that cannot offer experienced women counsel risk losing work to firms that have better managed their retention issues.

Maximizing Business Performance

Women are good for business and increase the corporate bottom line. Research has shown that companies with more women board directors outperform those with the least number of women by 53% on return on equity, 42% on return on sales and 66% on return on invested capital. Women have a positive impact on both organizational excellence and financial performance. Having three or more women directors maximizes their positive impact on decision making, as women tend to consider perspectives of a wide set of stakeholders, to address difficult issues and problems more persistently, and to contribute to a more collaborative boardroom dynamic. Law firm management committees, analogous to corporate boards, may equally benefit from greater participation of women decision makers.

Fighting for Talent

Law firms aim to recruit the best lawyers in an increasingly competitive and global market for talent. Women are a significant portion of the top talent. For example, from 2003 to 2008, nine out of twelve Law Society of BC Gold Medal winners for academic achievement were women graduates. Recruiting and retaining the best means that firms need to be attractive to women lawyers and create environments in which women succeed and reach partnership and leadership levels.

While older lawyers are retiring, firms are recruiting from a new generation of lawyers, the so-called “Generation Y” or “Millennials”. Members of this generation are more diverse and their expectations about the practice of law differ from those of preceding generations. The majority of these young women and men are seeking equal opportunities, interesting and challenging work, and transparency about advancement to partnership. They are more likely to insist on work/life balance and flexibility. They evaluate firms accordingly and will not join or will leave if their expectations are not met. Firms competing for young talent need to consider how to ensure their work environments effectively engage the new lawyers they need to recruit.

Bearing the Costs of Lawyer Attrition

Lawyers are mobile. The old career model in which a young lawyer would join a firm, work hard for a number of years and then become a partner is no longer the norm in today’s economy. A recent survey of Canadian law firms found that 62% of women associates and 47% of men associates intended to stay with their firms for five years or less.

While some level of attrition is expected and acceptable given the recruitment model and partnership structure of most firms (in which not every associate will become a partner), many firms nonetheless face “unwanted” attrition. Lawyer turnover costs vary widely, but the average cost of an associate leaving a large firm has been estimated by Catalyst at $315,000, with an average firm breakeven point on an associate estimated at 1.8 years (but ranging up to four years). This turnover cost figure represents “hard costs”, such as investment costs (e.g. recruitment, training and development) and separation costs (e.g. severance and lost productivity). It does not include “soft costs”, such as opportunity costs and the effects on client service and firm reputation, which may be even more significant. Clients do not benefit from lawyer turnover and can be expected to resist having attrition costs passed on to them as new lawyers get up to speed on a file, particularly as clients increase focus on value and more efficient resource allocations.

While the lawyer turnover cost figure of $315,000 was estimated in the context of large firms, the impact of associate turnover is equally if not more significant for smaller firms, not only in monetary terms (estimated by one 15-lawyer firm in Victoria at $250,000), but in their ability to provide legal services to their clients. The loss of even one associate can seriously compromise the quality and delivery of client service in a small firm environment.

NEXT STEPS

Understanding the Economic Realities of Legal Practice and Investing in the Future

Women leave private practice for many reasons. Researchers in Ontario found that maternity and parenting responsibilities are significant factors leading to the departure of women from private practice, primarily affecting associates who leave before reaching partnership. However, research also shows that few women chose to opt out of their legal careers to care for their families on a long-term basis. In a recent US survey, only 22% of women who left private practice identified themselves as “not employed”. Most did not even leave the legal profession; instead, they left law firms to work in more flexible legal and professional environments, such as government or non-profit organizations. In fact, most professional women off-ramp for very short periods of time, averaging only 1.2 years in the business sector.

Despite popular perception, research in Alberta has shown that, over time, after controlling for the number of years at the bar, there were no significant differences in billing hours between men with children and women with children. Women without children billed significantly more hours than did either women with children or men with or without children. The attrition of women from the profession at an early stage in their careers represents an incalculable loss of future years of productive and profitable work. Law firms need to recognize the value of letting women take parental leaves and return to practice, because of the longer term contributions women make to their firms and to the profession. Some research has suggested that providing parental leaves reduces the risk of women’s departure from law practice by 74%.

