When the South Asian Bar Association held its first year-end gala in 2006, about 65 lawyers showed up. Since then, the annual party has surged in popularity. Next Thursday, more than 400 lawyers are set to attend the 2014 SABA Awards Gala at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel — and Justin Trudeau will deliver the keynote speech.
“We have grown exponentially,” says Ranjan Agarwal, a partner at Bennet Jones LLP and a director at SABA. “We’re going to the Fairmont because we have outgrown most of the hotels downtown.”
According to Agarwal, the explanation for that rapid growth is twofold. First, there are simply more South Asians moving to Canada and graduating from law school. And secondly, he says, big law firms and in-house departments — such as Blakes, McCarthys and Bank of Montreal — have embraced the event and now buy up entire tables.
Agarwal finds such success encouraging: it shows that the profession is at least beginning to treat diversity as a serious issue. “Law firms themselves have realized why diversity is important,” he says. “It creates better teams and ensures that they can recruit the best and the brightest.”
And with racial and gender diversity emerging as a major issue for law firms, SABA has asked Justin Trudeau to weigh in on the subject when he speaks next week.
“Here is someone who wants to become the next Prime Minister of Canada and the polls suggest he’s got a good shot at it,” says Agarwal. “So we’ve asked him to talk about the Liberal party’s view on diversity in the profession, judiciary and the government.”
Tickets to the event are still available online.
Photo of the 2013 SABA Awards Gala by Yvonne Bambrick. Check out our Circuit section for more photos from last year’s event.