Treasurer candidate Phil Horgan states: “I am concerned when the allegations of systemic racism are casually asserted...For example, our licensees, especially recent entrants, reflect or exceed the rates of visible minorities from current census data.” ( https://www.lawtimesnews.com/resources/professional-regulation/law-society-of-ontario-treasurer-election-question-and-answer-philip-horgan/330621)">https://www.lawtimesnews.com/resources...

Phil Horgan, with all due respect, your statement is incorrect based on the LSO’s most recent data from the 2017 annual report: ( http://annualreport.lso.ca/2017/common/documents/Snapshot-Lawyers18_ENG-final.pdf)">https://annualreport.lso.ca/2017/comm...

And that doesn’t take into account where BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Persons Of Colour) licensees are practicing (*hint: underrepresented in law firm partnership and overrepresented in solo practice). There is some "systemic" reason for this trend.

This chart illustrates, for example that 24% of Indigenous layers are in solo practice with 8% of Indigenous lawyers being law firm partners. Consider these numbers when compared to white lawyers, where 19% of white lawyers are in solo practice and 18% are law firm partners.