Features

Impress your colleagues by showing off your knowledge of the most innovative ideas, varied perspectives and independent opinions from within our diverse network of lawyers across Ontario. 

Today
Today
abstract, colourful image of gender-neutral figures surrounding the head a shoulders of a person with a mish-mash of different facial features superimposed

What Does a Lawyer Look Like? Time to truly embody diversity and inclusion

  • November 16, 2022
  • Ena Chadha and Emmett Rogers

A special achievement marred by a stereotypical statuette sparks a candid conversation between two leading human rights lawyers – one a non-binary, trans person and the other a first-generation immigrant South Asian woman – about the rigid expectations and barriers related to gender identity that persist in the legal profession, and what we can do to create space for diverse people while better serving the trans community.

The Honourable Rosalie Abella and the Honourable Mahmud Jamal

Supreme Esteem: Twin tributes that really do justice

  • June 01, 2022
  • The Honourable Rosalie Abella and The Honourable Mahmud Jamal

The OBA’s Supreme Evening brought together admiring members of the bench and bar to pay tribute to The Honourable Rosalie Abella and The Honourable Mahmud Jamal and celebrate “a passing of a precious baton from safe, strong hands to safe, strong hands.” The gala’s highlight were the remarks from the guests of honour, whose praise for each other conveyed respect, kinship, humour, and genuine affection – excerpts from which they have kindly shared.

An illustration of a group of racially diverse people gathered together with lines radiating from them like ideas and calls for action

Beyond Black History Month: Basic principles for life

  • February 26, 2022
  • Jacqueline Beckles

We can apply principles of gathering with purpose and collective brainstorming, and a philosophy of “I am because we are,” to continue to raise awareness and call for action, break barriers and celebrate Black excellence, and lift as we climb and light the way for others every day.

Side image of a person's upper torso and neck, featuring many black ink tattoos, the most prominent of which is the words "They/Them" in cursive writing

What’s in a Pronoun? Two human rights tribunals find that misgendering in the workplace amounts to discrimination in employment

  • December 12, 2021
  • Giovanna Di Sauro (she/her), Tamara J. Sylvester (one/they/them) and Nicky Kim (she/her)

After summarizing two recent Human Rights Tribunal decisions that, for the first time, considered the issue of misgendering of gender non-conforming employees in the workplace as well as their employers' failure to address their complaints of discrimination seriously or at all, the authors highlight key findings and provide practical tips for organizations in light of these decisions.

Space: The new frontier

Space: The new frontier

  • August 30, 2021
  • Michael Speers

In fashioning the legal workplace of the future, forward-thinking lawyers are prioritizing vital culture over vaunted convention and making a giant leap in how they operate, innovate, collaborate, and situate themselves within a fertile ecosystem of research, industry and ideas.

Giving Feedback Just Got Trickier

Giving Feedback Just Got Trickier

  • June 06, 2021
  • Deborah Glatter

Feedback was always a tricky skill to master, and it’s even trickier now. There are two related reasons: first, the psychological impact of the pandemic and second, the challenge of providing feedback in a virtual world.

Illustrated Image of Woman

A Lawyer in Recovery: Changing the narrative

  • December 04, 2020
  • Jessie Gomberg

In her recovery from depression and alcoholism, Jessie Gomberg found purpose in life when she once found none. Once deeply ashamed, she’s now sharing her recovery story in the hope that it might help others.