ABOUT

Kristy Foreman graduated from Queen's University Faculty of Law in 1997.  After articling in Ontario and British Columbia, she was called to the bar in BC in 1999.  Kristy is currently a member of the Law Society of British Columbia. 

 

Operating as ForeReach Consulting, Kristy provides customized consulting services to law students, lawyers and legal service providers to move their practices forward and give them a competitive edge. Kristy has been immersed in legal talent management and student and lawyer program development in both the public and private sector since 2009.  

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Chapter 1

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11 years ago, Kristy decided to press pause on her tax litigation practice at the Department of Justice and accept a temporary 18-month assignment as the manager of the student and junior lawyer development program for the BC Regional Office.  Kristy’s passion and effectiveness in the role led the Department to extend her 1 ½ year assignment to 7 years.  During that time, she was responsible for hiring over 80 students, many of whom clerked for the BC Supreme Court, BC Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada. In addition, Kristy coordinated professional development programs for the office's 150 lawyers.  This included the creation of the Department’s first Legal Project Management training program in 2011, which was eventually rolled out nationally. Kristy also developed a Pro Bono program for the Department, the first for Federal government lawyers in Canada.  She created affiliations with local Pro Bono organizations and set up opportunities for the Department’s lawyers to volunteer in Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Halifax and Toronto. Click here to read an article in Canadian Lawyer Magazine about the Pro Bono project.

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Chapter 2

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Kristy transitioned to the private sector in 2016 to continue her work in legal talent management at a large national firm.  As the Assistant Director of Talent Management, Kristy was responsible for student and associate recruitment in the firm’s five western offices and performance management for the associates in the Tax and Business Law national practice groups. During her time at the firm, Kristy took the initiative to develop special projects including the creation of a national mentoring program, the first student-run law firm Instagram account in Canada and the approval of a policy that led the firm to be the first in the country to provide 12-weeks of parental leave benefits to non-birth parents.  Kristy also initiated and developed an Indigenous Law Student Internship program in Vancouver and Toronto to promote the recruitment of Indigenous law students in private practice, which led to the firm’s win of the Canadian HR Award for Diversity & Inclusion in 2017.

 

Chapter 3

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In 2018, Kristy took on the newly-created role of Director of Recruitment and Professional Development in a multi-practice regional firm in Vancouver that had recently added a Toronto office.  In this role, Kristy led the recruitment, professional development and performance management programs for law students and associates in both offices, including the transition to working remotely in March 2020.  During her time at the firm, she continued to initiate new programs, including an online performance management system, a 1-day workshop for newly-called associates, a behaviour-based interviewer training program, and a summer fellowship for first-year law students as part of her recruitment strategy.  Kristy also developed a comprehensive virtual orientation program for summer students in both Vancouver and Toronto.

 

ForeReach Consulting - The Next Chapter

 

During the summer of 2020, Kristy spent time planning the next chapter of her career and making memories with her blended family of six on Hatzic Lake in Mission, BC.  Kristy inherited her father's passion for boating while growing up in cottage country in Ontario.  This passion inspired her to name her business "ForeReach Consulting".  Forereach is a nautical term defined by Collins Dictionary as: "to move forward while heading into the wind; to surpass or outdo".  This term aligns with Kristy's vision for her business and how she supports and adds value to her clients' practices.

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After reflecting on her management experience over the past 11 years, Kristy decided that it was time to make her dream of starting a consulting business a reality. She has a unique background with different legal service providers in the private and public sector, and in firms of varying size and location. This diversity of experience gives Kristy a rare perspective on recruitment and developmental programs that will benefit law students, lawyers and legal service providers. 

 

Kristy is confident that her consulting services will give law students, lawyers and legal service providers the competitive edge they need to move forward in a rapidly changing market. Kristy believes that now more than ever, having access to specialized expertise will make them more hireable, more efficient and more profitable; to forereach in the uncharted waters of an evolving profession.