Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50901
10 1 24 SPRING 2 0 1 1 C ANADIAN Lawy er 4STUDENTS things to KNOW to practise law REALLY NEED Law school is just the beginning of a legal career. With the call to the bar comes a whole new set of people and a whole new set of skills. What more do you need to know besides the law? Michael McKiernan canvassed practitioners across the country to find out what they've learned from the school of legal hard knocks. We're not in law school anymore, Toto The debate over how well law schools prepare students for private practice has a long and heated history, and it's one that will likely rumble on long after you've crossed the stage at Convocation. In the meantime, all you need to know is things are diff erent out there. "The focus of law school is on learning legal rules and applying these rules to relatively simple fact scenarios," says Adrienne Boudreau, a second-year associate at McMillan LLP in Toronto. Simplicity is often lacking in the real world of legal practice, where it's the facts, not the rules, that drive the case, according to Boudreau. "It's critical that you take the time to understand the factual scenario underlying your client's situation and don't rush to apply legal rules in the hope of arriving at a nice, neat conclusion, because it won't happen." You can't know everything No matter how exhaustive you think your research techniques are, in a fi eld as all- encompassing as the law, there are going to be gaps. "Too often, we assume that we should know what to do and how to do it," says Neena Ahluwalia, a lawyer with Alberta's Youth Criminal Defence Offi ce in Edmonton and a bencher of the province's law society. Boudreau says she is unconcerned when she's stumped by a question of substantive law. "Continuing legal education is not a refl ection of your abilities; it's a necessary part of everyone's practice," she says. According to Ahluwalia, the worst thing you can do is try to soldier on alone. "Sometimes when we don't know or put something off until later, larger problems arise," she says. "Don't be afraid to confess that you need advice. It will be soon enough that other lawyers come to you for your sage counsel." 2 you HUAN TRAN