About one out of every two lawyers (both women and men) in Canada report feeling challenged in managing the demands of work and personal/family life. When asked what factors would be important to consider in choosing to work at another firm, both women and men reported the same two top factors: an environment more supportive of family and personal commitments, and more control over work schedules. Part-time or flexible work arrangements that help retain women and men in private practice may or may not, in the short term, cost money. However, the costs that are incurred should be seen as investments that appear to pay off over time. One founding partner of a women-owned New Jersey firm where all 15 lawyers have flexible work arrangements described the firm’s approach: “We sell to our clients that we are creating a work environment where our lawyers never leave – the lawyers they are working with now will be the same lawyers ten years from now.”

In addition to leaving practice in order to address work-life balance conflicts, women also leave when they do not feel valued, when they do not get good work, or when they face barriers to advancement such as exclusion from informal internal networks and lack of mentoring opportunities, client development experience and role models. While there can be a cost to programs that support women’s advancement, such as mentoring, networking and business development programs, in many cases those costs appear to be outweighed by women’s increased profitability.

Leading the Way in Retaining and Advancing Women in Private Practice

Despite making significant progress in the legal profession over the last few decades, women still often face numerous unintentional obstacles to equal opportunities for advancement. These obstacles include:

• Hidden bias, stereotypes and assumptions about women and mothers that can significantly and negatively impact women’s careers;
• Informal practices such as random free market and “hey, you” work assignment systems (which allow partners to distribute work to those they know best or feel most comfortable with) that disadvantage women from having access to career-advancing work;
• Conflict between 24/7 professional expectations and cultural norms that burden women with a disproportionate share of family and personal responsibilities;
• Lack of mentors and champions; and
• Lack of access to business development opportunities.

Research and experience in Canada and the US suggest a number of best practices that firms can use to help overcome these obstacles and attract and retain talented women lawyers, including:

• Raising awareness of and correcting unintentional/hidden bias and stereotypes that may inadvertently hold women back in the legal profession. For example, research has shown that gender effects in performance evaluations can be improved by using more objective, behaviour-based criteria;
• Ensuring access to high-quality assignments;
• Promoting workplace flexibility. Research has shown that lawyers who have positive perceptions of a firm’s work/life balance generally plan to stay for longer periods of time. Both women and men are seeking balance these days;
• Promoting meaningful mentoring. Research has shown that mentoring can be a powerful tool in retaining and advancing women lawyers; and
• Promoting business development opportunities for women to support their profitability and advancement (creating rainmakers).

Firms that adopt measures and programs to retain women distinguish themselves from their peers. Many businesses have enjoyed marked success when they institute specific policies and practices aimed at ensuring the retention and advancement of women in their firms.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Effective strategies will depend on many factors, including firm size, firm culture and location. A large firm in downtown Vancouver will have resources, flexibility and infrastructure to address the issues differently than a 15-lawyer firm in Victoria or a small firm in the Interior. However, research indicates that there are three critical success factors to any strategy:

• Leadership and commitment from senior partners – to set the tone at the top, reinforced by consistent messages, and to ensure that women are well-represented and visible in senior leadership positions;
• Measurement and accountability – to set objective benchmarks and measure progress, and to ensure responsibility for progress on diversity; and
• Taking action and engaging both men and women lawyers at all levels – to ensure that initiatives are relevant to partners, practice leaders, senior women and aspiring junior women lawyers.

Women lawyers are more likely to stay in work environments when they are satisfied with a number of key factors:

• Advancement opportunities;
• Availability of mentors;
• Management of their organization;
• Professional development opportunities; and
• Control over their work.

Firms have the opportunity to create supportive and inclusive firm environments that retain and advance women lawyers. These firm environments will also help retain men, who are leaving private practice in greater numbers than before, particularly “Millennial” lawyers with greater expectations of work/life balance, flexibility and diversity.

All strategies will have costs, both in money and in the time that must be devoted to implementing change. They are, however, investments aimed at promoting effective retention strategies that will maximize a firm’s key assets – its lawyers, both women and men. The investments may be expected to pay off in tangible benefits for firms, by attracting and advancing the best lawyers, by securing the best clients, and by adapting to new economic realities in an increasingly diverse global market.

Taking action now will help firms create more inclusive and more profitable businesses and be better-positioned for the future. Potentially, in terms of both money and opportunities lost, failing to take action may simply cost too much.

From BENCHERS’ BULLETIN 2009 No. 2 SUMMER

“I see an exciting new wave of lawyers who are not ashamed of seeking accommodations, without apologizing, without being ­embarrassed that they have responsibilities at home” – Lisa Martz, with her children Leo and Sadie.

