Ginny’s List of Law Associations and Legal Networking groups accessible to the GTA

I remember getting Called to the Bar, looking for job positions, and trying to find every possible legal or young professional networking event I could get to and ensure I hadn’t missed joining any associations that were free or low cost to join. Here is my list of associations and resources I’ve used around the GTA to network, get information about upcoming events and CPD:

Toronto Lawyers Association – TLA probably has been my favourite association so far to join. If you’re a law student, articling student, NCA Candidate or LPP Candidate it is free to join. Also if you’re newly called to the Bar, you will also be free for the remainder of the year to join. For practicing lawyers after their initial call year, the membership fee is $127 + HST. I love TLA, as they offer many events and programs for free or low cost to their members. TLA is located at the 361 University courthouse and members can access more services from the courthouse. The librarians are super nice and can tell you more about joining the TLA. Additionally, the courthouse library offers all legal research free, including databases, and librarian help to TLA members. The social events and programs are well planned.

Canadian Bar Association – Ontario (CBA/OBA) – The CBA is a national association linking legal professionals across the country. They provide various opportunities to connect locally within cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, as well as provincially and on a national scale. Membership is costly however for most practising lawyers. As a law student, or NCA candidate in Ontario, you should definitely join the CBA to connect within the profession, as membership is either free or about $20 depending whether you’re enrolled in an Ontario school. They offer many events and continuing professional educational programs as well. This organization has sectors related to practice areas or where you are in your career e.g. young lawyers division. They offer a wealth of knowledge and toolkits in each sector as well as provide great specific programming to each sector.

Women’s Law Association of Ontario – This is a great organization. Last year, 2019, I was lucky enough to have found out about it on their 100^th anniversary where they were offering membership for $20. Regularly membership is $150 if you are within the GTA, $50 if you are an articling student and free if you’re a law student. Find out more details about their membership fees from the WLAO membership site. They also have some lovely social networking events, as well they have opportunities to get involved in equality advocacy.

Criminal Lawyers Association – This is an Association to look into, especially if you’re interested in criminal law. If you plan on practicing criminal law and want to network with your criminal law bar then this is a great association to join. You can network with others in the criminal bar and attend great events. If you’re not practising criminal law then perhaps you may not want a membership but look for some low cost CPD events that interest you. E.g. last year I attended an event in Toronto where members of the bar both from the bench and from various counsels on the panel discussed criminal case law that involved racial issues and how they dealt with it which I found quite interesting and great for EDI CPD credits. There are also events geared for court tips and help to new lawyers practising as well.

Young Women in Law – This is another group that aims to motivate women early in their career paths in law. Like others above, they host events with opportunities to network, except this is geared more to women or those that identify as women who are juniors in their career path. They help provide resources, tools, and tips for young women lawyers for managing their career, financial planning, dealing with gender based harassment and more.

The Advocates Society – This association is geared more towards litigators, with many CPD programs they offer for litigation-based practices. The membership fee however I find is a bit high compared to other associations, similarly to the CBA. They have several great events however to check out to network at as well though, including events where non-members are welcomed to join.

NCA Network – This group is a great resource for internationally trained individuals or those that went to law school outside navigating the NCA process, and for connecting to other internationally trained lawyers. It’s free to join.

I commend this group for all their amazing work especially last year with helping NCA candidates have more opportunities to intern with large law firms in Toronto. Traditionally, many of these firms went to Ontario law schools and conducted “OCIs” (On-campus interviews) to recruit summer students, therefore it made it impossibly difficult for law students that studied abroad to have the same opportunity. NCA candidates that come from abroad now can participate in this OCI recruitment process now too!

Global Lawyers of Canada – GLC is an organization that’s continuing to add province chapters across the country. Another Free to join membership! I was able to attend one event early this year in Toronto for the Ontario chapter that was great for networking with internationally trained lawyers that are practising in Ontario, students at law, LLM students and current NCA candidates. Notably during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, they have been hosting online panel events to attend with various globally trained lawyers in Canada as speakers.

Federation of Ontario Law Associations – This is more of a resource to find out about other associations and their events and for information updates, such as during the coronavirus pandemic, what the courts and law associations are planning to do.

Canadian Association of Black Lawyers – An association that promotes diversity. Another association that hosts many events to network. I attended a great event last year that involved speed mentoring, and networking, and getting to ask more accomplished or senior lawyers questions and career advice.

Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers – Another association that promotes diversity and has networking events as well. Membership is $50.

Flex Legal Network – Although this is  group that helps with finding free lance lawyers to do outsourced tasks, it also has a great blog that regularly lists out networking events across the GTA to find that I’ve used to ensure I knew about as many events as possible before.

