Sylvie Rodrigue has been a staunch advocate since she was a child, always ready to stand her ground. Her impressive career spans high-profile litigation cases, earning her the Ontario Bar Association’s 2023 Excellence in Class Actions Award.
Drawing on her own resilience, she wrote a book that weaves her life story with practical guidance, empowering women to overcome challenges and thrive. Rodrigue spoke to us about her personal story, the book she has written, and what she values most about leadership.
What inspired you to be a lawyer?
I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. My earliest memory of that is when I was 12 years old. At the beginning of adolescence, when I was arguing with my parents, I would win every argument by presenting very structured reasons as to why I should be allowed to do X, Y, Z. At some point, my father said, okay, I’m no longer going to argue with you, you’re too good at this. I’m just going to say no. If you ask why, the answer is going to be because I’m your father, which I had no come back to. So, from that moment on, I really developed a liking not only for law but also for debating and advocacy.
Can you tell us about your book Own It! Lessons Every Woman Should Know?
It is a self-help book; it contains life lessons for everyone. The intended audience is women, but I’m getting a lot of feedback that it’s helping a lot of men. It’s not necessarily gender-specific, but my intention in writing the book was to help other women, both in their personal and professional lives. I didn’t plan to write a book I was approached by a publisher who heard about my life story, and he thought I could really help women. We came up with an outline together, and these life lessons that go from imposter syndrome to being the master of your own destiny. To learn to step out of your comfort zone, to ignore the white noise around you, and to embrace gratitude. For each chapter, I would identify the problem that impedes or paralyzes women at home or at work, and provide solutions with anecdotes from my personal and professional life.
Which skills from your legal training do you find most valuable in your day-to-day life?
Resilience and work ethic. These are the two that I would put at the top, because I think with resilience, you can face pretty much any challenge. And as a lawyer, as a litigator, you need a lot of resilience, obviously, because you don’t win them all. So, you have to persevere. And work ethic for me in my day-to-day life, transforming what I call the PPP “plan, plan, plan,” a lot of people wonder how I manage to have the practice that I have. I’m the managing partner in Montreal, but I’m also the chair of the National Class Action Practice, and I’ve been traveling for 20 years between Montreal and Toronto.
How would you define your leadership style?
I would define my leadership as very inclusive. I love elevating people around me. I think a team is much stronger when everybody elevates each other, but that starts at the top. I rarely dictate, obviously as a leader; at some point, someone needs to make the decision. But to at least get a consensus and hear the opinions of everybody around the room is extremely important. There is no success in my professional life that I would not have achieved without the help of others. Nobody achieves success on their own. As a leader, I’m trying to pay it forward. I like to champion other people, not just women, and open as many doors as I can. That’s what makes a successful team.
What advice would you give others who want to start a career in law?
My advice would be that you really need to be passionate about it. This is a very difficult profession. It’s not a nine-to-five job. It’s often high stakes; no matter what field of law you decide to practice in, it’s high pressure. If you’re in the middle of a trial, or you are corporate lawyer in the middle of a transaction, it is a difficult profession. And if you’re not passionate about it, if you don’t truly love it, it’s not going to work out because it’s going to require a lot of personal sacrifice on your part.
David Messiha | Staff Writer
