Dear lawyer, guess what? You don’t have to be perfect, and you don’t always need to be right! I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review that I believe every leader should read: How to Build Confidence About Showing Vulnerability tells each of us in leadership roles that to build a healthy team you need to find a way to check your ego at the door. We each need to explore our vulnerabilities, be honest about our failures and recognize our need for collaboration to build a successful business. As author Dan Cable, professor of organizational behavior at London Business School, notes “the best leaders inspire trust by sharing their mistakes.” Mentoring in any real way demands this of us, BUT how do we do this? How can we bring a sense of humility to our leadership roles…

We are excited to welcome Guest Blogger and Harper Grey lawyer, Renée Gagnon, as she dishes some sage advice in her response to the latest question submitted to the Dear LiL Blog.    Dear Defying Dominance: As a lawyer, I am loathe to speak in absolutes, but I dare say, every woman has faced the obstacle of a male dominated environment. Thus, the part of this question which asks, “[h]ave you ever faced such a situation…” takes me by surprise. Of course, I have! Haven’t we all? I can see that perhaps this part of the question speaks to the biggest setback in workplaces overrepresented by men: women feel alone… You are not alone! This segways nicely to my first suggested strategy: Do not do it alone. Find yourself some women in your industry who you respect and trust and…

This is the second post in the series on The National Study on the Psychological Health Determinants of Legal Professionals in Canada published by the Université de Sherbrooke, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the Canadian Bar Association in December 2022 (the “Report”). In this post we will be discussing the phenomenon of technostress as explored in the Report. Before we dive into the topic of technostress, we want you to take a moment to stop and consider the range and types of technology you utilize in your everyday practice – from emails, internal messages, phone calls, social media and networking applications, to cell phones, printers, photocopiers, laptops, individual web-based applications, and software including filing, accounting, document management, and time recording software. Does this list leave you feeling a little overwhelmed? You are not alone. The Report found that lawyers…

While finalizing a recent proposal, I took a moment to pause and consider the team I had been working with to complete the submission. I thought about the lead lawyers on the project, two senior female lawyers that Chair practice groups at my firm. I thought of my female COO, providing guidance and insight, and the female assistant on my team who championed some of the research related to the proposal. And, last but not least, I thought of our female graphic designer – making all the legalese included in the submission aesthetically pleasing and easier to digest. I proudly reflected on the strong female leaders, mentors, and team members I’ve had thus far during my career and considered how this makes not only my firm, but all firms stronger. While working with the women at my firm – both…

Recently, I learned of a course entitled “Happiness and the Law,” offered to law students at the University of Ottawa. The course was designed by Professor Lynda Collins, who has niche expertise in the area of law student and lawyer wellness, focusing on the law and policy of subjective wellbeing. Professor Collins has taught the Happiness and the Law course for six years, which is designed to help law students cope with the stress of law school and, ultimately, how to handle such a high-pressure profession. I read an interview with Professor Collins and Canadian Lawyer Magazine, where she explained that the course was designed in response to the overwhelming mental health issues many students face when they are thrown into the high-stress learning environment of law school. Many law students find these challenges are only exacerbated once they are…