Signe Leisk is a Partner at Cassels working in municipal, land use planning, and environmental law, with a focus on land development.

With a big smile on her face, Signe admits that her initial motivation behind entering law school was because of her love of the television show Law and Order. She had dreams of becoming a courtroom lawyer one day. After being hired as a summer student at Cassels while in law school, she began working for a partner who practiced municipal planning law. “I was fascinated with the area. While there’s a legal component, there’s much more of an expert advisor component,” she says. “The question of ‘What is good planning?’ is not really a legal question — there’s the expertise of all the consultants, then there’s the public interest, then there’s the political component.” It was this experience that showed her a whole other world she had never paid much attention to. She felt drawn to the complexity and unpredictability of municipal planning.

Speaking about starting out in the industry, Signe says that “you’re spending most of your time trying to be proficient and become an expert in the subject matter. You’re also focused on learning the business side of law.” As she progressed through her career, climbing the ranks from a summer student to eventually becoming a partner, Signe says there was an increasing amount of administrative responsibilities along with learning how a law firm works.

“It’s a challenging industry,” she says. “Especially when you’re young and female starting out, you really have to work hard to be taken seriously, and I felt that a lot in the beginning. With time you feel more comfortable in your own abilities and so do those you work with, and gender disappears off the table.”

Early on in her career, Signe focused on educating herself on the subject matter of municipal planning law and assisted in the writing and research behind legal textbooks. It was no easy feat, she says. “If you’re going to write something for all to see, you want to make sure you’re right,” she explains.

Currently, Signe likes to stay current in the planning world by teaching planning students at the post-secondary level. She is currently a sessional lecturer at Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, teaching planning law to students in the Masters of Planning (Urban Development) program. Before starting at Ryerson, she has guest lectured at Western University’s Faculty of Law, the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law and Department of Geography, and the Queen’s University School of Urban and Regional Planning. “I’ve lectured at law schools before but planning students are so keen and they engage more. Planning students want to have a discussion — it’s been a lot of fun,” she says. Signe is motivated to constantly refresh herself in the subject matter. In addition to private practice, being questioned by students ensures she stays current on what is happening in the planning, land development, and legal worlds. “A student will raise something that is completely out of left field that I never considered.” she says.

Discussing gender representation at various levels throughout her career, Signe says “we hit parity a long time ago in law schools, certainly in our student group we have parity in terms of gender, but it’s still constant effort to seek parity at the partner level.” Signe says “I’ve now been in many hearings where you look around and all the consultants, lawyers, and the board member are female.”

As with any area of law, the landscape is always changing and Signe must monitor the introduction of new bills as well as the passing of new legislation and regulations in order to properly advise her clients. Being a municipal planning lawyer with clients all across Ontario requires additional attention to new municipal policies and ongoing review processes. Signe and her Municipal, Planning, and Environmental Group meet bi-weekly to discuss changes and to keep each other informed of things they have learned, read, or experienced in various municipalities. She also relies heavily on reading the source material directly, case law, various court reporter publications, and other news sources.

Having been a member of the Urban Land Institute (“ULI”) Toronto Chapter for 6 years, Signe says she was initially drawn to the Women’s Leadership Initiative’s (“WLI”) mission of advancing women’s leadership in the real estate and land development industry. Prior to this, she was only vaguely familiar with ULI and mostly knew it as a US organization. After reaching out, she got involved in the Program Committee, acting as a liaison between that Committee and WLI. She helped to ensure there was female representation in panels and speakers and that “manels” (all-male panels) were a thing of the past. “ULI has done a fantastic job at that,” she says.

What she says is evident at ULI events that differentiates the organization from others in the space is the volunteer engagement and the diversity of attendees. “Whether you’re in the public sector or the private sector; whether you’re a planner, an architect, or a lawyer; whether you’re in a municipality or another public institution, the breadth of participation is great.” Signe says.

“You also pick up a lot more perspectives than you would normally. ULI tries really hard to not be an advocacy group and to maintain an appropriate balance.”