Women's Law Association of Ontario was first created
in 1919 as a means for women lawyers in the province to congregate
and discuss common concerns and share experiences. Eighty some years
later, the founding premise of WLAO - "to promote the interests
of female lawyers" in Ontario has not diminished over time. What
has changed however, is the means by which we can achieve that goal.
At one time
providing a forum for women within the profession to meet and exchange
views was a laudable goal - it is no longer sufficient. The 1997-98
executive of Women's Law met over the summer and with the help of
a facilitator, reviewed our mandate and developed plans and goals
for the future. The outcome solidified thinking of the Association
and capitalized on the thoughts of past presidents such as Celia
Hitch, Roslyn Morrow and Sandra Thwaites and long time serving members,
such as Abby Bushby.
One of the most
important conclusions that we came to was that whatever our future
plans, we needed administrative support. We have obtained the assistance
that we required. In keeping with our new way of doing business,
we will be attempting to deliver notices to our members by e-mail
and fax so please include your e-mail and fax address on your membership
forms.
The executive
reviewed our mandate and developed a plan for moving forward into
the next millennium. First of all, we decided that we need to be
relevant to all lawyers in the province - which includes lawyers
which reside outside of Toronto. We are also concerned that Women's
Law be perceived as representing diversity within the legal profession
and that women of colour and gay women feel comfortable within our
membership and that we are relevant to those women as well. We also
resolved to involve new members of the Bar in WLAO.
Another concern
that we had was that our traditional method of doing business -
sponsoring evening dinners were becoming less relevant and less
workable for female lawyers. We seek to develop alternative methods
of serving our membership and meeting our mandate.
We settled on
the following goals for Women's Law into the new millennium:
- To
provide networking and business development opportunities for
our members.
To this end, we are expanding on existing initiatives and are
developing an organization which mirrors those developed in the
US by the ABA and in BC by the CBA - BC. As a part of that initiative
we will be posting on our website the information on participating
members regarding areas of practice. If you want your name and
practice area to be featured on our website, please indicate as
such on the 1998-1999 membership form. We also plan to partner
with other legal and non legal associations and sponsor common
events which will provide networking and business development
opportunities to our members. We also are developing a lawyer's
referral phone in service open to our membership.
- To
develop leadership abilities among our members and promote our
members in leadership positions in the legal profession.
To that end members of the executive will be attending a half
day leadership training seminar this fall with a view to developing
a program which our membership can participate in. We also plan
to actively support candidates for the 1999 Bencher elections.
We are looking at a number of other initiatives respecting the
upcoming CBAO Counsel elections and judicial appointments and
would appreciate your input in this regard.
- To
represent Ontario women lawyers in the various legal associations
in the provinces as well as in legal events and ceremonies.
Women's Law actively participates in a number of legal associations
- CBAO, COLA, JACGE Treasurer's Liaison Group (LSUC). It also
represents women lawyers in legal events and ceremonies such as
swearing ins. Women's Law plans to continue with and to reinforce
its historic role in the legal community in Ontario in the future.
Where appropriate we also intend to lobby the CBAO, the Law Society
and the various levels of government on issues of concern to our
membership.
Barb Hendrickson
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