www.canadianlawyermag.com 23
Building the pipeline she didn't have
Ventresca is candid about where the Embrace
Equity Summit came from. "I came out of the
public school system, and I hadn't had anyone in
my family who was a lawyer before me," she says.
"I didn't have the blueprint or the language for it."
That gap is why she helped conceive the
Embrace Equity Summit, a program that
has reached more than 500 female-iden-
tifying students before university, framed
around imposter syndrome and the possi-
bility of a career they might not have pictured
for themselves.
She's candid about how much work
remains, too. "We've done a lot of good with
women in the law generally," she says, "not well
with individuals from equity-deserving groups,
especially at the partnership level."
It's a rare moment where a winner
profiled for her own success points just
as directly at where the profession still
falls short.
What she'd tell another managing partner
Asked what she'd change first if another
leader wanted to replicate her approach,
Ventresca points to decision-making itself –
getting the empirical evidence on what your
people are experiencing before making struc-
tural decisions, then acting on what you hear.
She still remembers how disorienting that
responsibility felt on day one.
"I feel terrified. I'm responsible for all of
you now, and how can I know what to do for
you if I don't know what your lived experience
here is like?" she says.
Failing to act on what you hear, she says,
breaks the trust that made people speak up
in the first place.
CHANGEMAKER.
Paul Saunders is helping law firms
prepare for the AI era through strategic
leadership, innovation, and organizational
transformation. His work has shaped how
leaders think about strategy, compensation,
data, technology, change, and long-term
resilience.
That vision continues through The Fortified
Firm, a new advisory venture focused on
helping law firms build lasting capabilities
in the age of AI, enabling adoption and
transformation with confidence.
thefortifiedfirm.com | stewartmckelvey.com
Learn more about
The Fortified Firm.
