Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/688578
38 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | JUNE 2016 more than 250,000 Canadians receive par- dons for criminal convictions. In 1992‒95 she located, met with and helped to rein- state 2,800 small business owners whose companies were summarily dissolved when they did not receive notice of a new $50 an- nual corporate filing fee. Diversity & Inclusion Pre-Law Internship Program BLAKE, CASSELS & GRAYDON LLP > TORONTO Blakes' Diversity & Inclusion Pre-Law Internship Program, for undergraduates of York University and the University of Toronto, offers a student interested in at- tending law school an opportunity for summer work at Blakes, with a particular focus on diversity initiatives within the firm. Founded in 2011, the program is a five-time winner of the Mediacorp Canada Award recognizing Canada's Best Diver- sity employers. is four-week, paid intern- ship gives selected students an opportunity to observe the day-to-day functioning of a law firm, receive mentorship from lawyers and work on specific tasks related to equity and diversity. Diversity and Law Society UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY FACULTY OF LAW > CALGARY To improve diversity in the legal profession, students at the Faculty of Law created the Diversity and Law Society (DLS), aimed to promote diversity and multiculturalism in the study and practice of law. DLS aims to promote awareness of equality issues in the legal profession; provide the means to eliminate discrimination; develop resourc- es to assist the legal profession in achieving equality and monitor, on a national basis, the status of equality issues in the legal pro- fession. DLS is affiliated with the national Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers and is associated with the Canadian Bar Association's Equality and Diversity Sec- tion, formed out of the association's 1993 task force report on gender equity. "e composition of Canadian society is chang- ing [and] it's important to foster … toler- ance and acceptance of diversity in law school," a DLS vice president said. Ian Epstein BLANEY MCMURTRY LLP > TORONTO Ian Epstein leads Blaney McMurtry's work with the Scadding Court Commu- nity Centre (SCCC), a founding partner in the Investing in our Diversity Scholar- ship Program. SCCC started its scholar- ship program in 2001 to recognize and reward young people fighting for equity and against racism by providing scholar- ships to students from diverse backgrounds who would otherwise not be able to afford university or college. e program includes the Blaney McMurtry Award for Diversity and the William McMurtry Anti-Racism Scholarship. e scholarship rewards Toronto-area students who have shown leadership in diversity and anti-racism ini- tiatives and demonstrated financial need. Ian's mentor, the late Bill McMurtry, was a co-founder of the scholarship program who got Ian actively involved. Ian now manages annual funding work for the two Blaney McMurtry scholarships, as well as the Advisory Committee of the SCCC. Fasken Martineau Pride Network FASKEN MARTINEAU DUMOULIN LLP > TORONTO | ZENITH AWARDS | Brenda Cossman UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO > TORONTO Brenda Cossman holds degrees in law from Harvard and the University of Toronto and is a professor of law and director of the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Stud- ies at the University of Toronto. She has been a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School and is a 2015 winner of the Ontario Bar Association Award of Excel- lence in the Promotion of Women's Equal- ity. In 2007 she published Sexual Citizens: e Legal and Cultural Regulation of Sex and Belonging and she is a co-author of Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism, and the Butler Decision. She is actively involved in law reform in the areas of same-sex couples and definitions of fam- ily and has written extensively on the legal regulation of adult relationships. Antree Demakos LEGAL LINE > TORONTO Antree Demakos has devoted her career to demystifying the law and helping mil- lions of Canadians obtain access to justice. Antree founded Legal Line in 1993 as a national non-profit that provides free an- swers to more than 1,000 legal questions in 65 languages. Legalline.ca has had 25 million hits. In 2002, Antree created and secured federal funding for the Business and Entrepreneur Awareness Program (BEAP), a business development initiative for at-risk youth throughout Canada. In 1993, Antree founded Pardons Canada, a federal non-profit agency, and grew it into the largest criminal-records education and removal organization in Canada, helping