Retaining women lawyers

By Lesley Pritchard, staff writer

Women are drawn to the practice of law for obvious reasons. Being a lawyer is a great career for someone with a sharp mind and a desire to serve people who need help.

Women have entered the legal profession in BC in numbers equal to or greater than men for more than a decade. Yet an alarming number of them are fleeing from law firms and indeed from the profession entirely within five years after being called.

Of all women called to the Bar in British Columbia in 2003, only 66 per cent remained in practice five years later. That means one third of the women who had the smarts, the grit and the savings to get through law school and then be called to the bar, were not serving as lawyers in 2008.

The Law Society has committed to explore the reasons behind the exodus and present some possible solutions. The society’s Retention of Women in Law Task Force is presenting a business case for retaining women lawyers in private practice to the Benchers this July. In the meantime, the Law Society’s staff writer Lesley Pritchard presents the current situation, through the eyes of some practising women lawyers in this province.

Women who leave

Diana Lund (a pseudonym) thought she had made the right career choice. The Vancouver-area lawyer is not so sure now. Called to the Bar in 1999, she enjoyed working at a private firm. She had her first child five years later and then began to experience the dilemma so many other women lawyers have faced — how to raise children and survive the long hours and client demands at a law firm.

Lund has made her choice — she is now a full-time mom with three children at home. She admits she has the luxury of making that choice because her husband’s income can support them. While she is still listed as a practising member of the Law Society, Lund says she is only working on the occasional pro bono file. “I’d like to work for a private firm again,” she sighs in near defeat, “but I’m just not sure how that’s going to happen.”

Lund has serious doubts whether she should have become a lawyer. “For me, it’s not a flexible enough career option — not the way it is structured.” Lund is convinced that being a lawyer is not for a family-oriented person because of the lack of flexibility.

There is evidence that a significant number of women have felt similar regrets. The Law Society of Alberta’s 2004 Report on Equity and Diversity found that only half of former lawyers surveyed reported that if they could do it all over again they would become a lawyer. Some law schools in Canada have begun offering programs for women law students, to help them understand the realities of a law practice and to help them plot their career paths more strategically.

Lund’s story may have a familiar ring to it. More flexibility to address family responsibilities is needed, and she feels the barriers may be too great to make a comeback. While women make up more than half of all law school graduates, they leave law — and in particular private firms — at a rate two to three times the rate of their male counterparts.

Women who stay

There are plenty of women lawyers either thriving or at least making it work in private practice. The latest Law Society figures show that there are 2,227 women in private practice and 1,071 in other forms of practice. Overall, women make up 34 per cent of all practising lawyers.

In a meeting room on the 13th floor of an office tower in the heart of Vancouver’s financial district, Lisa Martz is eager to talk about life as a partner in one of Canada’s largest law firms. At 42, the senior litigator at McCarthy Tétrault LLP has managed to find some balance. That’s despite the challenges she describes as the “double asterisk” she attaches to her name: two children born close together and an unexpected divorce when the children were very young. Paradoxically, Martz says it was her work that helped her make it through some of the tough times. “I liked my job, the challenge of it,” she recalls, “and I wanted to keep it.”

But being in private practice is a tough game, even if it does provide a satisfying challenge that helps people. It is client-driven and the profits are based on high billing hours.

It didn’t take long for Martz to realize that there were limits to what kind of reduced hours she might be able to work, even though the firm has flexible work policies. In litigation, she says, she is often dealing with the unexpected and the client has to get the message “I’ll be there for you when you need me.” While she may leave work early some days to meet a family demand, Martz says her Blackberry is always at hand and she relies on an extensive support system including a full-time nanny, the kids’ dad, and a big network of family and friends.

“You have to enjoy the juggle,” she says.

Small communities critical

Five hundred kilometres north of Vancouver in a church-turned-office in Williams Lake, Elizabeth Hunt does the juggle every day. It is late afternoon and the sole practitioner must start packing up to drive one of her children to soccer practice. A member of the Kwakuitl First Nation, Hunt’s practice focuses on Aboriginal law, particularly treaty negotiations and residential school claims, and the work sometimes requires long distance travel. The needs of her First Nations clients are now changing, and she has added more general services such as wills, estates and personal injury. She is also a weekend professor at Thompson Rivers University.

