Katherine Hensel was a guest speaker at the Law Society of Ontario’s International Women’s Day event where women leaders shared their experiences and barriers that they overcame to sustain their legal careers.
According to Katherine, who was one of ten featured speakers, “Senior counsel are obligated to address the challenges mothers face in the profession and call out any undue new barriers that make it even harder to carry out their legal practice.” To read the Law Times article, click here.
We sat down with Micheline Gray-Smith, who volunteers her time at the Ryerson Law & Business Clinic. The Law & Business Clinic provides free legal services in a variety of business law matters to entrepreneurs and small businesses that cannot afford to retain a lawyer. Micheline shared with us her experience and the mentorship opportunities she has been able to provide.
Micheline, tell us how you got involved with the Ryerson Business & Law Clinic?
I was first introduced to the organization as a first-year Associate by Rick Moscone. Seeing a Partner with a full practice make the Clinic a priority, tells you that it’s something important. His commitment inspired me to stay involved with the Clinic and my role has evolved over time. At the beginning, I was working with one group of students and I would supervise their work, provide them with precedents, give them instructions on how to communicate with clients, and coach them through the process of advising clients. Now, in addition to providing that guidance, I have taken on a mentorship role to coach our first-year Associates alongside the group of volunteer Ryerson students and I supervise the whole process – answering any questions and guiding the our Associates, the student volunteers and the Clinic’s clients through the program. The reason I stay involved in the program is twofold: one it’s helping under-served individuals and businesses who need legal services and potentially don’t have the resources to pay for them and secondly, it is being able to provide students with exposure to the practice of law, which can help them decide whether they want to pursue attending law school. I have mentored four cohorts of students and being able to stay in touch with them over LinkedIn and see what they’ve done with their careers after graduating from the Ryerson Law & Business Program is really interesting – especially when they decide to go to law school in part because of conversations and experiences I’ve shared with them.
What advice would you give to a new lawyer who is looking for more opportunity to give back to their own community?
I would say the most important thing is finding something that is rewarding for you personally because that will give you that extra boost in your contribution. For example, when I was in law school, I was involved in a similar law clinic program. It’s something that I really enjoyed as a law student. Now that I’m participating in this program as a lawyer, I remember what it was like as a law student – not really knowing what my career would look like; not knowing what practice area I would pursue; and discovering that along the way. It’s really rewarding for me to see students discovering what they want to do and how they want their careers to unfold. It gives me energy, a sense of purpose, and encourages me to dedicate the time because I know what it was like, especially having graduated so recently.
Does this experience give you a different perspective, which you can bring to your law practice?
Helping the businesses in this program is really interesting because you get to see their growth from a start-up stage as they figure out how to structure their business. After three years, I can look back at the companies we helped initially and see how the decisions that we made together impacted the trajectory of the business.
The experience has even helped me when working with our firm clients, whose businesses are more established, because I now understand why their entity is set up the way it is and what challenges they might have faced early on. Seeing the whole evolution and working with entrepreneurs is inspiring. I can understand how they got to where they are now and what types of decisions they had to make at a really early stage that led them to where they are. Sometimes it is about what legal advice they should have gotten — but didn’t, and how we fix that at the point when they seek our advice. The reason I stay involved in the program is twofold: one it’s helping under-served individuals who need legal services and potentially don’t have the resources to pay for them and secondly, it’s being able to provide students with exposure to the practice of law, which can help them decide whether they want to pursue attending law school.
What has been the most rewarding aspect about volunteering with the Clinic? Do you have an anecdote about an experience that really moved you?
Firstly, it’s a great opportunity to grow as a lawyer. Particularly as a young lawyer, it was a chance to interact closely with clients and be their main point of reference. Secondly, being able to give back to the legal community because we were all in that position at one point. Wondering whether we should go to law school and whether it was the right path for us and looking for someone who can give you that kind of guidance and mentorship. If you can be that for a student, it’s very rewarding. Thirdly, I enjoy seeing the impact that some of the services and advice the students provide have on the Clinic’s clients. We work with entrepreneurs who are taking a risk in starting something new, who are looking to pursue what is often a lifelong vision and start their business. Being able to contribute to that dream, even in a small way, is really rewarding.
To learn more about Ryerson Business Law Clinic visit: https://www.ryerson.ca/tedrogersschool/lawbusinessclinic/
Congratulations to our Partners on being recognized leading lawyers in the 2022 Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory.
Steven A. Cygelfarb – Property Leasing
Albert M. Engel – Environmental Law
Maurice V.R. Fleming – Asset Equipment Finance
Michael B. Fraleigh – Medical Negligence
Bill Hearn – Advertising & Marketing Law
Katherine Hensel – Aboriginal Law
Eric Hoffstein – Estate & Personal Tax Planning and Estate Litigation
Karen Rosen – Asset Based Lending
Foglers takes pride in recruiting, supporting, and fostering the careers of women lawyers.
In honour of International Women’s Day, weare thrilled to announce the creation of our women@foglers mentorship program, spearheaded by Teodora Prpa and Hailey Abramsky, two young and driven female lawyers at our firm.
women@foglers is an internal program designed to cultivate our firm’s female talent by maximizing career development through guidance, support and one-to-one mentoring.
Congratulations to Kevin Shipley on being one of only 35 Canadians listed in the 2022 IAM Strategy 300 Global Leaders Guide. A slot in the 300 Global Leaders is a mark of a professional whose approach to intellectual property is recognized by clients and peers as truly strategic in nature.
In celebration of Black History Month, we had the pleasure of hosting a virtual event to hear and learn from the Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine, social justice advocate and the first African-Canadian woman elected to the House of Commons.
Everyone in attendance was inspired by her story and career, and her historic role in passing the landmark motion to designate February as Black History Month in Canada.
