Law Times

Law Times • November 3, 2014 Page 3 www.lawtimesnews.com Non-white lawyers feel alienated, report finds by Julius melniTzer For Law Times D espite the steady in- crease in the number of racialized lawyers practising in Ontario, many continue to feel alienated from the dominant culture of the profession and believe they're often not getting the same op- portunities for advancement as their peers. That's just one of the findings in a consultation paper present- ed to Convocation on Oct. 30. The report is the work of the Law Society of Upper Canada's chal- lenges faced by racialized licens- ees working group. The LSUC created the working group in 2012 to study the challenges faced by racialized lawyers and paralegals and consult on strate- gies for enhanced inclusion at all career stages. Ontario's legal profession has seen a steady increase in the number of racialized lawyers in the last two decades. They ac- counted for 12 per cent of the profession in 2009, 17 per cent in 2010, 21 per cent in 2011, and 23 per cent in 2012. Despite the obvious progress, anecdotal evidence and some re- search demonstrate that barriers remain. "We decided to embark on a more organized effort," says Josée Bouchard, director of equity at the LSUC. "We hired a consul- tant to examine the barriers that existed and the progress that was being made, including engage- ment with groups like the Canadi- an Association of Black Lawyers." More particularly, Convoca- tion asked the working group to identify challenges faced by racialized licensees in different practice environments, including entry into practice and advance- ment; look at factors and practice challenges faced by racialized licensees that could increase the risk of regulatory complaints and discipline; consider best practices for preventative, remedial, and support strategies; and, if appro- priate, design and develop pre- ventative, remedial, enforcement, regulatory, and support strategies for consideration by the equity and other committees. The working group discov- ered racialized lawyers believed discriminatory behaviour and assumptions were "common features of their everyday pro- fessional experience." They also believed their sense of alienation and lack of opportunity some- times forced them to enter sole practice even when they felt un- prepared to do so. Finally, many racialized lawyers lacked a strong professional network and weren't aware of or didn't have access to the mentoring they desired. Racialized paralegals faced even greater challenges, report- ing even lower success rates in finding suitable employment than lawyers. To address these issues, the working group is considering recommending the adoption of several internal programs includ- ing enhancing the equity com- pliance program, conducting an internal equity audit, collecting more internal data, and develop- ing a more diverse and inclusive public image for the LSUC. Prof. Michael Ornstein of York University, who authored a report on race and gender for the LSUC in 2010, believes the profession has made considerable progress on the issue but says there's still lots to do. "We're only now beginning to deal with the complexities of the issues," he tells Law Times. "There's a lot of progress in the general sense but there are still real structural barriers around the internal character of the profession, things like entry to and partnerships in big firms who tend to be heavily institutionalized." To outsiders, the rituals that imbue big firms can have a "cer- tain strangeness" that may seem archaic and unfair, he notes. "It has a lot to do with the style of interaction, the way in which interviews take place, the inher- ent rewards for people who have cultural capital characterized by such things as having lawyers for parents or upper-class upbring- ings. Going to law school, for example, doesn't erase the differ- ence between poor people and people of real privilege. By the same token, nobody can escape their culture." Further complicating the is- sues is the fact that racialized law- yers aren't a homogeneous group. "Averages are not very useful," says Ornstein. "You may find that there are certain groups of non-whites who have done very well and are not facing the same barriers that other racialized professionals are facing." The report bears Ornstein out. Statistics collected by the work- ing group shows black and South Asian lawyers are proportionately more likely to be in small and sole practices while they're propor- tionately much less likely to be in medium and large firms. By way of example, about 47 per cent of white lawyers and 47 per cent of Chinese practitioners tend to be in firms with four or fewer lawyers while 75 per cent of black lawyers fall into this catego- ry. At the other end of the spec- trum, only about eight per cent of black lawyers work at firms with more than 100 lawyers. That compares to about 23 per cent of white lawyers and 21 per cent of Chinese lawyers. In discussing the report at Con- vocation last week, Bencher Avvy Go spoke about the difficulties ra- cialized students have in securing articling positions in Toronto. "Because we live in a diverse society, sometimes we forget that racism exists," she said. Bencher Janet Leiper noted some lawyers think they're "im- mune to prejudice" because of their education. "However, we are human like everyone else," she said. The law society is inviting in- put on the report presented to Convocation last week. It will be accepting written submissions until March 1, 2015. LT 'We hired a consultant to examine the barriers that existed and the progress that was being made, including engagement with groups like the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers,' says Josée Bouchard. 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