When it comes to newly-minted lawyers Lori Butler and her daughter Megan Delaronde, it’s hard to say who followed in whose footsteps.
Butler says watching her daughter go to law school inspired her do the same. But Delaronde says it was her mother’s encouragement and tenacity that motivated her to enrol in the first place.
Ultimately, their journeys led to the same place. The Kitchener, Ont., mother-daughter duo were called to the bar together on Monday during a ceremony in London, Ont., in what’s believed to be a provincial first.
“It’s incredible to be experiencing becoming a lawyer at all,” Delaronde, 28, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. “But to do it alongside my mother, who is my inspiration, the reason that I did this in the first place, it just means everything.”
Delaronde graduated from York University’s Osgoode Hall in Toronto 2023, while Butler, who started a year later, graduated from the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law in 2024.
Because Delaronde took longer with her final articling and bar exam preparation, the pair ended up in a position to officially become practicing lawyers at the same time.
The Law Society of Ontario told CBC this is its first record of a mother and daughter joining the bar together.
“We are proud to celebrate this inspiring moment and reflect on the diverse journeys individuals take to join the legal profession, and the strength of family and community in supporting those paths,” Peter Wardle, the society’s treasurer, said in an emailed statement.
Asked how it feels to be first, Delaronde said the real reward was seeing all their hard work and studying pay off.
“The making history part is a fun little side note for us,” she said.
Just as they inspired each other to pursue careers in law, the women also helped lift each other up throughout the process.
Delaronde, a year ahead in law school, would frequently share her notes and answer her mom’s questions.
“She really helped me a lot,” Butler said.
Those roles reversed when Butler took the bar exam first, then helped Delaronde prepare.
“Exams are just gruelling,” Delaronde said. “So having her first-hand experience of what it would be like to write them, and some of her assistance on that, was really valuable.”
While Delaronde is just starting out in her career, Butler, who is in her 60s, has had a lot of experience in the workforce.
She’s been a real estate agent and wedding officiant. She once founded a martial arts club. And, most recently, she worked as a teacher.
Butler doesn’t like to be idle, she says, so as she was nearing retirement, she knew it was time to make another move.
“I certainly wasn’t going to retire and do nothing,” she said. “Teachers don’t teach into their 90s but lots of lawyers do.”
Delaronde says she was immediately supportive of her mom’s decision.
“I encouraged her to do it,” she said. “My mother is the smartest woman that I know. My mother is the most capable woman that I know. There was no doubt in my mind that if she made the leap and decided to do it, we would be here one day.”
When Butler opened her acceptance letter, the two women cried together in the kitchen.
“Getting into law school, it’s like winning the lottery,” Butler told CBC Radio’s Afternoon Drive.
Delaronde believes her mother’s incredible ability to see the good in everyone will serve her well in the field, while Butler says her daughter’s compassion and ability to think quickly on her feet will be a great asset in the courtroom.
“We can look at anybody who is in the criminal system and say, ‘Hey, there but for the grace of God go I,'” Butler told CBC Radio’s Afternoon Drive in London.
“There’s an awful lot of people that we meet who have gotten in trouble with the law and they really did not intend to.”
That’s why, after a night of celebrating with their family, the two women immediately got to work.
Delaronde is a new associate at Cooper Lord Law, a criminal law firm in Kitchener, while Butler is working with X-Copper, a legal services team for Canadians facing traffic tickets, criminal charges, and commercial vehicle offences.
“Justice just waits for no one,” Delaronde said. “Lawyers are here to help. And I think for both of us, it felt right to be jumping right in and getting to work.”
