Articling: the difficulties of it are on the minds of everyone these days — students, law societies, law firms, and, well let’s admit it, parents, too. The Law Society of Upper Canada in December issued a 134-page consultation report looking at different options for the future of articles in the province of Ontario. It includes taking the articling portion right out and instituting a practical legal training course. There’s no talk of going the American route and simply having students go from law school to writing the bar exams. And there’s been no indication that any of the other provinces across the country are looking to change their qualification systems either. Thus it would seem for the time being, at least, articles are likely here to stay.
So the big question, or problem even, is what to do if you’re not one of those who’s managed to get an articling position through the traditional on-campus-interview process. There are two sides to the coin here: the first is that law students need to get creative and second, that small law firms and even sole practitioners need to get on board. Canadian Lawyer 4Students has put together an articling how-to (see page 20) that gives some great tips for both sides to get rolling.
During a recent chat with a law school career counsellor, it was heartening to hear that not only is the school promoting its students to create their own internships, but many students are doing it with gusto. Internships are a bit easier to put together than articling terms, which require more formal structures, but there’s still a lot of flexibility that can come into play. Part of it is for law students to get out there and make contact with lawyers in areas — of the law or geographic location — in which you want to practise. Taking chances can really pay off. And making the approach to lawyers in smaller communities or law firms may be the awakening they need to take on an aspiring lawyer.
For decades, it has been the bigger law firms that have trained the majority of Canadian lawyers, but that model is no longer sustainable. It is expensive for the large law firms that cannot be expected to be the sole training ground for the profession. Law students today are involved in a wide variety of pursuits and are often highly accomplished. There’s no reason not to put that same drive and creativity into getting an articling position, that (almost) final hurdle to get into the esteemed legal fraternity. You won’t know if you don’t try.
Articling: the difficulties of it are on the minds of everyone these days — students, law societies, law firms, and, well let’s admit it, parents, too. The Law Society of Upper Canada in December issued a 134-page consultation report looking at different options for the future of articles in the province of Ontario. It includes taking the articling portion right out and instituting a practical legal training course. There’s no talk of going the American route and simply having students go from law school to writing the bar exams. And there’s been no indication that any of the other provinces across the country are looking to change their qualification systems either. Thus it would seem for the time being, at least, articles are likely here to stay.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Issue Archive
With this January 2012 issue of Canadian Lawyer, we kick off our 36th year of covering the issues and trends that matter to the legal profession in Canada. And we have seen a lot of changes, particularly in the last few years. One of the biggest shifts has been the arrival of global law practices on our shores. This month, Macleod Dixon LLP will be folded into the Norton Rose Group, which rocked the Canadian legal establishment last year when it merged with Ogilvy Renault LLP. The face of law practice is changing here and so this year, we have launched a new series on canadianlawyermag.com called the Managing Partner Forum, in which law firm leaders from across the country and all types of firms will discuss the hurdles, successes, and other travails of making it work in today’s market. We launch the series this month with a column from John Coleman, who helmed Ogilvy Renault through its initial merger as well as the marriage with Macleod Dixon to form the new Norton Rose Canada. I look forward to the columns creating some interesting discussions in the profession.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Commentary
Once again in this issue, we share the results of the annual Canadian Lawyer corporate counsel survey, which gauges the relationship between in-house counsel and their outside legal service providers. It’s not surprising that one of our main findings is that the economy, and its current state of instability, is having an effect on corporate law departments.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Commentary
In September, the Competition Bureau released a post-study assessment to its 2007 report that looked at restrictions impeding competition in five professions, including the law. The profession had been on tenterhooks as to what the assessment would say and how it would affect the regulation, in particular, of the profession across the country.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Commentary
Last month, I attended the International Bar Association’s conference in Vancouver. About 5,000 lawyers from around the world descended on the city to discuss issues from law firm management to emerging M&A trends to dawn raids to professional ethics and the appointment of judges to the International Criminal Court. There was a little of something for everyone with points of view from across the globe.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Commentary
Legal aid is a problem child. It doesn’t matter which province you’re in or what type of law you practise, if legal aid is part of your legal business, it’s not easy. The system is straining at the seams, some might even say it’s broken beyond repair (See our cover story on page 28). And there are no shortage of reports and studies over the last decades that have suggested ways to fix it. Mostly, those recommendations are collecting dust on the shelves of attorneys general’s offices across this fine country. According to the Canadian Bar Association’s report on legal aid released in July, “Despite lobbying and litigation efforts, there have been no significant systemic improvements in access to justice in Canada during the last four decades.”
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Commentary
Aug. 4 was just an ordinary day of editing the stories for this issue of Canadian Lawyer when publisher Karen Lorimer and I were called into a meeting with our company president at which we were given the official news that our publications, Canadian Lawyer, InHouse, 4Students, and Law Times, had been sold to Carswell Thomson Reuters. We were part of a larger deal that will see Canada Law Book, a division of The Cartwright Group Ltd. owned by former judge Ian Cartwright, aligned with Carswell. Also part of the deal are CLB Media’s legal directories that include the Canadian Law List.
Additional Info
- Subtitle
Published in
Commentary
As I sit to write this issue’s editorial, articling student hopefuls in Toronto are checking their phone batteries and trying not to vibrate out of their chairs while waiting for the “interview day” phone calls from prospective employers. This step is just one of the many nerve-racking experiences in the life of a law student, who unlike students in many other areas (not the professions, of course) have their career paths often planned out years in advance.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Editor's Desk
Published in
Issue Archive
Love to hate them but lists of the tops in any profession are still compulsive reading. Canadian Lawyer is stepping into the fray with the Top 25 Most Influential in the justice system and legal profession. As this is the first year, our list will undoubtedly be controversial but we are ready to brave the slings and arrows of the profession.
Additional Info
- Subtitle Canadian Lawyer's picks of this country's most powerful lawyers
Published in
Canadian Lawyer Cover Story
Every magazine and web site has a list of the top this or top that. And love or hate the lists, everybody ends up reading them and talking about them. At Canadian Lawyer, we’re no stranger to lists but for the most part we’ve not tackled the most controversial type of list: one about individual lawyers. So about 18 months or so ago, I decided to take on the task and come up with such a list. Its main characteristic, though, had to be that it was different from all other lists in the various legal publications and web sites dotting the Canadian landscape. What I realized is that most such tallies look at one particular area and don’t take into account the law as a whole: every area of practice, government, regulatory, judiciary, etc.
Additional Info
- Subtitle
Published in
Commentary
Featured Videos
Latest Videos
-
Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Louise Charron offers lawyers some inside tips on pleading cases before the country's top court and other appellate courts. -
Executive coach Debra Forman discusses where to find relationships and how to build them in order to get more work.
Digital Editions
