University Of Toronto, Faculty of Law - Internationally Trained Lawyers Program (ITLP)

(Editor: this is a guest blog entry)

The University of Toronto, Faculty of Law started up the Internationally Trained Lawyers Program (ITLP) in 2010 to assist international lawyers who have immigrated to Canada and wish to enter the profession here. This year, there are opportunities for lawyers to potentially mentor a student, as an intern, from January to March 2012.

The ITLP includes an 8 month classroom component and a 3 month work placement component. ITLP students are in class from May until December preparing for National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) exams which they write in August and December. From early January until the end of March ITLP students will work in ITLP Internships: unpaid work placements in a law office under the supervision of a lawyer in the office/organization. The LSUC has determined that ITLP interns have a status equivalent to a summer law student so our interns are able to do the same legal work that a summer student is authorized to undertake.

So if you think you or a colleague/contact of yours might be interested in taking on an ITLP student as an unpaid intern for 3 months in early 2012 please read the Newsletter for ITLP Hosts June 2011 Newsletter for more information or please send an email to jane.price@utoronto.ca.

Chinese Summer Festival set for Albert Campbell Square

The Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC) will be hosting its eighth annual Summer Festival on Saturday, June 25, 2011, at Albert Campbell Square in Scarborough, as reported by insidetoronto.com

It is free and open to all members of the public.

The festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. and will feature activities such as art performances, sports, carnival games, food tasting, face painting and a lucky draw.  CPAC is expecting more than 5,000 people to attend.

This year, CPAC will receive a $4,000 Celebrate Canada grant from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage to fund the carnival.  CPAC has also invited politicians from across the GTA, including Mayor Rob Ford and Scarborough-Agincourt MP Jim Karygiannis.

The festival's theme this year is We Are Canadians and has been tweaked to include other ethnic groups too.  The food-tasting contest has been changed to feature a variety of dishes, and Russian and Korean dancers will perform. 

Local businesses are hoping to use the Summer Festival as a chance to reach out to new immigrants and get their name out in the Toronto community.

"If we take part in this festival, we can get newcomers to get involved with us, "said Ken Li, vice president of the Hebei Association of Canada, a non-profit cultural organization located in North York.  "[The festival] helps to get people to understand each other."

Diversity Survey by NAPABA

[Editor: this is a guest blog]

From NAPABA (National Asian Pacific American Bar Association)

We need your help to recruit attorneys to take our survey evaluation the advancement of Asian Pacific Americans in large law firms!

In particular, we need European American / Caucasian law firm attorneys (partners and associates) to complete the survey.

The NAPABA-NLF Diversity Task Force survey entitled "Experiences in Advancing in Large Law Firm" was released last year to the managing partners of the top 200 Am Lam Firms in the United States.

We encouraged these law firms to participate in the hope of gaining insights from personal experiences of partners and associates/other attorneys to identify patterns and trends of success as well as potential obstacles to career advancement.

The survey was prompted by studies from major bar associations that revealed that Asian Pacific Americans have the lowest or among the lowest conversion rates from associate to partner compared with other ethnic groups.

To access the survey, click here (for partners) or here (for associates/counsel/staff attorneys).

For information about how to participate in this study, contact NAPABA Staff Assistant Melanie Robinson at Mrobinson@napaba.org.