Legal innovation to be honoured at the 2021 TLA Awards Gala

By Paul Russell, LegalMatters Staff • Toronto lawyers are urged to mark the evening of Wednesday, May 26, 2021 on their calendars to ensure they are free to participate in the Toronto Lawyers Association’s  21st Awards Gala.

“Because of the lockdown brought on by the COVID-19  it’s too early to say if the gala will be live or virtual, or maybe a hybrid of the two,” says Joan Rataic-Lang, executive director/library director of the TLA. “But no matter what happens, we want members and friends to reserve that date as the evening will be memorable.”

For the past few years, tickets sold out in advance for the gala, which has been held in the Crystal Ballroom at the Omni King Edward Hotel. This year, event space is booked at the Steam Whistle Roundhouse.

“The spacious Locomotive Hall can be reached without elevators, there will be no crowding, plus there is an outdoor space,” she tells LegalMattersCanada.ca. “If we are allowed to do an in-person event, we are confident everyone will feel safe.”

Rataic-Lang is “cautiously optimistic” the 2021 gala will be live, and perhaps one of the first major events after the end of the lockdown. That would be fitting, she says, as the 2020 gala on March 3 was one of the last social events before the COVID lockdown.

If the threat from the coronavirus means the event has to be online, she says alternative plans are being developed to make it memorable.

“We want to make it a really special event, and we are looking at options more sophisticated than Zoom,” says Rataic-Lang. “If we have to do it virtually, I promise you it will feel more like an awards gala than just another Zoom meeting.”

Nomination deadline is Jan. 6

TLA members are urged to submit nominations before Jan. 6 for two of the three awards to be presented at the event. She explains that both awards recognize “leadership or innovation in advancing the TLA’s three pillars of Knowledge, Advocacy and Community.”

“We’re looking for excellence in someone in the Toronto GTA. Someone who has shown strength in one or all three of these areas,” Rataic-Lang says.

“There is a lot of breadth when considering why someone deserves one of those awards,” she adds, noting that organizations are also eligible to be considered as nominees.

As an example, Rataic-Lang notes that one of the past winners was the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), now known as Innocence Canada. It describes itself as a “non-profit organization dedicated to identifying, advocating for, and exonerating individuals convicted of a crime that they did not commit.”

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“There are many worthwhile organizations out there,” she says. “They deserve recognition for their important work.”

Addressing each of the TLA pillars separately, Rataic-Lang notes that “knowledge is pretty broad.”

“At the TLA library within the courthouse at 361 University Ave., we disseminate knowledge through the various library resources and educational programs, along with publishing the Toronto law journal and current awareness pieces for members,” she says.

In terms of advocacy, Rataic-Lang notes “some of our members are strong spokespeople for some very worthwhile causes.”

The term community is also broad, she says, “as there are a number of ways people can build community. At the TLA, we achieve community through social and professional events that bring law professionals together.”

Nominations sought for two awards

The Emerging Excellence Award was introduced last year, Rataic-Lang says, to “recognize a Toronto lawyer in practice for 10 years or who exemplifies leadership or innovation in advancing one or all of the three pillars of the TLA.”

In contrast, the Honsberger Award is given to a mid-career lawyer who has been practising for between 15 to 25 years, she says.  It recognizes “a single unique accomplishment or ongoing contributions to the legal community and the community at large.”

“This award is not for a lifetime’s achievement, but rather for someone who is on their way to such an accolade in the future,” Rataic-Lang says, adding nominees do not have to be a TLA member.

Click here for a Honsberger Award nomination form and here for an Emerging Excellence nomination form.

The third award to be given at the gala is a lifetime achievement award, which was awarded to litigator Brian Greenspan in 2020.

“Our awards committee has just selected who will receive the award next May,” says Rataic-Lang. “This person has a very impressive legal background, so we are honoured to give them this recognition.”

Since Toronto is the hub of legal activity in Ontario, she says awards committee members had many candidates to consider.

Unconscious bias in litigation

The gala is not the only TLA event on the calendar. On Dec. 9, members are invited to take part in a Zoom webinar exploring unconscious bias in litigation, led by Louise Arbour and Marie Henein.

“This is going to be a popular event,” says Rataic-Lang, adding she is pleased to have two high-profile lawyers leading the webinar.

Arbour is senior counsel and jurist in residence at BLG in Montreal. Prior to that, she held a number of high-profile positions including Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration at the United Nations and as a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1999 to 2004.

Henein is a senior partner at Henein Hutchison and has been counsel on numerous high-profile cases, such as the Jian Ghomeshi trial. She has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers by Canadian Lawyer Magazine. In 2017 she was awarded the Law Society Medal.

The event runs from 5 to 6:30 p.m. with advance registration available here.

Head Start for articling candidates

Those starting a career in law will benefit from viewing a three-part Head Start webinar that was produced in October, says Rataic-Lang. 

The first segment, Lawyers Telling It Like It Is: What, How and Why, is designed to give participants insight into what firms expect from licensing and articling candidates, she says. The speakers in this segment are Mary Paterson, partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, and Jennifer Arduini, an associate at Dutton Brock.

“They talk about what articling students and licensing candidates can do to make themselves indispensable during their articling,” says Rataic-Lang, adding that topics include communication, collaboration, managing expectations, work habits, and networking.

The second segment focuses on LawPRO, which provides primary errors and omissions insurance coverage for Ontario lawyers. It is led by Ray Leclair, vice-president of public affairs at LawPRO, who discusses the importance of good management practices.

She adds that licensing candidates can join the TLA for free.

Effective legal research is the focus of the third session, led by Rataic-Lang and Linda Zardo, a reference librarian at the TLA. Together they give tips on the best sources of free research and how to do that work efficiently and exhaustively.