Canada's Best Diversity Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 22
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CANADA’S BEST DIVERSITY EMPLOYERS (2025)
Borden Ladner Gervais embeds diversity across the firm
also four action committees
run by firm members under the
names Pride, Race, Abilities and
Indigenous as subcommittees of
the D&I Council. Open to any firm
member, they are charged, says
Buenaventura, with “identifying
gaps or barriers they’re seeing
internally. We are trying to embed
EDI not just in terms of our talent
processes but across our firm
processes as well.”
Cherie Mah, partner, financial services group at BLG, is a member of the Race Action Committee.
W
hen Cherie Mah
joined the national
law firm Borden
Ladner Gervais
LLP (BLG) in Vancouver in
2010, she couldn’t help feeling
“a bit of otherness” due to her
Chinese heritage – “needing to
make myself feel less visible or
less Asian to fit in with what was
considered mainstream at the
time.” But that was then.
“If you think about it, 15 years is
not that long ago, but in terms of
how far our organization has come
in terms of diversity, it’s amazing,”
says Mah, now a partner in the
financial services group. “BLG
recognized very early on the need
for a diverse workplace, because
diversity of thought leads to
advancements in law and policies
which leads to a more robust
workplace for everybody.”
Today, the firm has a very
structured system in place,
with a nationwide Diversity &
Inclusion Council represented in
all five Canadian cities where it
has offices – Vancouver, Calgary,
Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal.
Senior leaders are members,
as are partners, associates from
each centre, as well as business
professionals from across the
firm.
“I joined the council because
I didn’t necessarily see decisionmakers at the firm who looked like
me,” says Mah. “We identify key
priorities and provide oversight
and direction. Everyone works
hand-in-hand to create policies
and programs that become part of
the BLG social fabric.”
Also on the council, and liaising
with it, is Loreli Buenaventura,
national director of EDI (equity,
diversity and inclusion), people
and culture, who joined BLG in
2023 after a career in EDI and
talent development with several
major banks. “The reason I came
to BLG is because, if you look
at my title, it’s EDI, people and
culture – it’s not looked at as a
siloed initiative or a program. We
try to embed it in everything we
say and do. It’s an understanding
that we have to look at EDI
holistically.”
And the depth of the structure
doesn’t stop there. There are
BLG recognized
very early on
the need for a
diverse workplace,
because diversity
of thought leads
to advancements
in law and policies
which leads to
a more robust
workplace for
everybody.”
— Cherie Mah
Partner, Financial Services
Group
In addition, there are less formal
Affinity groups, including one
for women at BLG, who are also
covered by many of the firm’s
longstanding support programs.
Mah is closely involved with the
Race Action Committee (RAC),
which is so named in order to
cover a wide variety of cultures,
ethnicities and visibilities. “We
have a really active group with
lots of participation and really
passionate ideas,” she says.
“They help with representation
