Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50903
BY GLENN KAUTH Public servants: Working for government in British Columbia are (l to r) summer students Anna Stuff co and Clare Benton at the Depart- ment of Justice; Heather Guinn, a summer student at the B.C. Ministry of Attorney General (Criminal law branch); and Depart- ment of Justice lawyer Brie Reilly. role as a policy co-ordinator with the New Brunswick Securities Commission. At the time, the fl edgling fi nancial regu- lator didn't require a legal background to do the job, but that's now changed as Alcorn regularly taps into his law school training as he works to shepherd policy proposals through the government ap- provals process. In Alcorn's case, the agency he works for is new, meaning the 2005 Université de Moncton graduate has even more opportunity to help shape policies as the government works to bolster securities regulation. "Going into securities regu- lation wasn't something that was fi rst and foremost in my mind," he says. "I do enjoy it enormously because everything has been new." But at the time he was looking for A self-described policy wonk, Jason Alcorn knew from participating in moot com- petitions in law school that the "highly confl ictual environment" of litigation likely wasn't for him. "Just my personality type, I didn't think it would be something that I would enjoy," says Alcorn. But as a student of political aff airs both in his home province of New Brunswick and later in France, Alcorn, 36, was drawn to public service. Still, the obvious choice to become a Crown prosecutor didn't seem the right fi t, so instead he found work in a less typical a job out of school, private practice seemed a more natural choice given the small number of articling positions in New Brunswick's public sector. As a re- sult, he started out with his fi rst articling job at a local law fi rm, Barry Spalding Lawyers. But while that's a path most graduating law students take, the reces- sion has made the public sector a key area of opportunity as private law fi rms cut back on the number of junior law- yer positions in Canada's major cities. In British Columbia, for example, pros- pects for new students are far less rosy than last year. "A number of Vancouver fi rms aren't hiring additional students," says Pamela Cyr, the associate director for career services at University of Brit- ish Columbia's law school. "I defi nitely think the anxiety level is high. Th ere are lots of rumours about layoff s at Vancou- ver fi rms of associates." Because fi rms typically off er articling positions a year in advance, the crunch is particularly acute for law students en- tering third year who ideally would have secured jobs already. Nevertheless, Cyr notes the downturn hasn't necessarily created a rush of interest in the public sector. Instead, students are being more creative in their searches. "Th e jobs are out there. It's just [that] everyone wants to go into the Vancouver core," she says. Locally, however, the B.C. Ministry of Attorney General took an additional six articling students for 2010 over this year. At the same time, the federal government opens up 12 to 15 articling positions a year as well as off ering 12 to 13 summer jobs to second-year students, according to Cyr. Working for the federal govern- ment can be particularly attractive for graduating law students since in B.C., Justice Canada guarantees employment aſt er articling. "Th eir recruitment num- bers seem to be holding strong in the economic downturn," she says. At the federal level, young lawyers have the advantage of getting exposure to a wide breadth of law. Opportuni- ties include areas of exclusive federal jurisdiction such as aboriginal aff airs, immigration, and tax law. As well, the Public Prosecution Service, which han- dles non-Criminal Code charges such as drug and terrorism off ences, has been building its ranks of Crown attorneys in recent years. Jobs for lawyers in the fed- eral public service include everything from policy developers who help for- mulate laws and programs to legislative counsel involved in draſt ing government bills and regulations. As well, legal advis- ers act essentially as in-house counsel to the various federal departments, while litigators handle court fi les for both tax and civil cases. Th e federal government's common law articling program aims to give stu- dents experience in many of those ar- eas by having them do four rotations, including opportunities to work with the Public Prosecution Service, says Catherine Barry, a senior adviser with the legal excellence program. For those on the civil law side, students do two rotations, one of which must involve litigation. Barry adds that while Jus- tice Canada in B.C. has been the most proactive about hiring young lawyers aſt er articles, due to the competition for staff there, in general the federal C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS SEPTEMBER 2009 15