Blakes Mindset encourages respect and caring

Early in 2021, a colleague sent Mary Jackson, chief officer, professional resources at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes), a slide deck about the Mindful Business Charter, an initiative emerging from law firms in the United Kingdom.

It was the height of the pandemic and Jackson and her colleagues recognized that many at Blakes were feeling a lot of stress from work and life. The charter proposed a set of principles and common sense practices aimed at minimizing stress in the workplace by enhancing collaboration among coworkers.

In a desire to make Blakes an even better place to work, the firm became the first Canadian-based law firm to sign the Mindful Business Charter and went on to develop its own iteration, called Blakes Mindset. In addition to being discussed in practice groups and on business services teams, Blakes Mindset is included in the onboarding process for all new hires.

“It’s important to us that we reduce unnecessary stress in the workplace,” Jackson says. “How we work together plays a big role in our stress levels and our ability to excel. As a firm, we know that a strong culture of collaboration is essential to our individual well-being and the work we do for our clients.”

Blakes Mindset encourages better communication and respect for each other’s time, both at and away from work. It might make someone think twice about sending a non-urgent email to their team over the weekend, or about raising an issue in a group chat that might be better discussed in person.

“It’s always going to be a work in progress,” says Jackson. But it’s struck a chord at a firm that takes pride in its culture of caring for each other. “We deeply care about our people and the culture of the firm – that’s what sets us apart,” she says.

Blakes is constantly building upon that culture. In 2024, for example, it adopted a parental and adoption leave pay policy for all employees that tops up EI benefits to 100 per cent of their salary for up to six months. Among the first beneficiaries of the new top-up program was Gaby Vintimilla, who gave birth to her first child this summer.

“It made it easy for me to take a full year off,” says Vintimilla, a client relations and events specialist who’d started at the firm a year earlier. “The first thing when a baby comes is there are all these new expenses. This top-up program gave me peace of mind.”

Blakes also prides itself on having talked about mental health and wellness long before it became a corporate commonplace. The firm covers up to $5,000 a year in mental health reimbursements for therapy and treatment with a practitioner of one’s choice; this is in addition to a wellness subsidy for fitness memberships, classes and equipment. The firm also offers free online and in-office seminars on topics ranging from coping with anxiety to assistance with elder care.

In addition to formal training, Blakes hosts many events for new employees to help them meet other members of different business services departments. Each new employee is assigned an ambassador to help familiarize them with the workplace.

Vintimilla says she felt comfortable coming to work while eight months pregnant in a way she couldn’t have imagined previously. Part of the reason she felt so supported was the hybrid work arrangement currently in place. “The firm has always treated me fairly and respected my personal situation,” she says.

“It elevates my commitment to the firm. They have my back, so I have theirs.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top 100 Employers winners, published November 15, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Blakes puts in the work to help its community and people thrive

For the past 16 years, Sandra Bouchard has worked as the administrative assistant for the IT department at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes). But she’s better known around the national law firm’s Toronto headquarters for working on a consistently successful United Way campaign. Blakes has become a fixture in the United Way’s Thanks a Million club, representing organizations that raise $1 million or more in any one year for the charity.

“This will be the 15th year we raise more than $1 million for the United Way. And you notice I said we will, because we haven’t raised it yet, but I have full confidence we will,” Bouchard said shortly before the campaign began. “It’s a personal goal as well as a firm goal.”

Every January, Bouchard starts planning the events that contribute to the campaign, booking venues, appointing team leads, coordinating the 50-odd volunteers – Blakes encourages employees to volunteer on company time – right up to helping pack more than 1,400 candy bags that seem to sell out during the week of the campaign every October. This year, there was a canine theme, with plush puppies in little Blakes T-shirts for sale as well as drop-in visits with trained therapy dogs.

“Blakes has such a giving spirit,” Bouchard attests. And she’s seen first-hand where that generosity goes. United Way has previously invited her to visit a shelter for homeless men over 50.

“These people are relying on the shelter for medical and dental care, winter boots and coats – everything,” Bouchard recalls.

“We’re in an incredibly privileged position, and we know that, and that is why it is important that we give back to the community,” says Kate McGilvray, a partner in the Blakes corporate & commercial group who oversees several of the firm’s community programs. Its biggest contribution comes through its pro bono work. Blakes associates are encouraged to contribute up to 150 hours a year to pro bono organizations that in 2024 included everything from a program to help trans youth obtain accurate legal identification to Justice for Children and Youth, which, along with Blakes lawyers, helped three siblings to stay in Canada when they faced possible deportation.

Blakes has long given corporate, litigation and employment support on a pro bono basis to Ronald McDonald House, as well as Right to Play International and Habitat for Humanity. Altogether, associates contributed 13,142 hours to pro bono clients in 2023. That doesn’t include the hours also donated by partners.

Even articling students get into the act, putting on skits and contests at the firm’s holiday party to raise money for the Daily Bread Food Bank – raising more than $100,000 in 2023.

The reasoning behind Blakes’ philanthropic outreach is twofold, McGilvray says.

“It’s important to instil the importance of giving back throughout the firm,” she explains. But also, the events and pro bono work are often creative and fun, building camaraderie and helping employees get in touch with the issues underlying the communities they serve.

And the efforts of every member of the firm add up, says Bouchard: “Fourteen million dollars raised over 14 years – that’s a lot of money to help people in need.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Greater Toronto’s Top Employers winners, published December 3, 2024 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Blakes gives new hires reasons to want to stay

As a bachelor of arts student at the University of Waterloo, Rhea Fegradoe had the opportunity to take five four-month co-op placements with various employers. Leading into the second of the five, she applied to the national law firm Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

“I was excited to get the opportunity to work at Blakes,” she says. She was majoring in psychology with a minor in legal studies, it was the height of the pandemic, and she was limited due to travel restrictions. She interviewed for the position remotely and, to her surprise, got offered a co-op position with the firm’s Toronto office.