Hunt faces a daunting number of responsibilities in her personal life as well. The single mother of two has to arrange childcare when she goes out of town for business. She survives month to month, spending $1,000 a month on childcare, plus paying down two mortgages, and insurance and professional fees. Hunt also sits on the Law Society’s Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee and is part of the Lawyer Assistance Program, giving peer support to other lawyers. When asked if it ever crosses her mind to leave her practice, she quips “Oh yeah, all the time.” A moment later she adds, “but I’ve got it pretty good.”

Pretty good, because she feels she has more control than she would have at a big firm. “I can pick and choose,” says Hunt. When her son was born, she ran a law firm out of her home. When she moved to Alkali Lake and became pregnant with her second child, she took the newborn to the office. With some help from women in surrounding offices she could nurse and cuddle her baby girl and then get back to work.

There is no question people like Hunt provide critical services to the public she serves. And she does it while also bringing the qualities and perspectives of a First Nations woman. A credible legal profession must include people who reflect the wider population and she is part of that equation.

Not only that, Hunt carries out her duties in a small community in which her Aboriginal clients would have fewer options were she to leave her practice. BC is experiencing a dwindling number of lawyers in small and remote communities and people are struggling to get their legal needs met.

In fact, a looming shortage of lawyers is predicted, as baby boomers retire and not enough lawyers are being trained to replace them. This comes at a time when the demand for legal services continues to rise.

From private to public practice

Of those women who decide to leave private practice, many become in-house counsel or join government departments. In BC, twice as many women as men (32 per cent as compared to 16 per cent of men) practise as in-house counsel or in the public realm. The hours are often more predictable and contained and the working conditions are frequently more family-friendly and flexible, even though the pay cheque can be significantly lower.

Some women didn’t choose to make this slide over. Anne Clark recalls being pregnant with her second child while she was articling at a firm. The firm encouraged her to accept work elsewhere. “Best thing that could have happened,” Anne says. Being a mom was important to her, and she would be the last person to say she is bitter or that she thought it unfair. And she would not return to a firm, no matter the enticements. “Under no circumstances would I go back to private practice.”

Today, Clark is an experienced Crown Counsel in Vancouver, and she is clear that the move was not an “easy out” in terms of hours or responsibilities; she works hard on the many cases she takes to trial. But her outstanding colleagues, coupled with the flexibility and progressive work environment, is what keeps her there.

Clark muses about whether the tight financial margins in private practice sometimes get in the way of creative thinking. The Crown lawyer recalls herself and two other lawyers sharing office space and “working seamlessly” together on files. “Firms need to be more open to women approaching them with creative solutions like this and give it a try,” Clark says. “The whole service of the client by one person 24/7 is built around the premise another person (often a male lawyer’s wife) is handling the entire domestic front needs to change.”

Some firms embracing change

Back at that 13th floor meeting room at McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Lisa Martz considers the point that many law firms are built on the premise that a man needs to “outsource” his personal life to his wife, and make his obligations at home invisible. She is now seeing lots of positive changes for both women and men because many have stopped hiding and apologizing and started asking for flex-time arrangements and looking for other ways to meet family responsibilities.

She also sees more firms embracing the presence of women in senior positions, not just because it harnesses potential, but because clients are demanding that women be a part of their legal teams. Then again, Martz enjoys life at one of the more progressive firms in Canada — 20 per cent of partnership positions are held by women at McCarthy Tétrault and the firm has made the retention and advancement of women a priority.

The way forward

Counting on large firms and the determined women who work in them to be the trailblazers is not going to be enough. The Law Society recognizes it must continue to play a role in pushing this issue forward.

It also recognizes that firms do not want to lose their women lawyers. A study done by the research firm Catalyst shows it costs a law firm an average of $315,000 to lose a four-year associate.

For the wider public interest, there are several important reasons to stem the tide. Keeping more women in private law firms enhances the public’s access to a legal profession that reflects the general population. Women make up more than half of the students the province graduates; they are among some of the best and brightest minds in the province, and yet they still make up only a third of all BC lawyers. The public needs highly trained professionals in private practice who can, for example, litigate for damages, defend accused criminals, and give legal advice on complex family issues.

The next move

It only makes sense to figure out how to keep women in private practice to provide direct service to the public. The Law Society is doing its part to help keep women lawyers in private practice.

The society has introduced a series of measures over the years, including reducing liability insurance for lawyers in part-time practice and providing the option of non-practising membership status with reduced fees. It also encourages law firms to adopt policies on maternity and parental leave, along with alternative work arrangements. The Practice Standards department has also put together an online Practice Refresher Course to make it easier for former and non-practising lawyers, especially women who have left to raise children, to satisfy the requirements necessary to return to practice.

