been disclosed, Portia would not have had the right of audience.

Today there are no such obvious barriers to women participating in the legal profession yet the inspiration of the Portia character is unfulfilled.

Women began to enter law schools in significant numbers in the 1970's and by the 1990's had achieved parity with men in terms of entry to the profession. One would therefore expect that in most areas of practice you would have gender parity in the middle years of practice. That is not proving to be the case.

Data collected by the Law Society of Upper Canada shows that over the last 10 years, women have been leaving private practice two to three times more often than men. Women are disproportionately represented in government and in house positions. Men and women are leaving the profession in disturbing numbers before retirement age. There have been some excellent studies done on this phenomenon and they all tend to point to the issue of work/life balance.

Most would agree that women don't face the overt discrimination they faced in Shakespeare's time or

to a much lesser extent even a generation ago; but the business aspect of the practice of law presents a significant challenge to the profession with half of us becoming the primary or significant caregivers of children.

This is not a regulatory issue per se but it is perhaps a call to examine the culture of our profession. There is a need for flexibility in our business and compensation structures. One size does not fit all and those firms that are able to show leadership in accommodating different work/life balance needs will better attract and keep legal talent.

Where private practitioners are the source of legal services for ordinary Canadians we cannot fail to respond in a time when “access to justice” is the touchstone of the responsibilities of the legal profession.