Managing Your Career WELL

This session will address how to make a change in your legal career in criminal law, focusing on other opportunities that exist for criminal lawyers including applications to the bench. In the first hour of the session, we will hear from lawyers who have pivoted during the course of their career, from assistant Crown attorney to counsel for an independent police oversight body for instance or from defence counsel to a advisory work for the federal government. The panel will provide advice on how to best position yourself for a change in career, including how to use your practice as an opportunity to engage in activities that will help build your CV for a future career change, what kind of leadership positions can support a criminal lawyer in making a career change and what role a mentor can play in that process.

In discussing these career transitions, the panel will touch upon some of the ethical considerations that are distinct as between lawyers employed in-house versus those employed in private practice versus those employed in public service.

The panel will also discuss, when exploring career transitions to also encourage others to explore career changes particularly lifting others to leadership positions with a view to encouraging diversity and inclusion.

The second hour of the session will feature of panel of judges. This panel will address how to build your practice and your CV for an eventual application to the bench, the importance of volunteerism, and how to strategically approach your application for both the OCJ (where interviews occur) and SCJ (paper-based application). The panel will include racialized judges and will discuss the importance of the bench reflecting the diversity of the population it serves and strategic advice for racialized lawyers who are considering applying to the bench.

Panel coming soon.