Empowering Future Leaders in Law and Business

As a leader in Canadian business law, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP has long made a commitment to embracing diversity in our leadership – it is rooted in our history and is integral to who we are as a firm.

Diversity also influences the research and thought leadership we develop, in particular our annual Diversity Disclosure Practices report which highlights best practices for improving gender diversity among boards, executive teams and the pipeline of future leaders. This frequently referenced publication, now in its ninth year of reporting on this important issue, also highlights top companies achieving gender parity on boards and executive officer roles.

Osler started tracking diversity-related data on the TSX in 2015 when securities regulators amended laws to require public companies listed on the Toronto exchange to disclose gender diversity on boards and in senior leadership positions. The objective is to update the data, presenting an annual snapshot each year of how issuers are making progress. The report also provides a roadmap for companies to help guide them on the journey to building their own talent pipelines and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in their organizations.

Last year, the authors of the report, Andrew MacDougall, partner in the Corporate group, John Valley, Chair of the firm’s ESG practice, and Jessie Armour and Aliza Zigler, associates in the Corporate group, saw that significant progress had been made in the number of women on boards and senior leadership positions since the launch of the first Diversity Disclosure Practices report in 2015.

Women are being added to boards at the fastest rate ever

To achieve parity, new or vacant positions need to be filled by women candidates at least half the time. Canadian companies are getting close — and the rate at which women were added to boards in 2023 was higher than reported in any of our prior reports. Among the 532 board positions which were newly created or vacated, a woman was chosen to fill the position 45.3% of the time. This result reflects a push by companies which had only one woman director to add more women, significantly reducing the number of one-woman boards.

Across all companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, more than one in four directors (29%) on boards is a woman.

This is a significant change from 2015 when women represented, on average, 10% of directors at TSX companies.

Looking at larger issuers, the news was more mixed. While there was some positive movement, there were also numbers that were disappointing.

Women hold 36.2% of all board seats among the S&P/TSX Composite Index companies and 38.2% of all board seats among the S&P/TSX 60 companies.

Unfortunately, there was little change in the percentage of TSX-listed companies with all-male boards. The percentage declined only slightly to 10.6% (67 companies) compared to 11.6% in 2022. Still, it is an improvement compared to the 47.1% of all-male boards reported in 2015. Last year was the first time that none of the S&P/TSX Composite Index companies had single-gender boards, and that is once again the findings in this report.

A deliberate focus on recruiting women directors has been required to get to this stage, the report stated. This focus is reflected in high levels of adoption of board diversity policies and, in recent years, the adoption of targets for women directors.

In total, out of 532 reported board seats that became available, women were nominated to fill 241 seats. Institutional investor pressure to increase diversity has also been a key driver of change. When it came to S&P/TSX 60 companies, however, there was a bit of a regression, as women made up 39.4% of the appointments in 2023 versus 44.7% in 2022.

Other statistics from the 2023 report include:

• 44.6% of TSX-listed companies disclosed that they had adopted a target respecting the representation of women on the board; which was up slightly from the 41.4% that set a target in 2022
• By contrast, only 11.4% of TSX- listed companies have targets for women executive officers, which is virtually unchanged from the 11.9% that reported targets last year
• Among disclosing TSX-listed companies, women held 5.2% of CEO positions (it was 5.3% in 2022) and 6.0% of board chair positions (which was a drop from 7.4% in 2022)

ADVANCING LEADERSHIP AT OSLER

Internally, Osler has its own roadmap to achieving its own equity and diversity goals. The firm is a long-time member of the 30% Club, a campaign developed by a group of business chairpersons and CEOs taking action to increase gender diversity on boards and senior management teams, with the aim of achieving a minimum of 30% female representation on boards and executive leadership teams and the goal of reaching parity.

The firm’s Partnership Board (equivalent to a company’s board of directors) has set the mandate that at least 30% of its members be women and has implemented a guideline that women comprise at least 30% of the partners on our Compensation Committee.

As of the end of 2023, four of the 13 members of the Partnership Board were women, and women held 56% of chief executive positions. As well, 43% of new partners named between 2014 and 2023 were women.

In 2022, we celebrated the career and contributions of Dale Ponder, National Co-Chair, who retired from Osler at the end of 2021. Before becoming Co- Chair, Dale led the firm as our National Managing Partner and Chief Executive from 2009 to 2016. When she assumed the role, Dale was the only woman in the country to serve as chief executive of a major law firm and is still among the very few woman lawyers to have led a business law firm in Canada.

Maureen Killoran, KC, succeeded Dale and joined Shahir Guindi as National Co- Chair, effective January 1, 2022. Maureen, who practises out of Osler’s Calgary and Vancouver offices, was formerly Office Managing Partner in Calgary from 2011 to 2017 and was the first woman to be named Managing Partner of a Calgary law firm. A trusted advisor to clients in Western Canada, Maureen is regarded as one of the nation’s top litigators. “While we are extremely proud of what we have accomplished over the years, we recognize that continued growth and support is a perpetual requirement in our profession to shorten the gap in equality and increased diversity”, says Maureen.

Osler has five Office Managing Partners, two of whom are outstanding women – Sandra Abitan in Montréal and Donna White in Ottawa. Several senior administrative positions (Chief Client Officer, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Chief Legal Talent Officer, Chief, Osler Works – Transactional & Legal Operations, and Chief Human Resources Officer) are also held by women.

ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN LAWYERS INITIATIVE

The advancement of a greater percentage of women into the firm’s partnership is a strategic priority for the firm, with the overall objective of greater gender parity. In support of this goal, the firm has committed significant resources to a multi-faceted Advancement of Women Lawyers (AWL) program since 2020.

This program helps to identify and remove obstacles that hinder inclusion, focusing on implementing targeted and tailored strategies to enable Osler to retain women lawyers, promote women associates to partner, and advance women partners into leadership positions within the firm.

HELPING OUR CLIENTS DEVELOP LEADERSHIP IN THEIR ORGANIZATIONS

As part of supporting gender diversity and equality, Osler also provides opportunities for women founders to amplify their voices and foster connections with each other. Launched in late 2021, Osler’s Women in Emerging and High Growth Companies Leadership series features inspirational women leaders from the Canadian emerging and high growth community sharing their stories of success, challenges encountered along the way, and lessons learned from their careers.

We will continue to strive to provide women at Osler and our broader community of clients and colleagues with the tools and resources they need to be successful and reach new levels of leadership in law and business.