It could be called a legal revolving door.

Canadian women are entering private law practice in record numbers, yet leaving in large numbers as well.

The problem, officials say, is that the legal profession - and in some cases, demanding clients - haven't adapted to women's realities in the workplace. These can include their need to take time away from work for childbirth, raising children or to handle other family responsibilities.

For years now, many women lawyers have simply found the work-life balance is more appealing in other sectors. But now, two major initiatives are moving forward to try and rectify the situation.

Jessica Green

The Toronto-based Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) has started the Justicia Think Tank, a three-year pilot committed to identifying and adopting principles and best practices that will promote the retention and advancement of women in the private practice of law.

And in Western Canada, a small group is spearheading the Lilith Law Professional Development and Mentoring Program.

Launched at the end of last month, the goal of the six-month pilot project is to reduce the attrition rate of women lawyers in private practice and increase their satisfaction levels in the workplace.

"Women make up over half the law school graduates, yet they are not yet participating fully as partners in small or large firms and we feel it's important that our profession reflect the makeup of our society," says Tom Conway, a lawyer with the firm of McCarthy Tetrault and co-chair of the LSUC's working group on the retention of women in private practice.

"The most discouraging trend concerns the number of women who enter private practice and leave within the first six years.

It's a trend that's not unique to Ontario - this is what we hear from other law societies and other jurisdictions both in and outside of Canada," Conway adds.

About 50 law firms have signed on to Justicia. All have more than 25 lawyers and are from Ontario, except for one from the Maritimes.

"If we have requests from firms outside Ontario to join the Justicia project, we'll consider them," says Conway.

The program also hopes to track demographics to discover why people are leaving, where they're going when they leave, and why they've left, he adds.

Meanwhile, Calgary lawyer Jessica Green, a senior counsel at Petro-Canada, says she has been lucky in her legal career but nonetheless is looking forward to being one of the first protegés in the Lilith Law program.

"I have had and continue to have some excellent mentoring relationships. I've been very fortunate in that regard," says Green. "The one thing I don't have, though, is a mentoring relationship with a female senior member of the bar."

"I'm quite happy with the path my career has taken, but I anticipate that there will be challenges as I move forward and I'd like to have that resource available to me: The experience, knowledge and advice from a woman based on the challenges that might be ahead of me in my career."

Green and nine other female protegés will each be paired with a mentor to help advance them through topics such learning, relationship building, and personal and professional development.

The 10 protegés and their mentors will meet one-on-one once a month, and all participants will come together for a larger group meeting, also once a month.

Protegés pay a fee of $1,425 plus GST to cover professional development costs; mentors pay $270 plus tax to cover a share of costs for food and notebooks.

"We have lots of female lawyers working in offices where they don't have access to other female lawyers or mentors and they are obviously quite isolated," says Ronnalee McMahon, who designed and will manage the Lilith Law program and is the founder and principal of Calgary-based Action Circle Consulting Ltd.

"They don't have anybody down the hall to talk to about issues impacting women."

McMahon notes that these lawyers are operating in a culture where only 16 percent of senior seats are filled by women lawyers.

"We know from research that this number is not likely to change unless women can find higher levels of satisfaction in the workplace," adds McMahon.

Conway and his colleagues are also focused on changing the status quo.

"What we're trying to do through our work is to really address the problem with common-sense solutions," says Conway. "We don't expect we're going to solve all the problems with this project. We're going to start addressing them - there's a lot more work that needs to be done.

"There's a huge cultural shift needed in law firms, we hope it (our work) will assist in starting the change that is necessary."

So far, the LSUC working group on the retention of women in private practice has brought forward several recommendations, including the Justicia project.

Other recommendations include:

* The establishment of a three-year benefit leave pilot program benefit for women who are in sole or small practices. This will be launched later this year.

* The development of a five-year pilot project to promote and support practice locums so that women in private legal practice who want to take time off to have children can be matched up with other practitioners who will handle their work during their leave.

* Support for women lawyers through programs such as a leadership and professional development institute.

* Provide access to resources for women in sole practices and small firms through programs such as online resources, practice management and career development advice.

* Work with law schools to provide access to information and education opportunities about the practice of law, the business of law, types of practices and practising in diverse work settings.

* The creation of an advisory group of women lawyers from Aboriginal, francophone and/or equality-seeking communities to assist with the implementation of the recommendations. The LSUC equity and Aboriginal issues committee will help develop networking strategies for these groups.

* After implementation of these initiatives, the LSUC will assess the effectiveness of each program and identify further strategies for the retention and advancement of women in private practice.

Another issue that Conway says needs to be addressed is the question of reintegrating women into the profession.

"Women who left 10, 15 or 20 years ago are now at a stage in their life where they would like to go back and practise law. That set of women are facing another set of challenges," he says.

But, he adds, "(These) are not just the challenges of women, they are really challenges that the entire (legal) profession has to address and resolve."

"We should not tolerate the present state for much longer. In fact, we shouldn't tolerate it at all."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)