Program aims to help legal community take concrete action to promote diversity
The Canadian Corporate Counsel Association has announced that it will be holding a webinar on Jan. 26 to offer guidance to in-house lawyers on promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal industry.
Registration in the webinar called “In-house departments and law firms driving diversity and inclusion together: More than just talk” is free for members. The program seeks to assist the legal community in going beyond merely discussing diversity and inclusion initiatives, and actually taking concrete action. While many organizations have developed policies and best practices, substantial impacts have been slow to materialize.
The webinar will feature a discussion on challenges and successes in the area of diversity and inclusion and the introduction of a new tool. An organization will also share the findings of an internal survey of firms.
Speakers will include Nikki Gershbain, chief inclusion officer of McCarthy Tétrault LLP; Thomas Kim, chief legal officer and company secretary of Thomson Reuters Corporation; Matthew David Peters, national innovation leader and partner at McCarthy Tétrault; Julia Shin Doi, general counsel and secretary of Ryerson University’s board of governors; and Charlene Theodore, in-house counsel to the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association.
Gershbain’s role – called the first of its kind in the country’s legal industry – combines the values of equity and social responsibility. Gersbain helps McCarthy Tétrault meet its diversity and social impact objectives and she is known for her work in diversity and inclusion and pro bono programming.
Since 1999, Kim has worked for Thomson Reuters and has held numerous legal executive roles. He has spearheaded diversity initiatives, such as the global diversity advisory council at Thomson Reuters and the ASCEND Executive Network in New York, seeking to help Asian Pacific Americans reach the C-suite.
In his position at McCarthy Tétrault, Peters aims to take firms and the delivery of legal services into the future by advising on which technologies and processes can improve service deliverability. He communicates with clients to understand the issues that they face.
Shin Doi’s responsibilities include the offering of legal and governance advice and taking charge of access to information, privacy, records management and information security matters. At Ryerson University, she has taught seminars at the Law Centre and has advised the Law Practice Program.
Theodore – a workplace lawyer with experience relating to public policy and government relations – was the Ontario Bar Association’s first Black president and the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers’ past director. She is known for her work in advancing equality, diversity and inclusion within and beyond the justice sector, especially in favour of women and people of colour. Her initiatives include Not Another Decade, which aims to move the dial on equality for Black and Indigenous people and people of colour, and Work that Works, which seeks to foster inclusive workplaces for lawyers.
Interested individuals may register here. Information for accreditation can be found here.
