When asked in August 2020 what I’d like to be able to say in a year’s time about my presidency, I replied, “I hope my term as president is a chapter of the OBA’s history that will put the profession forever on the right road on the issues in our workplaces we have been collectively grappling with for far too long.”

The author of 2020’s award-winning essay discusses language rights, legal writing, remote learning and cultural diversity in the legal community.

We like to say at the OBA that there is “opportunity in community,” and we are dedicated to helping you leverage all that belonging to this diverse and dynamic, experienced and insightful, generous and compassionate community affords.

One common thread in the conversations I’ve led through my Work that Works podcast with those who deal directly with workplace leaders on organizational change is that the fear of making a misstep can be paralyzing. This paralysis is amplified when tackling deeply personal, potentially sensitive issues in the workplace such as systemic discrimination.

The new Tenant-Lawyer Connection Portal introduces tenants who are facing eviction for non-payment of rent and who have scheduled hearings before the Landlord Tenant Board to volunteer OBA members across Ontario.

SOGIC leaders tell us about the opportunities that involvement in this vital community offers lawyers today, and where they see the section making an impact – in the profession and in the advancement of equality – in the future.

In the last year, the justice sector has advanced by leaps and bounds in modernization. By next year, I hope we’ll be able to look back on similarly substantial –and carefully plotted – progress when it comes to innovation and inclusion in our own legal workplaces.

The OBA has a long history of leading the charge on EDI, lawyer mental health and wellness, access to justice and innovation, but in this game-changing year, our work in these areas has converged with greater impact than ever before. When I introduced my Innovation mandate at the outset of my presidency,

Gearing up to take the wheel as OBA president in September, with a mission to reinvent the legal workplace, Charlene Theodore takes time to talk to us about what drives her and where she plans to blaze new trails in the profession in the year ahead.

In the second article in a series celebrating SOGIC’s 25th anniversary, Douglas Elliott, one of the section’s first co-chairs, talks about his part in producing lasting change in the fight for equality, from his time working on the OBA’s report on AIDS, up to the final decisive vote in Mont Tremblant that created SOGIC’s national section.