If you take a quick skim though the phone book in Sault Ste. Marie searching for defense lawyers, you will notice the majority are men.
But the women's legal fraternity will have another member this year, as a young woman is following her mother's footsteps.
Jennifer Tremblay-Hall never thought she would be referring to her daughter as a fellow lawyer.
"Funny enough, when she was young in elementary school, she would say things like ‘why can’t you be like the other mothers and make cupcakes or sew for the school sale’,” said Tremblay-Hall.
"When I was younger, or when my siblings were young, we resented the law a little bit,” added Jessica Belisle, Tremblay Hall’s daughter.
“Only because it took a lot of my mom. She worked long hours and was away from home."
But over time, Belisle fell in love with the law, and decided she wanted to become a lawyer; just like her mom.
A young mother, single, with two children; Belisle said she looked to her mother for strength.
"She did have my youngest brother when she was just called to the bar and I remember all of us pitching in and I was sixteen, he was an infant and he had a lot of medical issues with his heart and my mom still preserved,” Belisle said.
There are few women defense lawyers in the Sault, even fewer when Tremblay-Hall started practicing the law 17 years ago.
She gave her daughter some advice that she heard early in her career.
"Very early on, probably my second or third appearance, someone said ‘if you don't stand up and speak to your matters, none of these gentlemen are going to let you go’. In other words, stand up and speak for yourself. Ever since then I’ve always taken that to heart,” she said.
In September, Belisle will be called to the bar and she will officially become a lawyer.
Tremblay-Hall said the first thing she'll do is change the sign outside of her law firm; and her daughter’s name will proudly displayed beside that of her role model, boss and mom.
