Law Times

Page 4 March 7, 2016 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com How to retain women in criminal practice: CLA BY NEIL ETIENNE Law Times A study by the Criminal Lawyers' Association is recommending a series of changes to retain more female sole practitioners in criminal law. The report, authored by Dr. Natasha Madon, was commis- sioned in 2014 by the CLA. It looks at whether sole-prac- titioner women are leaving crim- inal law in greater numbers than men and, if so, why women are leaving and what can be done to reverse the trend. "The report is showing we are losing women with years and years of experience. From a professional standpoint, losing women in any field is a problem," says Breese Davies, a sole practi- tioner and co-chair of the CLA working group that commis- sioned the study. The report is the first systemic look at data on women in crimi- nal practice in Ontario. The study proposes changes within the profession, the CLA, and in court administration to keep women practicing private criminal law. "A number of dominant themes emerged from the focus group discussions, framing the challenges that women — at var- ious stages of their career — be- lieved impacted women," states the report. "A large proportion of women discussed the finan- cial and logistical difficulties as- sociated with taking time off to have a child." The study is based on a series of focus groups that were conducted with senior female lawyers, junior lawyers, Crown lawyers, female lawyers who work outside of To- ronto, and female judges. It is also based on data from Legal Aid Ontario, the Law Soci- ety of Upper Canada, and a CLA survey of female members. Davies says a few statistics jumped out to her, including that for all lawyers called in 1994 and 1995 who started out in criminal law, almost half had left the prac- tice within 10 years. However, the numbers show that 60 per cent of women left compared to 47 per cent of men. Between the five- and 10-year ca- reer mark, women are dropping out more quickly than men, Da- vies says, adding the study shows that, if those female practitioners do return to legal practice, 20 per cent moved to government roles compared to two per cent for men. The report provides qualita- tive information about the ex- perience of women in private practice and contains a number of statistics that prove presump- tions that more women were leaving the field early than their male counterparts. "The other startling statistic for me was that of the 47 women called in 1996 who started off doing criminal work in private practice, only 13 were still doing criminal law in private practice in 2014," says Davies. "And of the 50 women called in 1998-1999, who started doing criminal law in private practice, only 22 were left in 2014." Davies says the report builds on a Law Society of Upper Cana- da study on the retention of wom- en in private practice study. That study was from 2005 to 2008. Davies says the new study was to explore why it appears female sole practitioners in criminal law ARE more likely to leave prac- tice early. Madon said in her report that women further identified the financial challenge associated with being in private defence practice, with the unpredict- ability of income and the diffi- culties of building a business on one's own, coupled with heavy reliance on legal aid certificates, "ripe with inherent issues of low rates of pay and delayed pay- ments for work done." She said many respondents expressed frustration over gen- dered differences in treatment by judges and other court officials, "making an already challenging career all the more difficult." One of the barriers found in the study for those sole practi- tioners is the heavy reliance on Legal Aid files. Davies says all lawyers reliant on Legal Aid work don't have a stable source of income and of- ten work much longer hours than they are compensated for. Also, while there is a parental leave pro- gram offered through the LSUC, lawyers cannot make more than $50,000 a year to be eligible. Davies says the hopes are that benchmark would be raised to a higher number. She says with sole practitioners trying to pay for an office and staff and main- tain a household while taking leave, $50,000 is not a sufficient place to cap. A female lawyer is often left with the choice of shutting down her practice while taking leave and then faced with the realities of trying to re-establish the prac- tice after extended time away from clients, says Davies. Jessyca Greenwood, a sole practitioner from Greenwood Defence Law, CLA member, par- ticipant in the study, and mother, says she has faced the choice of raising her family or returning to the demands of her practice. "I have always been totally committed to the practice of criminal law and to my client's cases, and I felt very strongly about continuing to run my practice," she explains. "That meant that I took a brief leave from the practice of law — about 12 weeks — and had another law- yer cover my matters while I was away. I came back to work while my children were still infants. "Once I was back, it was very difficult to manage both tasks, but I somehow survived," she adds. "I enlisted help and hired other lawyers to assist. I was for- tunate to have that option." She says one of the key recom- mendations to her is lobbying the LSUC to retain and improve the parental leave program. "It is an excellent financial support program that allows lawyers taking parental leave to have some financial support for the office expenses while on leave. Knowing that you could have some support to pay your overhead while on leave was huge," Greenwood says. Indira Stewart, a sole practi- tioner based out of Simcoe and about seven years into a career in the criminal defence field, says she has seen plenty of her female peers give up a career due to the difficulty in balancing too many responsibilities outside of work. She had her first child about four years after her call to the bar and took less than four months of leave after the birth. Stewart says it was the strong support of peer senior lawyers and her lawyer husband that al- lowed her to make the choice to return early. She adds that many women lawyers do not enjoy the same support systems when at- tempting to balance work and personal life. "Single moms, women who are sole providers for their fami- lies, women who don't have fam- ily close by, I honestly don't know how they do it," Stewart says. "I was able to [return to practice after giving birth] because of my supports, but a lot just don't have that in place, and it was still very difficult for me." The study makes a series of recommendations, including that better mentoring opportu- nities be available in the defence and criminal law bars. It also recommends education for the judiciary and firm stop times for court matters in the evenings. "Many cited the need for judges to stop punishing women for hav- ing to leave court by 4:30 [p.m.] to pick up children in daycare," the report states in its recommen- dations. "Further, the need for judges to be made better aware of how comments they make in the courtroom may in fact be sexist, creating a troubling work environ- ment for many female lawyers." Davies says the key now will be to hold open dialogues with their peers at the LSUC, Legal Aid, and in the government ranks to see if increased funding might be available for support and educational programs. "We want to use the study as the basis of discussions with the LSUC and Legal Aid about how we can all, collectively, work on solving these issues," Davies says. LT NEWS CORRECTION In a Feb. 22, 2016 issue of Law Times, a focus section article on family law and online evidence identified Adam Black as a lawyer from Torys LLP. Black is in fact a lawyer at Torkin Manes LLP. In the same article, a lawyer gave an example of a client who posted a drunken video of himself on Facebook, which was later used against him in family law court. The statements about that client's case were incorrectly attributed to lawyer Adrienne Lee. That example was in fact provided by lawyer Reesa Heft, who was also quoted in the article. Law Times apologizes for the errors. FULLY ACCREDITED IN-CLASS PROGRAM & LIVE WEBINAR REGISTER BEFORE MARCH 25 AND SAVE $300 Course Leaders Wendy Baker, QC, Partner, Miller Thomson LLP Cathy Bate, Partner, Miller Thomson LLP The Food & Beverage Industry in Canada: The Regulatory Evolution FOOD & BEVERAGE LAWS ARE CHANGING, ARE YOU? ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS | PUBLIC HEALTH MANDATES | RECALLS AND FRAUD Vancouver, April 26 • Toronto, April 19 • Webinar, April 19 www.lexpert.ca/cpdcentre Untitled-5 1 2016-03-02 1:19 PM Jessyca Greenwood says she has faced the choice of raising her family or returning to the demands of her practice.

• Cover