Culture From Within

fostering a culture of inclusivity and diversity

We believe that the success of our firm is built on the unique skills, perspectives, experiences, and values of each individual. We are committed to fostering a strong culture of inclusivity and diversity to create an environment that reﬂects both our clients and the communities in which we work and live.

We believe in giving back to our communities and recognize that our combined efforts can have a truly signiﬁcant impact. Our staff and lawyers sit on boards, coach sports teams, spearhead fundraising efforts, mentor youth, and volunteer their time with charitable organizations.

We also believe that we have a responsibility to assist disadvantaged and historically underserved people in securing legal services that could otherwise remain out of reach. Our associates and partners donate their time and expertise to pro bono activities on behalf of a wide spectrum of community organizations and programs.

Our Corporate Culture

Cassels encourages a corporate culture that respects and celebrates the dignity, value, and diversity of all. Our mission is to attract, retain, reward, and promote individuals of exceptional ability and talent from as broad a range of backgrounds as possible and without reference to background, gender, age, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, political belief, or disability.

In turn, we are determined to provide these extraordinary individuals an exceptional, supportive work environment that is free from harassment and violence and that is respectful of others. A diverse environment is a rich environment and an open, inclusive atmosphere beneﬁts everyone who works within it. Fostering such an environment enables us to respond with greater agility to the challenges faced by our clients in a diverse, multicultural world.

Reflecting on Belonging & Bringing People Together

“Prioritizing inclusion creates an environment that allows people to excel. After we founded the original Diversity Committee in 2013, we updated the name to the “Inclusion & Diversity Committee” shortly thereafter. The ordering of those two words was very intentional. We want to create an environment focussed on belonging and bringing people together. Inclusion and diversity must go together. Inclusion, if not done right, could also be exclusion — the idea that you have to ﬁt our culture, as opposed to conveying the message that we are a culture that is expansive and interested in bringing into it other perspectives and backgrounds.”

KRISTIN Taylor
Managing Partner

Diversity Training

Cassels provides diversity training to all members of the ﬁrm on a regular basis. We worked with the Law Society of Ontario’s Equity Advisor to develop tailor-made training that would resonate with our ﬁrm and help our lawyers and staff recognize diversity issues and make respectful choices when interacting with each other, our clients, and the public.

Firm Diversity Census

The most recent Firm Diversity Census was conducted in June 2023 by Global Learning, a leading external service provider in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space. The Firm Diversity Census data is based on the responses of the ﬁrm members who chose to participate in the Census. The overall participation rate for the ﬁrm was 83.2%.

Female
Male
Non-disclosed

2SLGBTQ+
Racialized
Indigenous
Persons with disabilities