By Jacques Gallant Legal Affairs Reporter Mon., Feb. 11, 2019 At the Ontario Court of Appeal at Osgoode Hall, there are only 12 lockers for female lawyers who must change into their robes before appearing in court. There are about 70 lockers over on the men’s side, which has a lot more space and was once described in a legal publication as “opulent.” “What it says is that ‘We think your numbers will continue to be limited,’” lawyer Lori Anne Thomas said of the cramped quarters in the women’s robing room. “It says ‘We don’t expect growth.’” Yet numbers from the Law Society of Ontario, the province’s legal regulator, show that the profession is approaching a 50/50 split between male and female lawyers; about 57 per cent of lawyers are men and 43 per cent are women. With that in mind, a Change.org petition that has already gathered more than 500 signatures is calling on the regulator to do something about the lack of space in the women’s robing room, which as recently as a few weeks ago was referred to as the “Lady Barristers” room on courthouse signs. Article Continued Below “Women in law account for approximately 50 per cent of practising lawyers in Ontario — there is no basis upon which they should be allocated this much less than the men in anything in the profession, let alone space,” says the petition, started by Toronto lawyer Breanna Needham. Read more: Judge tosses Brampton drug case, slams Crown ‘negligence’… [Read full story]
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