It has been a frigid start to 2022 so we were happy to participate in a winter clothing drive to to support New Circles Community Services
Foglers along with our friends at Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP, Adair Goldblatt Bieber LLP, WeirFoulds LLP, Weintraub Erskin Huang LLP and Israel Foulon Wong LLP were able to collect and donate hundreds of pre-loved winter coats, hats, scarves, glove shoes and boots to support the clients of New Circles Community Services in its efforts to #KeepTorontoWarm.
I’m listening. Keep talking. Four powerful words.
Today is #BellLetsTalk day, and this year’s campaign encourages everyone to keep listening, keep talking about mental health, and keep being there for each other.
Bell Let’s Talk Day is an important day to discuss and create awareness around mental health. This year our firm came together virtually to hear from Dr. David Goldbloom from CAMH, who talked about common misconceptions about mental illness and shared insights for supporting mental wellness.
We sat down with Bonnie Fish, who serves as the Board President for the Israel Cancer Research Fund, to hear about her experience being part of an organization that for the past 45 years has helped support scientists in Israel make major breakthroughs in cancer research.
Bonnie, tell us how you got involved with the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF)?
I was first introduced to the organization through my colleagues, and current ICRF board members, Ian Kady and Tammy Anklewicz, who invited me to attend a number of ICRF fundraising events including, their Women of Action event which recognizes women for their achievements in health sciences, community, philanthropy and business. At that time, I had recently lost a close friend to cancer and after learning more about the history of the organization and the cancer research ICRF was funding, I decided I wanted to do more to give back to this cause and to honour my friend. So I joined the Board and then spent a year on the Executive Committee and now I am in the third year of my term as Board President.
In your opinion, what is the most important work that this organization does?
ICRF’s mission is to support the best and brightest scientists conducting ground breaking cancer research in Israel. What stands out about this organization is that the funds raised for ICRF go directly to life-saving scientific research and not to “bricks and mortar.” Annual grants are given directly to Israeli cancer researchers at all of the leading academic and biomedical research centers in Israel. To date ICRF has contributed more than $83 million to support over 2,700 grants for Israel based cancer researchers. ICRF has funded scientists who went on to make incredible medical breakthroughs in cancer including discoveries which led to the development of Gleevec, an important treatment for leukemia, and Doxil, a drug for the treatment of ovarian, breast and AIDS related cancers. Two ICRF-funded scientists (Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology) received the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Choosing to serve on a non-profit board of directors enables you to become an integral part of solving problems in your community. Similarly, as a lawyer, much of your time is spent solving problems. Does this experience with the ICRF give you a different perspective, one which you can bring to your law practice?
Absolutely. The not-for-profit world is a whole world unto itself and it has been a very different experience from my law practice. In my volunteer role, the experiences and connections I’ve made have enhanced my understanding of the world outside of the law and have given me a much broader perspective. I feel like everything that you do outside of your legal practice in a volunteer capacity, adds a new dimension to your work and a better understanding of the people that you deal with on a regular basis.
What advice would you give to a new lawyer who is looking for the opportunity to give back to their own community?
That’s a really great question. I would say in my very earliest days of practice when I was struggling with not only my own time commitments to the practice, but also raising a family, I would have found it extremely hard to commit to doing something at this level, like being President of a Board. However, even early on in my career, I would always try to get involved with something – a charity walk, volunteering at a soup kitchen, donating food and clothing to those in need and I’d get my family involved. Small commitments at first. Making the time to help out a cause or support a charity even if just for a few hours, allowed me to feel like I was doing something other than being a lawyer. As time went on, I was able to give back more and build upon those experiences. Then one day you reach a point in your career where you have some connection to a charity, either through a colleague or experience and you are able to take the next step and play a bigger role in giving back to that cause. It is very satisfying when that moment comes.
To learn more about Israel Cancer Research Fund visit: https://www.icrf.ca/
To say Michael Fraleigh likes to help is an understatement. In addition to his busy health law practice, he manages to spend a considerable amount of time giving back to his community. According to Michael, who is the President of Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto and on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario, “when you invest the time and energy to volunteer, you are investing in yourself just as much as the causes you support.”
For almost two decades, Michael has been involved in leadership roles with both the Alzheimer’s Society of Toronto and now the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario. When asked about how he became involved in his various volunteer commitments he jokingly replies “Most of the time you get involved because someone ropes you in.” Joking aside, as a community based organization, Michael plays an important role in helping to direct the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario’s strategic focus and fundraising efforts. He says, instead of focusing on research, the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario is focused on providing support to local chapters which provide programs, counselling and education, to support individuals and families who are affected by Alzheimer’s. This shared purpose to create a community of support is a feature of the organization Michael highly values.
Currently over 500,000 Canadians are living with dementia, a number that is set to reach 912,000 in 2030 due to a rapidly aging population. In addition to those who are themselves afflicted, one in five Canadians have experience caring for someone with the condition. Michael, whose father, mother and grandmother had suffered from dementia, with the latter two also having Alzheimer’s, is able to relate to what many Canadians currently face. Having lived this experience prompted Michael to get involved, so that he could learn more and help others who are going through what he and his family went through.
For many, choosing to serve on a non-profit board allows you to become an integral part of solving problems in your community. In addition to his work with the Alzheimer’s Society, Michael is also the President of Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto. Like many organizations, he has spent much of his time this past year working with the executive and staff to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic to help the Temple Sinai Congregation stay connected. When asked about his volunteer experience, and any advice he had for younger lawyers on the benefits of giving back to their community, he shared: “Volunteering provides you the opportunity to contribute in ways that are different from your day-to-day job. When you are focused on a common cause, you use and develop different skills and engage with people on a different level.”
To learn more about the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario visit https://alzheimer.ca/on/en
