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ARTICLE · 28 SEPTEMBER 2026

Whose Potential Gets Room To Grow? A Reflection On Opening Doors From Both Sides Of Influence

Lerners LLP
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A managing partner reflects on the true meaning of influence and power in the legal profession, examining how early sponsorship and opportunity shape careers in ways that often disappear from success stories. Drawing from personal experience navigating law without inherited social capital, she explores the responsibility of gatekeepers to recognize potential before it becomes proof.

CanadaEmployment and HR
Yola S. Ventresca
Yola S. Ventresca
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When I learned that Canadian Lawyer named me one of its Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers and WXN included me among its Top 100 Most Powerful Womenin Canada, I was deeply grateful and profoundly honoured. 

However, more recently, I have found myself thinking less about the honour itself and more about the deeper meaning behind these awards, and about the language behind honorific titles. Words like influence and power are not ornamental. They have an unmistakable gravity and consequence, and, as such, they demand careful reflection.

What does it mean to say someone is an influential lawyer and a powerful woman in Canada today?

We often think influence and power are rewards for personal success. I have come to believe something different. Influence and power matter most early on in our lives and careers – when they are exercised on behalf of people whose true potential and ultimate trajectory remain unknown.

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