Thank you. My final message to JUST readers and to the profession broadly as OBA President is one of deep appreciation and thanks.

Thank you for embracing and sharing my interest in helping to advance gender equality in the profession. Together, we have built terrific momentum.

Thank you to the countless practitioners who stepped forward to share their personal stories with me, who reached out to me to say, “Yes, the time is right” and to ask “How can I help be a part of the change?” I met, spoke with, and exchanged emails with hundreds of lawyers – from every practice area, from every region, from diverse backgrounds – all expressing interest in the mandate to advance gender equality in the profession based on their own experiences and interests.

There were questions along the way, and I am thankful for those experiences too. I learned so much. Advancing diversity and equality is a continuous process, a fight that is daily and one that deserves constant attention, which is why I want to say thank you to the many observers who helped me stay vigilant, who encouraged my constant reflection on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion, and who reminded me to keep trying and learning.

Thank you to the OBA’s Women Lawyers Forum (WLF) for being a great champion for my mandate and for providing a powerful network, where lawyers can get together to critically examine how the law affects women in the profession and in society, and thank you to the hundreds of OBA members who joined the WLF this past year to make that network even stronger. I am delighted that membership in the WLF will remain free for all OBA members looking to consider the law as it affects women, participate in advocacy for women’s issues, promote and advance the fair treatment of women in the profession, and honour its diversity.

Thank you to each and every person who signed up and participated in our Solution Circles. It was a humbling and inspiring exercise to not only hear your stories, but to work alongside you as we rolled up our sleeves and worked to uncover practical solutions that the profession can begin to implement immediately to advance gender equality. I look forward to sharing tangible examples of those solutions in practice at our upcoming Momentum Summit and seeing the OBA continue to bring those solutions to life through its ongoing work.

Thank you also to the dozens of progressive lawyers and law firms who have ordered the OBA’s free custom-branded awareness-raising campaign posters and hung them in their offices. This simple action is one very modest way to show commitment to equality and a willingness to join as partners in the cause of surfacing and ending unconscious bias.

Finally, thank you to the profession for the opportunity of a lifetime. Over the past year, you have embraced and shared my interest in helping to advance gender equality and have helped build terrific momentum, for which I will forever be grateful. But more than that, it has been a distinct honour to serve as President of our professional association. Your passion for making the OBA a great place for all lawyers is unrivaled and is what makes the OBA so very special. Sincerely, thank you.