The next step is the completion of the Business Case for Retaining and Advancing Women in Private Practice in BC. That report is to be presented to Benchers after the deadline for this issue of Benchers’ Bulletin. Look for more information in the next issue.

The Law Society’s Retention of Women in Law Task Force will be presenting its report, Business Case for Retaining and Advancing Women in Private Practice in BC , to the Benchers at their July meeting.

The task force, left to right: Jennifer Conkie, QC, Elizabeth Vogt, Richard Stewart, QC, Kathryn Berge, QC (Chair), Gavin Hume, QC, Anne Giardini, Michael Lucas (Manager, Policy & Legal Services), Maria Morellato, QC, Jan Lindsay and Susanna Tam (Staff Lawyer, Policy & Legal Services). Not pictured: Roseanne Kyle.

More pointed critque of a relatively young, successful, attractive woman in the Sunday NYT.  See also, the profiles on Marissa Mayer and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Maybe they don’t like blondes.  Why do these articles have such a mean tone and what does it say about us that they sell newspapers?

The Garton-Jones clan is psyched for a summer holiday at Almost Idaho Ranch, a beautiful property owned by a family friend.

Three exceptional homes with views overlooking Shearer Lake, a private 49 acre lake situated on 497 acres bordering the Kaniksu National Forest. Manicured grounds, with miles of groomed hiking and riding trails inspire a lifestyle rarely found so close to the city.

The cozy atmosphere of the sophisticated 6634 sq. ft. Northwest lodge style home welcome you to take in the peace and tranquility that reaches from the top of Stone Johnny Mountain to each recipient of natures’ gifts. Share the privilege with family and friends at the 2300 sq. ft. log home or the outdoor entertainment porch screened for summertime picnics or enclosed for winter fireside enjoyment.

Property also provides a caretakers home, a nostalgic miner’s cabin, and multiple barns and corrals to house the menagerie of animals and pets who currently reside here. Two machine shops and two open bay sheds are for toys and maintenance equipment.

It’s even on Twitter http://twitter.com/almostidaho

Nice, no???

Heritage Law, a boutique firm located in West Vancouver, BC, requires an administrative assistant 3-4 days a week. We would prefer a graduate of the Capilano University Administrative Assistant program or equivalent. Experience in wills and estates, corporate records and family law is helpful. The compensation is $20/hour or $28,000/year salary range.  We are a collegial firm and are recognized for offering superior work/life balance.

Please forward your resume, transcript and references to Nicole Garton-Jones at nicole@bcheritagelaw.com.

See www.bcheritagelaw.com for more information on our firm.

This years winner for Business of the Year is: Delany’s Coffee House

Robin and Jennifer Delany and been in the coffee business for 15 years and have grown their business to 5 stores, including their West Vancouver locations in Dundarave and the Village at Park Royal. Their Village location is the highest grossing independent coffee house in British Columbia. As a family owned business, they have strong ties to the community; sponsoring and fund-raising for 50+ events each year on the North Shore and in West Vancouver. Robin has volunteered his time serving as the Vice President of the Dundarave Merchants Association for the past six years.

The winner for Business Person of the Year is: Linda Swain of Cypress Mountain

Linda Swain is the General Manager of Cypress Mountain, one of the largest employers on the North Shore. Linda has been instrumental in the growth of Cypress Mountain taking the local ski area with 80,000 visits in 1984 to 500,000 in 2008. Linda Swain is a lead Liaison with VANOC and has been very involved in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics games from the Bid. She is one of only three female general managers in the ski industry in North America and has been involved in the growth of skiing as a viable and profitable business on the North Shore. Linda is also a member of the Vancouver Tourism Foundation working group and the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce.

The winner for Young Entrepreneur is: Megan Sewell of Sewell’s Marina

Megan Sewell is the General Manager of Sewell’s Marina and has taken a longstanding family business to new endeavours through diversification of the Sewell’s Marina products offered to their customers. Megan has incorporated business dealings with numerous organizations such as BC Ferries, Department of Fisheries Canada, Microsoft, Intrawest and many large product suppliers to help push the business into substantial growth and increase development opportunities. Megan is active in giving back to the community, speaking to University students, making charitable differences to young people in the community and volunteering her time serving on the Chamber’s Board of Directors.

