Young Advocates Standing Committee
Learn. Belong. Give Back.
There’s no better resource for young advocates than The Advocates’ Society. We were purpose-built to help you grow your competencies, your contacts and your confidence. Here’s how we do it:
Skills-Based Education & Mentoring
Our CPD programs are first-rate, offering you year-round opportunities to be a better advocate. Learn from experienced professionals in large or small-group settings. Tap into specialist knowledge.
A Community of Peers
Make connections – social and professional – with advocates of all ages and experience levels.
Get Involved
Help shape the future of your profession by joining YASC or a Practice Group and getting involved. Write a blog or article. Organize a teleseminar or program. Help run a reception. Pay it forward by sharing what you’ve learned through us with the next generation of young advocates.
Legends of the Bar
The Young Advocates' Standing Committee is pleased to announce the launch of the TAS Legends of the Bar YouTube Series. TAS has a rich, archived catalogue of historic lectures and speeches from legends of the litigation bar. YASC has been reviewing these archives and will be releasing select videos on YouTube bi-monthly.
Following the successful launch of our YouTube series in the last issue of Keeping Tabs, YASC is pleased to present its second video in this series. This one also comes from the 2002 Dubin Lectures on Advocacy.
Hon. Ian Binnie, C.C., Q.C., ASM delivers his lecture
In Praise of Oral Advocacy, in which he highlights lessons he learned about oral advocacy from hearing cases at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Justice Binnie also draws on the advocacy skills of Chief Justice Dubin, J.J. Robinette, along with Justices Arnup, McKinnon, and Martin, describing why they were effective, why they did what they did, why it was—from the bench’s point of view—skillful advocacy, and why he thinks it still works. With sparkling wit & impeccable timing, he distills these lessons into five stages of appellate advocacy.
Young Advocates' Standing Committee Awards 2022
The YASC awards were created to recognize the contributions of the Society's young advocate members (ten years of call or less) and to celebrate these achievements with their peers at Fall Forum, the Society's marquee conference for young advocates.
The Patrick D. Schmidt Future of Family Law Award
This award was established to honour the late Patrick D. Schmidt and to promote excellence in the profession by supporting junior lawyers in their early years of practice who are choosing to dedicate their practice to family law. Learn more here
Writer's Award:
This award recognizes a young advocate who has made outstanding contribution to TAS publications.
The YASC Awards are presented at Fall Forum every two years.
Past Recipients
2016
Sara Mahoney (Civility Award)
Lauren Tomasich (Writer's Award)
Maureen Edwards (Commitment to Pro Bono)
Gerard J. Kennedy (Commitment to Pro Bono)
Denisa Mertiri (Outstanding Participation)
2018
Myriam M. Seers (Civility Award)
Sabrina Lucenti (Writer's Award)
Cameron Fiske (Commitment to Pro Bono)
Christopher J. Somerville (Outstanding Participation)
2020
Erin Durant (Writer's Award)
Omar Ha Redeye (Civility Award)
YASC is the voice for young advocates within the Society and the profession.
To learn more about our committee, click here.
Keeping Tabs is a quarterly newsletter published by YASC and is distributed to nearly 10,000 subscribers each issue.
Catch up on past issues here.
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Join us at the next YASC event near you. There’s no better way to connect with friends and colleagues. For TAS calendar of collegial events, click here. For information on Fall Forum, click here