Advocacy Matters - Spring 2020

Emily Lawrence
Emily Lawrence
Practice and Accomplishments: Emily has a
fascinating practice and has been active in The
Advocates’ Society for a number of years. Emily
started her career with Paliare Roland Rosenberg
Rothstein LLP as summer student in 2004
and joined the partnership in 2012. Emily is a
self-described “generalist” and believes that being
a generalist has given her opportunities for
growth as a lawyer which she would not otherwise
have enjoyed.
Emily’s favourite file was the Trinity Western
University case, on which Emily acted as pro bono
counsel for The Advocates’ Society as intervener.
Emily enjoyed engaging in broader discussions
with all counsel for the many intervenors involved
in this case. She remembers in particular
the professionalism in interactions as between
counsel during all stages of this matter.
Emily considers her most rewarding professional
accomplishment to be the publication of
the 2018 Edition of Administrative Law in Practice:
Principles and Advocacy, which Emily co-authored
with Justice Lorne Sossin of the Superior
Court of Justice (prior to his appointment in December,
2018). Emily wrote this book over the
span of a year, during vacations and weekends,
and after her young children went to sleep. The
experience was challenging and rewarding.
Emily notes that Justice Sossin was a generous
mentor and wonderful to work with.
Challenges: Emily had to overcome unique challenges
to get to where she is. For periods of her
childhood, Emily’s family lived at or near the poverty
line. Emily did not have any lawyers or professionals
in her family growing up, although her
father became a doctor later in life. Emily entered
law school with little experience with professional
environments. Emily’s firm has a number of
first-generation lawyers, and she encountered a
supportive and educational environment, mostly
as a result of role modeling and lots of client
contact with other lawyers whom she was able
to observe. Emily learned to be the professional
she is by watching other lawyers.
Mentors and Mentoring: Emily said that it was
very hard to choose a “greatest mentor” among
the partners at her firm, especially her women
partner role models, and other lawyers outside
her firm. Linda Rothstein and Megan Shortreed
were exceptional mentors to Emily during her
early years of practice. They identified Emily’s
interest in professional regulation, and Linda
mentored her during several long cases. Emily
also values Linda’s advice on navigating work
and parenting commitments. In recent years,
Robert Centa, Paliare Roland’s current managing
partner, has mentored Emily both as an advocate
and in her leadership role running the
student program.
Emily describes mentorship as a “necessity”.
She believes that she would not have been able
to achieve what she has, or indeed, even become
a lawyer without support and guidance
of people from inside and outside of her firm.
Emily believes that the hardest part of lawyering
is developing good judgment; having good
mentors allows one to develop good judgment.
As she notes: “Mentorship is what gets people
through the day and what gets people through
life in the profession.”
Bahaa Sunallah
Practice & Accomplishments: Bahaa was called
to the bar in February 2000. He currently practices
as a lawyer with the Department of Justice.
Bahaa always wanted to be involved in legal education,
and so approximately 2 years into his
practice, Bahaa started teaching at Algonquin
College’s law clerk program. He continued to
Bahaa Sunallah
develop as a teacher and went on to teach constitutional
law and equality rights at Carleton
University and, most recently, at the University
of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
Bahaa does not consider himself a trailblazer,
but he recalls his innovation in 2007 when he
started teaching law through video/television
media to his students at Carleton. Bahaa took
particular pride in this innovation because it
allowed his young son (who was 1 at the time)
to see him on a TV screen was the fun of it all
“…just looking at his eyes watching me in two
places at the same time, behind and in front of
the screen.” As his children grew, he hoped this
would instill in them the value and importance
of schooling and higher education. Teaching and
practising as a lawyer with the DOJ kept Bahaa
busy and he recalls that his schedule required
him to practice all day; prepare for teaching
during free moments on Saturdays, Sundays,
Mondays and Tuesdays; and teach on Wednesdays
and Thursdays. Recently, Bahaa won an
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