By Debra M Van Ginkel, QC

Women make up one third of the legal profession in B.C., despite graduating in equal numbers to men at law schools across the country since the early 1990s. However, the attrition rate of women leaving the profession is much higher than for men. In order to support and promote women in the legal profession, the CBA Women Lawyers Forum was started in B.C. in 2002 and became a national organization in 2005.

The Women Lawyers Forum Mentoring Program is an initiative designed to facilitate mentoring relationships for women in the legal profession. There are no other organizations in Canada that provide mentoring for women lawyers. The Mentoring Program was developed in order to address two issues that adversely affect women lawyers: to address the attrition rate and the fact that women may not be naturally matched with a mentor. We believe that mentoring will help women to stay and flourish in the practice of law. Further, it is a practical way for women to help each other with the challenges of a demanding profession.

The Mentoring Program has developed a new model of mentoring, that is, a collaborative learning partnership, benefiting both the mentor and the mentee. We believe that mentoring relationships have changed dramatically in recent years. No longer is the mentor necessarily an older, more senior lawyer. Often younger lawyers make great mentors because they remember more vividly the struggles of those closer in experience to themselves. Further, peer mentoring is an important aspect of the Mentoring Program, where senior lawyers may want a mentor themselves, to help them navigate their own career challenges.

The Mentoring Committee recognizes that a successful Program requires on-going support, education and encouragement beyond the initial matching of the mentoring pairs. Accordingly, at the start of the Program, the mentoring pairs attend an orientation in order to explain the Program and to review the Guidelines and the Agreement. At the end of the year, the participants attend a celebration event where they are recognized for their participation and contributions.

The Women Lawyer Forum also runs a series of workshops and luncheon events on topics of interest to the mentoring participants. These events include training seminars on topics such as communication, with tips that are applicable to their mentoring relationship. We hold workshops on work-life balance or other topics of interest, and we organize panel discussions on mentoring, such as the popular “Ten Hot Tips From Ten Hot Mentors,” and “What I Learned From My Mentor,” where senior women lawyers provide insights and practice tips.

In order to expand the Mentoring Program, with the goal of providing mentors to all women lawyers and articled students in B.C., the Women Lawyers Forum has received a grant of $50,000 from the Law Foundation. Over 3,000 women lawyers in the province have been contacted to request their participation in the Mentoring Program. We are in the process of matching women lawyers in mentoring pairs from all corners of the province.

More information can be obtained from the CBABC website at www.cba.org/bc. Anyone interested in hearing more about the program is welcome to contact Debra M. Van Ginkel, QC at dvanginkel@wgmlaw.com or at Watson Goepel Maledy LLP 604-642-5658.

Debra M. Van Ginkel, QC, Chair, CBA Women Lawyers Forum

This article was published in the June 2007 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2007, all rights reserved.