Fegradoe ended up working all of her four remaining co-op terms with Blakes, with each one offering more exposure and responsibilities in a variety of tasks, before graduating and getting hired permanently as a legal assistant supporting a senior partner in the corporate and commercial group. She came to realize that more than half the firm’s workforce was employed in non-legal functions such as administration, client relations and marketing, human resources, finance, research and information technology.

“It’s not just for people interested in becoming a lawyer,” she says. “There are opportunities in a wide range of fields and career paths at the firm.”

Blakes’ co-op program, one of the largest among Canadian law firms with an average of 50 students participating in the program across the firm’s Canadian offices, is specifically geared to nurture talent for the firm’s business services side, explains senior recruitment manager Tiziana Panza.

“We provide students with meaningful, hands-on work experience,” she says. And, as in Fegradoe’s case, it often leads to more. “Our co-op program has been successful at placing several students, after they have graduated, in fields related to their studies.”

Blakes offers students valuable career experiences through a variety of internship opportunities as well. Across all its Canadian offices, Blakes offers an average of 15 paid internships annually in fields such as accounting, graphic design, human resources, research and information technology, helping students gain practical experience and explore potential career paths.

Whether co-op students, interns or permanent hires, all new employees go through formal orientation. In addition to being assigned a mentor, they also have access to a Blakes Ambassador – “a trusted person who knows the culture and infrastructure of the firm that new hires can consult with at any time,” Panza says. “Starting a new job is exciting but also stressful. The Blakes Ambassador program in the Toronto office eases the process for new hires, so they have a sense of belonging from the start.”

There are other reasons why Blakes appeals to young employees. Training is offered on-site and online – on company time – for a variety of topics such as communication skills, client service and technical skills. Blakes also provides young employees with opportunities to meet many people within the organization. In Toronto, Blakes hosts a New Hire Social every quarter to help new recruits form bonds with their ambassadors and peers in other business services departments.

“Our benefits start on day one,” Panza adds. That includes access to mental health services and a wellness subsidy. Eligibility for longer-term benefits, including maternity and parental leave topup benefits, starts after a year.

From the day new hires walk in the door, “we like to treat them as a welcome addition to the team and to the firm,” Panza says. “Our mentors provide coaching, meaningful work and feedback. To help them learn and develop and want to stay, it takes time and commitment. It takes effort.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada's Top Employers for Young People winners, published January 21, 2025 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.

Blakes recognizes inclusion as key to its success

When Brendan MacArthur-Stevens moved back to his hometown of Calgary with his husband in 2015 and joined Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP as a litigator, he was a little apprehensive. He’d spent two summers as a law student working in Blakes’ Toronto office and was inspired by the fact that an openly gay man, Brad Berg, led the firm’s litigation group. But he still had bad memories from high school and worried about how his co-workers would take to his identity.

“What I found was the office here was just so ready to engage further on these issues,” MacArthur-Stevens says. Within a year of his arrival, a group of articling students showed up at his door to ask why the firm didn’t participate in the Calgary Pride Festival. “We took it right to our managing partner in Calgary and we did not meet any headwinds,” he recalls.

Not only did 50 Blakes firm members march in the Pride Parade that year but the firm also became an event sponsor. In 2019, the firm partnered with the University of Calgary to establish Alberta’s first free legal clinic for the rights of trans and gender-diverse people. When MacArthur-Stevens asked his colleagues to volunteer for the clinic, 27 litigators offered to assist.

The firm was likewise supportive of his pro bono work fighting a constitutional challenge involving a law aimed at creating safe spaces for gender-diverse students in schools. Blakes credits associates with up to 150 billable hours per year for pro bono work that counts towards their bonus thresholds, he notes.

“That’s huge,” says MacArthur-Stevens, who became a partner in 2023. “If you don’t put your money where your mouth is, it’s hard to empower people to do this work effectively.” As in any workplace, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a work in progress, says Kyle Elliott, the firm’s counsel, diversity and inclusion. But Blakes has always had great building blocks, including a “community of champions” who have been working for greater inclusivity.

“The firm has long recognized EDI as something that is key to our success,” Elliott says. “There’s this understanding that we want to be leaders in the community.” By prioritizing diversity, the firm not only draws talent from a larger pool but also attracts clients seeking to better represent the communities they serve.

One way the firm makes firm members feel welcome is with affinity groups: Women@Blakes, Pride@Blakes, Black@Blakes, SouthAsian@Blakes and EastAsian@Blakes. The volunteer-led groups offer members an additional community within their workplace, Elliott says, but also “allow us to have so many different conversations at the firm that we otherwise wouldn’t have.” The firm is looking forward to the launch of new affinity groups in 2025.

On top of mandatory EDI training in its onboarding, Blakes offers a program called DiversiTea, where lawyers and students interested in EDI meet and discuss such issues as how to be an effective ally and what it takes to succeed in the profession.

“I did not think I was going to be in Big Law for very long,” MacArthur-Stevens remembers from his early days. “I thought I would cut my teeth at a great firm like Blakes, then maybe I would go teach, or go work in government, or go work in a smaller litigation boutique setting.

“But in large part because of how the firm approaches EDI and empowers me and my colleagues to do important work in the community, I’m here and I love it, and I hope that I will spend my entire career here.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Canada’s Best Diversity Employers winners, published February 25, 2025 in The Globe and Mail. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.