The winner for Most Green Business of the Year is: Park Royal Shopping Centre

Park Royal has begun a sustainability journey to operate on an economically prudent basis with regard for the environment and the community. Several changes have already been made including washroom renovations with reduced water consumption, low-voltage electric currents, recycling programs with new bins throughout the malls, organic waste pilot program with seven tenants, retrofitting 3,000 parking lot lights, having tenants and customers to recycle soft plastics including bags, a green roof will soon appear on the south mall and by April 2011 plastic bags will be eliminated at Park Royal.

Thank you for Kathryn Berge, Q.C. for bringing this to my attention.

Receipt of 2009 Annual Alice Award at the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
June 8, 2009

Excerpts from Hillary Clinton’s speech:

Alice Paul was a visionary and a pioneer. She believed that gender equality was a moral imperative as well as a foundation for progress. And her struggle for women’s rights was built on the premise that no society or nation can reach its full potential if half of the population is left behind.

And we know that where women flourish, families flourish, communities flourish, and nations flourish. That’s why this important mission of extending women’s equality and full participation is not finished, and we each have a role to play.

What made Alice Paul so special was her fearlessness. I mean, she went where most men and women would not have gone. She took on every obstacle that came her way. She was a tireless human rights activist, an unyielding advocate for the equal rights for all women. Her Quaker upbringing instilled in her the value of simplicity, and to her, it was very simple: Gender equity was so self-evident that she often would express frustration that her motivating idea that women and men should be equal partners in society caused such a ruckus in so many places – not that I ever experienced that.

But Alice Paul had learned this ideal in her family, and she made it the cause of her life. And unlike many suffragists who left public life after the 19th Amendment was passed and finally became part of our Constitution, she never stopped her pursuit of equality. She worked not only for the enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States, but for women’s rights around the world. She established the World Women’s Party, headquartered in Switzerland, which worked with the League of Nations to include gender equality in the United Nations Charter, and she helped to establish the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

If she were with us today in physical form, as well as I’m sure she is in spirit, she would be heartened by two recent U.S.-introduced resolutions, a United Nations General Assembly resolution to promote political participation among women, and a United Nations Commission on the Status of Women’s Economic Empowerment.

So we have traveled a long way, but I don’t think we have yet reached any destination that we can call our own and which gives us the opportunity to rest. There is so much work to be done to improve the status of women and girls in many parts of the world. Every single day, you can pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV or log on to a website and see the reports of terrible assaults on women’s progress. We have to fight these attacks on women’s rights, and we have to address the conditions that hold women back and continue to make them the majority of the world’s poor, hungry, and unhealthy. We have to lend our voices to those who have struggled on behalf of equality and human rights, like Aung San Suu Kyi or those who are being silenced and subjected for expressing their ideas and beliefs.

Alice Paul was once asked why she never stopped fighting for women’s equality. She answered with a saying from her mother: “When you put your hand to the plow, you can’t put it down until you get to the end of the row.” So Alice Paul never put that plow down. Her work continues today not only through this wonderful home that was hers and a headquarters for the National Women’s Party, but through all of us, I look around this room, and like Audrey, I am so impressed by the faces that I see and the stories that I know of so many of you who have carried on this work in your own way, in politics and in the private sector and academia, in advocacy, in just so many ways. And that goes for the hearty men who are with us as well who have similarly taken on this struggle.

So if we all hold on to the plow, it’ll go a little faster, we might get to the end of the row a little quicker. And if each of you think about ways that you can here at home and around the world make the continuance of this work part of your own lives, it will make a difference.

So giving heart and support to women who are willing to take steps to have their voices heard, to really take the risks that go with speaking out, running for office, starting a business, defending the rights of others, is so important. And it means so much. I sometimes think we don’t give enough weight to what it means to just reach out person to person and say we’re with you, we care about you; to look for ways to support projects, by setting up foundations and going even on to a website like Kiva, K-i-v-a, and helping a woman who wants to start a business in El Salvador or who wants to create a better opportunity for her community somewhere in Africa. We have so many tools at our disposal that Alice Paul never had. And each of you here today has a unique ability to carry that message.

Not only is she a lawyer who volunteers at an aboriginal pro bona legal clinic that she helped establish, she is currently an adjudicator on four tribunals. Margaret is an active volunteer with a goal: to make the legal profession and justice system better for all. She has enriched many organizations including the Law Society of BC, the Canadian Bar Association BC and the Law Courts Education Society with her service. Nominated for numerous awards and recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s Touchstone Award, Margaret is an exceptional member of the professional and volunteer community.