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Celebrating Diversity in our Local Communities

Bereskin & Parr Award for Diversity Initiative of the Year at the Canadian Law Awards. In October 2020, our firm was the sponsor of the Bereskin & Parr Award for Diversity Initiative of the Year at the Canadian Law Awards, and we are thrilled to announce we have renewed our award sponsorship for 2021. On August 17, 2021, Scott MacKendrick moderated a webinar panel entitled: "Authentically Driving Change through Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives" featuring nominees of the Bereskin & Parr Award for Diversity Initiative of the Year. Law Times published an article on the webinar “Canadian Law Awards Panel discusses driving change through Diversity and Inclusion initiatives”.

Sponsoring Canadian Lawyer InHouse (CLIN) Diversity & Inclusion Webinar. Building on the valued D&I accolade Bereskin & Parr received from Chambers in 2020, we aim to stay at the forefront of this evolving initiative. Bereskin & Parr is proud to sponsor the Canadian Lawyer InHouse (CLIN) Diversity & Inclusion Webinar, which took place on October 6, 2021. The goal is to focus on organizations' D&I-related expectations from professional services and the impact of their expectations on law firms' D&I policies, practices, staffing, client relationships, hiring practices, etc. We aim to involve senior members of corporate U.S. and Canada as panelists.

The Bereskin & Parr Diversity Award. We are proud to be sponsoring a new award at the Canadian General Counsel Awards event which took place in June 2021. The Bereskin & Parr Diversity Award will recognize a law department that has demonstrated an innovative approach to encourage and promote diverse and inclusive workspaces, either within their company/organization or more broadly across their industry.

Women Entrepreneurship Initiatives. Bereskin & Parr supports various Entrepreneurship initiatives for women including the following sponsorships:

  • Accelerator for Women in Entrepreneurship (AWE), an Innovation Factory initiative. AWE supports success for women entrepreneurs through inclusive, educational programming and focused engagement that accelerates results for female founded and cofounded companies.
  • Beyond Boundaries and HerHalton, both Haltech initiatives. Beyond Boundaries is an accelerator program in Halton Region aimed to advance women’s economic empowerment. HerHalton is a peer-to-peer community for women who live and/or work in the Halton Region, where members support and empower one another through respectful and honest discussions, collaboration and networking opportunities.
  • ChIPs Toronto Chapter, a nonprofit organization founded in Silicon Valley in 2005 (now over 3,700 global members) to advance and connect women in technology, law and policy. Isi Caulder worked on the Leadership Team responsible for launching the Toronto Chapter (the first in Canada) in 2021.
  • ELLA Accelerator for Women Entrepreneurs, a York University initiative. ELLA is the Entrepreneurial Leadership & Learning Alliance, whose mission is to reduce the gap of gender inequality in entrepreneurship. Bereskin & Parr is a Gold Sponsor.
  • Tech Undivided, a ventureLab initiative. Tech Undivided bridges gender and diversity gaps in the tech sector to support women in tech: female founders, women working in technical roles, and women leaders in tech companies.
  • Women In Bio (WIB) Greater Montreal Chapter, an organization whose mission is to promote diversity and inclusion for women in the life sciences and beyond. The Greater Montreal Chapter was launched in 2012 by co-chair and Bereskin & Parr Partner Carmela De Luca. Bereskin & Parr has been hosting and sponsoring the Chapter and events since its inception.

Every year, we host or support events to celebrate diversity and inclusion in our local communities such as the annual Let’s Bond Urban Ball event in Montreal, an event raising awareness on mental health issues affecting young people, and to raise funds for research. Bereskin & Parr also conducts annual Pride events with the law firms Wildeboer Dellelce and Hicks Morley, and the 2020 event featured speakers from The 519, a Toronto agency committed to the health, happiness and full participation of the LGBTQ2S+ communities.