Obiter Dicta Issue 1 - August 31, 2015 | Page 4
NEWS
4 Obiter Dicta
Pay It Forward
Bringing business flair to the legal community
sam michaels › editor-in-chief
L
ast september, I was fortunate to be offered
the opportunity to speak at the 2nd annual
Pay It Forward legal networking event. At
the time, I was working on my first business,
the Legal Information Network of Canada, and just
starting to solidify my career path. I was contacted
by event founders Rena Sangha and Pawan Sahi and
asked to talk about my experience growing a legal
start-up and my plans for the future.
Walking into the event, I wasn’t sure what to
expect. I had little in the way of networking acumen
and virtually no experience with fancy get-togethers in beautiful spaces. To my pleasant surprise, Pay
It Forward proved an exciting blend of professionalism and sociability, bringing together interesting and
progressive legal and business minds.
Rena and Pawan developed Pay It Forward in 2013
to address a void in the legal networking world. They
saw that many legal networking events were geared
only to finding the next crop of junior associates
or for established lawyers to rub shoulders. Pay It
Forward was designed with a different goal in mind.
The event’s mission is to provide an opportunity for
legal professionals, recent graduates, and articling
students to meet and network with a focus on finding
mentorship and leadership opportunities.
Pawan, a practicing lawyer in Toronto, and Rena,
a law student completing her JD in December 2015,
both had experience with the lack of innovative legal
networking opportunities. They built Pay It Forward
under a mandate to provide a forum for members
of the legal community, at all career stages, to meet
and interact. Having attended last year’s event, I can
say firsthand that it was refreshing to meet such an
eclectic and open-minded group of business and legal
professionals.
This year, Pay It Forward is hosting their 3rd
annual event at the Law Society of Upper Canada
wing in Osgoode Hall. Securing such a traditionally
reputable location is, I believe, an indication of both
the progress of the event itself, and changing attitudes in the legal profession, with burgeoning interest
in forward-thinking opportunities and professionals.
Given my distaste for the customary, and enthusiasm
for the progressive, it is refreshing to see a traditional
venue hosting an innovative event.
Speaking with Rena and Pawan, they are already
looking to the future, with plans to expand in 2016.
The hope is for Pay It Forward to grow as both an
event and a movement, with an expanded team and
multiple networking events and opportunities. For
those interested in attending this year’s event, tickets are on sale now at http://payitforwardlaw.weebly.
com/. Pay It Forward’s 3rd annual event will be held
on 24 September 2015 at Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen
Street West. u
ê Pawan Sahi and Rena Sangha are the driving forces behind Pay It Forward.
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