Law Society of Ontario – The LSO has a number of great resources for new lawyers in their practice area section of their website. They host some events that are good to attend to meet others as well. They offer a wealth of CPD both live and on-demand however the prices can be a bit steep for those. I would keep an eye out for special deals, however.

Eventbrite.ca – There’s also some events that you can google or just search networking events on Eventbrite or register for on Eventbrite so checking to see what Eventbrite has is sometimes good as well. Some of the large law firms on Bay street have hosted events that I’ve seen you could register through Eventbrite as well. There are also non-legal professional networking events that are advertised through Eventbrite.ca to attend. I’ve found out about some young professional and tech industry networking events on here.

Wolf Law Chambers – Wolf Law Chambers offers various office space options for lawyers, and hosts various social events to get the legal community together.

Toronto Intellectual Property Group – Upon attending a networking event at another organization above, I found out about this group hosting a free social event one night. Regularly they have paid events to discuss substantive law such as dinners going over case law. If you’re interested in the tech or intellectual property space, this is a good group to network with.

Osgoode Professional Development – Sometimes Osgoode Professional development will offer free CPD events, although most tend to be paid for education in certain areas.

E-State Planner CPD – If you’re interested in estate law, this is where you get a lot of great substantive content online for free! E-state Planner provides weekly 1 hour live CPD webinars on various practical estate law topics. There was a point where I tuned in regularly and at that time, I believe it was Tuesdays for tutorial webinars on using their product, and Thursday for substantive estate law topics around lunch time. They now have a developed on-demand library of FREE CPD accredited webinars you can stream too!

Various other regional law associations such as York Region Law Association, Peel Law Association, Durham Region Law Association, Halton County Law Association are great places to find more information about networking events, job posts and CPD programs hosted in their areas. Often these associations are in courthouses, which I would encourage you to attend. Most courthouses will have a bulletin board located in their lounge with events they’re advertising.

Also see if there are alumni events from the schools you attended nearby. I’m fortunate that I get to meet up with alumni from my law school in Toronto from time to time. Stay in touch with friends and colleagues who you’ve helped or have helped you along the way.

Some law firms like Aird and Berlis offer CPD events as well to check out. I would check out some other Bay street firm websites as they may have news on upcoming events to check out as well. Don’t forget to take advantage of free research CPD webinars offered by LexisNexis, and Westlaw Next Canada and insurance companies like Stewart Title to cover your CPD hours for free. Some LawPro CPD professionalism webinars when they appear offer a slight credit for your professional insurance next year too.

Professional Networking groups – non-legal specific:

It is also good to network with professional groups that will cater to people in different industries. You may find legal professionals there, potential business or agency employers hiring lawyers or you might find potential clients and make new professional friends whom you can help and vice-versa. I have tried to find a number of great young professional networking groups and here is my list of recommended associations to check out in the GTA:

HipHaus – This is a group that regularly hosts events for professionals to network at, particularly young professionals. I went to a few in 2019, where it was a large room jam packed with a ton of people. It really is a place just to go in and say hi to new people and exchange business cards. They often have a paid bar you can buy refreshments from. This is where you can meet a variety of people in different industries. There’s no shyness in terms of wanting to introduce your services here. You will meet people who are new to Canada, people who are wanting to pitch their current business, and people who just want to broaden their network.

Toronto Professional Women’s Meetup – I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few of the in-person networking mingling events in Toronto, usually hosted at the Pravda Bar on Front Street in Toronto. This group founded by Christine Fernandes hosts meetups and mingling in-person events in Toronto, as well as virtual meetups in the GTA. You will be able to meet a number of entrepreneurs and other working women in the Toronto and GTA areas. This group is particularly catered for working women to meet other working or entrepreneurial women.

The Girl’s Girls Club l Toronto Girls Events – *Note for Women only* organization. This is their eventbrite page, however I would also check out the Girl’s Girls Club Instagram account for details on events in the GTA. This is a great group for ladies supporting ladies. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, support in your career journey or business or events to go to meet other women in the area, this is the group.

There are other associations around, however this is my list of associations where I’ve attended events at or found useful resources from as a young lawyer. I don’t speak for any of these associations and can’t possibly tell you all the details about them, so I would encourage you to click on the links above to just check out their websites to find out more. I hope this list helps people though that are lost and can give a better starting point then web searching for various associations and wondering if they exist in the GTA which is what I ended up doing before.

If you’re looking for mentors you should definitely network as much as you can, as you don’t know who you might meet, as well as think about the circle you have access to already from. Check out How do you find a mentor early on in your legal career? post