Public Confidence

Although I live and work in downtown Toronto, I’ve been fortunate to spend a lot of time in courthouses across the province. I’ve seen first-hand the good, and bad, of how the public views and interacts with our justice system and where lawyers sit in that mix.

Public confidence is critical to our continued success and survival as a self-regulated profession. Public confidence is intertwined with ensuring that we have a justice system that works for everyone. As a bencher I’ll continue to support initiatives that include and prioritize providing meaningful access to justice, including family law resources, across the province.

All lawyers and law firms are not the same (supporting Small Firm and Sole-Practitioners)

Lawyers and law firms create jobs and community for others.

Being a lawyer has given me a great opportunity to be a business owner and entrepreneur. I’ve played a leadership role in building a successful boutique law firm that employs over 50 people. I take a lot of pride in the business side of being a lawyer.

Lawyers need to be supported as small business owners by their regulator. I know firsthand how disproportionately small-firm lawyers are impacted by red-tape, unnecessary expense, and bureaucratic roadblocks. I’ll listen to, work with, and support lawyers from across the province. I’ll ensure that the small and sole-firm practitioner has a seat at the table.

Although I best recognize and understand the specific needs of small and medium firms, I also recognize and will support the needs of others in the profession: government lawyers, in-house lawyers in both for profit and non-profit organizations, large-firm lawyers, and those in non-traditional practice require an approach to regulation that work for them, also.

Family Law Reform

The family law bar is deeply divided about the future role of paralegals acting in family law matters.

I don’t have a perfect answer but here is what I know: I have sat in courthouses across the province where I have witnessed scared and confused self-represented litigants, overworked and under-resourced judges acting as mediators, social workers and referees, frustrated staff and a system that far too often doesn’t provide access to justice for our most vulnerable litigants, many of whom are women and children.

This is a real-life access to justice problem; it is also the flashpoint where many Ontarians intersect with the justice system for the first time in their lives, often in a state of crisis.

Calls for reform, greater funding and increased judicial resources are critical but they are not the only answer; we need to be open to new and creative ways to ensure that litigants have a choice about how they receive the services they so desperately need.

Getting family law right is fundamental to ensuring public confidence in our justice system. I believe that this includes a role for paralegals. I’m going to work with all stakeholders to find a solution for the people who are most impacted by the current challenges in an overburdened system.

Mentorship for the next generation of lawyers (especially young women joining the profession)

I’m extraordinarily proud of the fact that my law firm is one of the largest women founded and women-led in the province.  We need more of this.  A cornerstone of my career has been learning from, watching, and being supported by a tremendous cohort of senior women lawyers and judges. I’m committed to doing the same for the next generation of talented young women; I’m convinced that this is the best way to ensure women thrive in this profession. I’m also going to work as a Bencher to guard against roadblocks that might stand in their way.

This also extends to how we need to better accommodate young lawyers joining the profession. At no time in history has the economic case for becoming a lawyer been worse than it is today: tuition fees (and associated student loans) are at an all-time high, the number of available articling positions are not reflective of actual lawyer training needs, and the stagnant student/young-lawyer compensation and cost of living add to an increasing burden and roadblocks to entering the profession.

As a regulator we need to provide accommodations, both financial and otherwise, to ensure that newly minted lawyers and students are not burdened by excessive regulatory requirements and licensing fees.

Education and Technology

I have been a leader in advancing the accessible use of technology in our courthouses. Simply put: I believe we have a professional responsibility to adopt technology in the interest of saving our clients time and money. The LSO needs to play a leading role in the adoption and promotion of technology to make our justice system more accessible and efficient.

For close to a decade, I have been conducting trials and hearings electronically. My decision to make my practice entirely digital didn’t come from a love or fascination with technology. Rather, I had two young children and I needed the flexibility in my life to occasionally work from home, taking the entire motion record with me on an iPad rather than being stuck in a boardroom late at night with paper files. Before Covid, I would ask judges to allow me to conduct trials electronically, handing them an ipad with the record in advance of trial or a hearing, and pleading with them to follow along. They were often grateful and always accommodating. The technological efficiencies in practice that are still available to us are low hanging fruit that facilitate access to justice.

I have taught extensively in the area of technological competence, and I’ve learned a lot about how to work through difficult problems to ensure meaningful and efficient improvements in how we provide legal services to the public. I know this transition continues to be a struggle for many in the profession. I’ll work with you to help make this transition accessible, manageable and beneficial.

More generally, as a regular speaker and contributor to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Initiatives I understand the value of timely, current, and modern education initiatives. I’ll work for you as a bencher to ensure that CPD is relevant, modern, and accessible for lawyers across the province.

Statement of Principles

No three words have caused more damage or threat to self-regulation than “Statement of Principles”.

In the interest of complete transparency: I was an unequivocal proponent of the statement of principles.

However, the harmful rhetoric this debate caused and the cleavage it created in the profession and convocation was unnecessary and damaging. We should learn from this experience. It is why I have joined the Good Governance Coalition.