Canada's Best Diversity Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 20
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CANADA’S BEST DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS (2025)
Blakes recognizes inclusion as key to its success
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.
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.”
Blakes offers a number of volunteer-led affinity groups to ensure all firm members feel welcome, supported
and connected.
W
hen 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 MacArthurStevens, 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.”
— Brendan MacArthurStevens
Partner
“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 volunteerled groups offer members an
