We could have made this post about collaboration, teamwork, generousity, joint effort, and/or the impact of volunteering in Canada, but I prefer that the example speaks for itself.It’s been two years. Two years of ‘boring’ conference calls and ‘tedious’ emails. Let me tell you, it was totally worth it!This past Wednesday, March 11, 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, I personally felt empowered, engaged and included at the ITLNCA NetworkS Career Expo 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. And this was because of you!You, volunteers, Canadian Hispanic Bar Association (CHBA), Arab Canadian Lawyers Associations (ACLA), Hellenic Canadian Lawyers Association (HCLA), South Asian Bar Association (SABA), Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) and Canadian Association of Black Lawyers (CABL).You, volunteers, Toronto Region Immigrants Employment Council (TRIEC), Osgoode Professional Development (OsgoodePD), NCA Network (NCAN), RobertHalfLegal and the Ontario Bar Association (OBA).You, volunteers, for resumes and cover letters, Michael, Meghan, Iva and Brianna; for online presence, Raj and Andrea; boutique firms Jones & Co.’s Yixian and Lewis & associates’ Alex; full-service firms Gowlings’ Shemara and Marco, McCarthy Tétrault’s Oksana and Bruna, Bennett Jones’ Jessie, Dentons’ Deepshika and McMillan’s Chiedza; NCAN’s Stacy; for recruitment, RobertHalfLegal’s Sadia and his team; for transitioning training, Law Practice Program’s Gina; for law chambers, Dezso and Isabel; and for the event space, drinks and food - and hand sanitizers, OBA (and their amazing staff!) and the CHBA.Last but not least, you volunteers, the Steering Committee who generously dedicated hundreds of hours to organize these events and gathered all these wonderful people and organizations together, OsgoodePD’s Michael, RobertHalf’s Julia, ACLA’s Dania, SABA’s Richa and Jasmine, FACL’s Melissa and Timothy, HCLA’s Yonida and Athan, NCAN’s Samantha, CABL’s Thelson, TRIEC’s Sathya, OBA’s Erinn and CHBA’s Antonio (me) and Priscila.The ITLNCA NetworkS Career Expo 2020 was the fourth and last event of the ITLNCA NetworkS Association’s first cycle.Prior to the Expo, ITLs and NCAs were able to attend three well-thought-out events organized by the Steering Committee: (i) Skills Alignment, (ii) Surviving the NCA at Osgoode’s ITL Day 2019 (inspired by the event “Surviving the NCA Process: Tips for a Growing Breed of Global Minded Lawyers” organized by Saba’s Richa, back in 2018), and (iii) the webinar ITLs Navigating Money & Regulations available in three short videos, here https://itln.ca/videosOn behalf of ITLs and NCAs out there, I want to conclude this post with my pinned tweet: “People choose to volunteer their time to help improve their communities or opine in social media. There is no right or wrong answer to this, just everlasting meaningful impact. THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS for your generous time!”Feel free to email info@itln.ca if you have comments or feedback about these events.
