The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/1149701
www.canadianlawyermag.com 61 review of licensing. Of those she consulted, half were keen to ditch articling altogether and the other half thought some oversight enhancements would do. Last December, the LSO decided to retain articling but added mandatory pay for articling students and an auditing of firms with articling students, set to begin in 2021. Donkers says it was a short consultation period and the law society did not consult widely. She says she was disappointed that the law society did not give more credence to the opinion of those Donkers spoke to who called for the end of articling altogether. "They ultimately kept articling and there's just some enhancements that really just increased our fees to the law society," she says. Donkers sees the drawbacks of articling, and her unique path to a legal career highlighted many of the inequities baked into the system, but she stops short of saying it should be disbanded. "On the one hand, it's really great because it fosters mentorship. It's kind of like a lower-stakes environment for us to learn. Because a lot of what we do in law school is very theoretical," she says. "It's really difficult to get a real-world experience of what the practice of law is like." An LSO working group looking at challenges faced by racialized lawyers also found that 40 per cent of racialized lawyers surveyed considered their background to be the greatest barrier between them and their desired place in the profession, and nearly half agreed they had struggled to find an articling position. In addition to the ordeal of getting a job, the LSO's paper states that high debt levels and a buyer's market for articling employment make a toxic mix for a young lawyer's mistreatment and even saps the "It's really difficult to get a real-world experience of what the practice of law is like." Heather Donkers educational value of articling. "These factors can intensify the power imbalance be tween candidates and their employers, leading to instances of harassment, discrimination and exploitation, where candidates work for nominal or no pay. Moreover, the increasing demand for articling positions has led to marginal placements, where candidates do not receive proper training and instruction," states the report. But the biases and power imbalances are not inherent to articling, and whether a young lawyer is searching for an articling position or an associate position, and whether that lawyer is working under senior lawyers as an articling student or a freshly graduated associate, the same biases and power imbalances would infect the process and the same systemic discrimination would still be in play, says Donkers. "We're taking steps in the right direction. The LSO says they're going to have greater oversight of articling programs . . . but I still think that there's more that can be done," she says. THE NUMBERS 64% of Ontario articling positions are in Greater Toronto Area 60% growth in number of graduates from Ontario law programs between 2007 and 2012