There is much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands about women leaving the law profession in droves. But there are still lots who continue in private practice and follow the path to partnership and other successes. There is one thing that most young female lawyers think about — and it is integral in many cases as to whether they will stay or exit the profession: when is the best time to have a baby?

Sometimes these things just happen, but as with many steps along the way in one’s legal career, it can (and probably should) be planned.

A recent panel of women partners on Bay Street, sponsored by Young Women in Law and the Ontario Bar Association, offered a very candid discussion of “Women on the road to partnership.” While most of their advice and experiences would translate to any lawyer on the partnership path, the discussion about children and family seemed to really strike a chord.

The panellists all seemed to agree the best time to take maternity leave was during your years as a senior associate. So if you’re making plans, year five of practice seems to be the sweet spot. Here’s why:

As a young associate, you are doing work for senior associates and partners and don’t have much control over what you are responsible for. This also means you can’t really delegate. And it’s at this time in your career when you are building relationships, finding your way in your legal career, and trying to make a name for yourself (i.e., impress senior members of the firm). It’s long hours and pedal to the metal time.

As a partner, responsibilities change and are more complicated. While you may not be able to delegate work when you are a junior associate, when you are partner you can but other responsibilities of partnership make it much more difficult to duck out of practice for any length of time.

At the senior associate level, you’ve graduated to being able to download some of your work but are still not in the position of responsibility that you’ll find yourself in as a partner. Thus, sweet spot!

All the panellists said they’d had children both as associates and partners and found it difficult to take off more than a few months for parental leave once they were partners.

There was one other piece of advice they shared, in the context of keeping your eye on the partner prize: when you are ramping down for your planned maternity leave, keep your foot on the gas. While you may not be getting new files, offer your services in other ways such as helping to write papers or do some quick and fast assignments.

So if nothing else when planning your career, I think some great tidbits to ruminate over regarding one of life’s bigger decisions.

I’m going to put this out there as a universal truth in the legal profession: at one point, everyone’s been on the other side of the table to another lawyer who’s not been civil. Perhaps it’s been in the courtroom, perhaps just in the hallway, or maybe it was in a letter or a series of letters, or it’s just been during a short phone call. And it seems it doesn’t matter what area of law you practice — civil litigation, corporate-commercial, real estate, family, criminal, immigration law, etc. — there’s always a bad egg out there somewhere. And it’s such a scourge on the profession that law societies, bar associations, and legal academics have tried to tackle the “problem.” But the “problem” really is that rudeness can’t be cured or legislated. “You can’t change an a-hole,” one distinguished member of the bar recently noted at a panel I attended on civility.

While lodging a complaint with the law society against such individuals is an option, the best way to deal with it, according to the above noted panel, is to be the better person. “Don’t be civil because it’s the honourable thing to do, but because it’s strategic.” Too true. The best course is not to engage in a back and forth, be reasonable, be prepared for objections that may come up, and don’t lose your cool.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Susan Healey, who presides in Barrie, Ont., noted that as a judge she sees a tremendous number of lawyers going through the courts, and offered up some invaluable tips on combating incivility and making yourself look good in the process. I will share them because they were good, especially the first one.

• If you’re in court with an a-hole, don’t point it out to the judge. The judge can

pretty much see it for herself.

• Behave well. The more professionalism and integrity you show, the greater

the contrast with the other lawyer.

• Surprise attacks are a bad idea.

• Don’t be dragged down by the combative attitude of the other side.

• Don’t interrupt the judge.

• Don’t talk among yourselves and disregard the judge, you know, who is running

the courtroom.

While her tips above apply to litigators, here are some words of wisdom from Healey that every lawyer should live by: “Arrogance and swagger are not a show

of competence.”

So, as the famous sportswear manufacturer says, “just do it.” Behave well and stay above the fray and both you and your client (not to mention the profession) will benefit.

