Canadian Lawyer

Legal Ethics by Philip Slayton A bedrock ethical obligation E ven the brightest law school graduate will likely find himself adrift when he starts to practise his new profession. He may have got a bunch of As in law school — he may have been a whiz at torts and know the Charter of Rights upside down and backwards — but he won't be the slightest bit prepared for the demands and drudgery of daily law practice. The first day on the job can be quite a shock to 14 F e b r uary 2013 www.CANADIAN someone used to thinking of himself as highly competent and super-smart. Helping articling students and junior lawyers get off to a good start is a bedrock ethical obligation of the profession. Doing so contributes to the integrity of the justice system and protects the profession's future as a respected and important contributor to the well being of society. Nothing is more important. Almost all lawyers would agree with this sentiment, but many do not con- L a w ye r m a g . c o m tribute to its realization. In part that's because the mentoring thing is not easy. The care and feeding of lawyers starting out, just like bringing up children, is a big job. A legal tyro doesn't ease the workload of her supervising lawyer; she increases it. Proper guidance of an articling student or junior lawyer requires endless explanation of the law, heart-to-heart conversations about anything and everything, marking up memos and correcting draft documents, taking the junior to court appearances or client meetings (and maybe lunch), introducing the idea of law as a business as well as a profession, helping resolve complex ethical issues that sometimes arise — and that's just the half of it. Understandably enough, some lawyers recoil from taking on these burdens. If you do assume the burdens, you'll pay for it in more ways than one. It's not just the aggravation; there's a dollar cost. The time you spend mentoring is not legitimately billable — it's properly part of your practice's overhead — and it goes without saying that very few clients are prepared to pay for the hours put in by the young lawyer who's learning what to do. I've noticed in the past that in big firms the job of supervising beginners generally falls to those with only a few years under their belt; the most senior lawyers are too busy and important to bother with it, and their time (read hourly rate) is too valuable to be spent this way. Big firms, of course, can deal with this effectively if they feel so inclined. They Dushan Milic Nothing is more important than helping articling students and junior lawyers get off to a good start but many don't contribute.

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