I am the type of person who spends a lot of time planning for the future. When I was 16, I developed a ten year plan: Attend Queen's University for the commerce program, move out to British Columbia to go to UBC for law school, then move back to Toronto to work in corporate law at a large law firm, and eventually make partner. That, to me, was what success looked like.
In my pursuit of these goals, I had come to accept the fact that to achieve this, I would likely have to work harder and make more sacrifices than most men with similar aspirations. One of the most prominent issues in the conversation about the challenges that women face in the workplace is the choice between family and career. Although I am still in the early stages of my career, having only just completed my undergrad, like many other ambitious women, I have already found myself questioning how my career will be affected if I decide to one day start a family? Similarly, how will my career affect my ability to prioritize family? Ultimately, I decided that if I want to achieve my version of success, these sacrifices would be unavoidable.
When the opportunity to join Casey and Moss for the summer first presented itself to me, of course, I looked up the firm online. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the firm, and more importantly, the partnership was overwhelmingly female. Before ever stepping foot in the office, I was excited at the prospect of working with and under other women who essentially are who I have always wanted to be.
I have been working here at C&M for about two and a half months now and have not been disappointed. In this time, I have noticed two things in particular:
- The women here are highly accomplished in their work. They are widely respected and praised by their peers and clients, and they have been repeatedly recognized for their excellence both individually and as a firm. From what I have seen and in my experience working with these lawyers, they are all passionate about their work and always do right by their clients. Overall, they are everything that I always imagined success would look like.
- At the same time, they all seem to be able to balance their varying priorities. For some, this has meant prioritizing their families and their personal lives at times. If they are sick or a family member is sick, they can work from home. If they are pregnant, they can take maternity leave without fear of falling behind. This is done without undermining their professional success.
While these may seem trivial to some, many young, ambitious women have to choose between the two, whereas men are not faced with the same choice. This is only one of the many ways that the women at this firm have changed my perception of what success needs to look like. Every day, I am both fascinated and inspired by the lawyers at this firm. Each of them has been the embodiment of what the legal field (and the broader workforce) should be like for women. It has been and continues to be a privilege to work at C&M, a place where the partnership has carved out a space for women in law. In the mere two and a half months that I have been here, I have come to recognize C&M not just for the value it brings to clients, but what it represents to women like me: a symbol of change for female success in a male-oriented workforce.
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