A few years ago, one of the biggest issues law firms were dealing with was associate retention. Well, you won’t hear anyone talking about that anymore. Now, the topic on everyone’s lips is articling. There have been rumblings about it for years; in 2008 the Law Society of Upper Canada looked at the future of articling, reports were written, nothing much happened. The status quo continues to this day. However, in December the LSUC put out a 134-page consultation report again looking at the future of articling.

It offers up five ways to deal with the current crisis: maintaining the status quo; the status quo with quality assurance improvements; the replacement of a pre-licensing transition requirement with a post-licensing transition requirement; a choice of either articling or a practical legal training course; or only a practical legal training course.

The law society is in the midst of consultations with the profession on which option is the best to move forward (you have until March 15 to submit your thoughts to the LSUC or attend one of the consultation meetings). From attending a recent consultation, one would get the impression the society already has made up its mind on what’s best: the combo of articling and a practical legal training course. While on first glance that may seem like a good idea, I think in the long run, it probably won’t be.

Firstly, it will mean that in terms of bureaucracy, the LSUC will have to run two systems to monitor both streams. I think we can all agree that is not what the LSUC needs. Secondly, how will there be equality between a training course and articling? And even if that gets worked out, will a young lawyer who has taken the course instead of articling be treated the same by prospective employers? Will there be inherent biases creating roadblocks to success for lawyers who take the course? All I can foresee is problems and inequity in that approach. It apparently works in parts of Australia, but I say choose one or the other.

The reality is that there are articling position shortages, not just in Ontario but in other provinces as well. Although from what I hear, Saskatchewan firms are thriving and looking for articling students. It would seem that the option of maintaining articles as they are or with some extra checks and balances wouldn’t work. The idea of a course, likely costing prospective lawyers more money on top of their law school and other student loan debt, may work. But what you don’t see is the U.S.-style option of letting students write bar exams and then go out into the world as licensed lawyers to either find employment or start their own firms.

Personally, I think there is great value in articling but the system is broken. We’ll see in a few months, how the LSUC thinks it’s going to fix it. This is undoubtedly a turning point in the future of the profession.

With this January 2012 issue of Canadian Lawyer, we kick off our 36th year of covering the issues and trends that matter to the legal profession in Canada. And we have seen a lot of changes, particularly in the last few years. One of the biggest shifts has been the arrival of global law practices on our shores. This month, Macleod Dixon LLP will be folded into the Norton Rose Group, which rocked the Canadian legal establishment last year when it merged with Ogilvy Renault LLP. The face of law practice is changing here and so this year, we have launched a new series on canadianlawyermag.com called the Managing Partner Forum, in which law firm leaders from across the country and all types of firms will discuss the hurdles, successes, and other travails of making it work in today’s market. We launch the series this month with a column from John Coleman, who helmed Ogilvy Renault through its initial merger as well as the marriage with Macleod Dixon to form the new Norton Rose Canada. I look forward to the columns creating some interesting discussions in the profession.

As well, we’ve got a host of new online columnists coming on board for 2012 at canadianlawyermag.com. We welcome Kirk Baert, who will be penning a monthly missive on the state of class action litigation — and not wanting to have it too plaintiff-side heavy, he will be bringing on some guest columnists from the defence side. And one of the things I’ve heard most in my travels is that newly minted lawyers feel a lot less sure of themselves and their futures than they once did and there’s not a lot of information out there to help them along in their careers. So we are launching two new online columns specifically aimed at young lawyers. One is The Accidental Mentor, in which Ontario Bar Association past president Lee Akazaki does his best Dear Abby impression and answers queries of all types from junior associates looking for some guidance. And from the trenches, we have first-year associate Lindsay Scott, who will be sharing the hard lessons she’s learned on the job.

I am also happy to be starting 2012 with our latest Top 10 lists of legal boutiques. Labour and employment and intellectual property boutiques are some of the most prominent in the legal field and it’s always a good competition. Check out this year’s list starting on page 33. As always, I look forward to hearing reader feedback on anything we are doing and anything you think we should be doing. Have a great year.