Canadian Law Awards announce Female Trailblazer Excellence Awardees
The Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Ryerson University's Dean Donna Young has been recognized as a 2021 Female Trailblazer Excellence Awardee by the Canadian Law Awards. As the founding dean of Ryerson Law, Donna is leading the law school’s vision of reimagining legal education to create a new kind of lawyer, enhance diversity in the legal profession, and improve access to justice.
As only the second woman of colour to be appointed as dean of a Canadian law school, Donna is acutely aware of the role she plays in championing gender equality and diverse representation. She actively advocates for the legal profession to integrate perspectives and experiences shaped by gender identity as well as race, Indigenous culture and identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, and class. She understands that when the legal profession shuts its doors to entire segments of the population, it no longer exists to serve the public interest.
“Women as a group bring a different and much-needed perspective to the classroom, the boardroom and the courtroom. But women are defined not just by gender. Our contributions reflect our unique and shared approaches to the study and practice of law and ultimately bring credibility and honour to the profession. That’s a significant and lasting contribution to the common good.” - Dean Young
Before assuming her deanship, Donna was the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School and joint faculty member at the University at Albany Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She has been a Fellow at Cornell Law School's Gender, Sexuality, and Family Project and a Visiting Scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School's Institute of Feminist Legal Studies. She has been active in the pursuit of gender equality since her undergraduate days, through law school where she co-founded an intersectional women’s organization, in her field work on women’s rights in Uganda, and during her long career as a law professor. Her scholarship has focused on law and inequality and race and gender discrimination in employment.
Among her many accolades, Donna was named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence™ in 2021 for her contributions and influence in driving change in the community. In 2020, Donna was both the recipient of the Kate Stoneman Award - which honours individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to seeking change and expanding opportunities for women within the legal profession - and recognized in Toronto Life Magazine's Most Influential List.
The annual Canadian Law Awards' Female Trailblazer award is open to all Canada-based women lawyers. Each year, hundreds of nominations are received from firms and in-house legal departments across the country. The Canadian Law Awards research team then reviews all nominations and supplements them with its own knowledge and information from third-party sources in order to determine the Excellence Awardees. The second phase of the research process involves forwarding the Excellence Awardees to a large and diverse panel of esteemed individuals from in and around the Canadian legal profession for scoring against strict criteria. The research team then aggregates judges’ scores to produce a “Gold Winner,” a process that independent auditors from PwC verify.
Gold Winners will be announced during the virtual Canadian Law Awards (external link) event on May 20, 2021. For the complete list of Female Trailblazer finalists, please read the full article (external link) in Canadian Lawyer.