Canadian Lawyer

Holloway is encouraged by the LPP plan being launched in Ontario. He says in Alberta, with its strong economy, "our students are still getting jobs. We haven't seen the big placement problems such as they are having in Ontario." However, he remains convinced "articling is not sustainable, the number of articling positions are simply not there." It is a situation he believes is exacerbated in Ontario by the fact "Toronto is where the work is, and the vast majority [of graduates] would like to work in Toronto, not Timmins." While he suggests Ontario's LPP may initially be "second-tier" he believes, much like Furlong, that "if they do it well" it may become very attractive. But while the rational Holloway believes articles may be doomed, the professorial Holloway would mourn their passing. "In articles you are learning how to be a lawyer." In his view being a lawyer means a lot more than knowing which form to fill out or which section of the law to rely upon. "Articles are a sort of rite of passage, a sort of soaking up of the intangibles of what being a lawyer means. In England if you join the Inns of Court you have to go to a certain number of dinners." Not for the food, Holloway suggests, but in order to breathe the same air as your elders and understand the subtleties of what drives those who have mastered the profession. He sees articling as "a period of inculcation of certain skills, of a certain competency, of a certain knowledge." The dean does not want to see law schools become "trade schools," which is why "I am not so keen about co-op programs" that see students work in the profession as part of their degree program. But he does believe Canadian law schools have to recast their underlying thinking as lawyers are too often taught to think in terms of problems, but what clients want are solutions. That is one reason U of C will be including a business component in its law curriculum this fall. "At the very least, lawyers should be able to read a balance sheet." But Holloway and Canada's other law deans are well aware there is no shortage of critics of the schools they run. Among them Furlong, who says too many cash hungry universities are feeding a percep- tion among students that a law degree is "a ticket to a very nice job." But an increasing number of graduates, Furlong argues, are finding out that isn't true and too many of them cannot even get into the profession. Some critics say what the universities are doing is little better than a bait-and-switch game. They promise a lot (though in fairness it may be the broader culture that makes the promise of wealth) and deliver next to nothing. Bruce Feldthusen, dean of the common law section at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law, says when it comes to law schools it's time "to call off the dogs." He criticizes the profession, saying it has priced itself beyond the means of the ordinary citizen. "If lawyers want to retain the precious right to self-regulate in the public interest," he recently told Canadian Lawyer, "reducing the supply of legal services to the public is unwise." The roiling debate over articling has not, it seems, penetrated the quiet corridors of Winnipeg's Aikins MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP, the largest firm in Manitoba. Associate Erin Wilcott is manager of the firm's professional development and practice support group, a job that includes overseeing each year's crop of articling students, most of whom come from Robson Hall law school at the University of Manitoba. The firm selects between five and seven graduates from the 70 to 100 applications it receives each year from across the country. "The students in Manitoba are well-served by the articling system," says Wilcott, perhaps reflecting the attitudes of many big firms outside Ontario, "I don't believe there is a need to look at alternative arrangements." Articling in Manitoba and the other Prairie provinces is supported by the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education. During the course of articles, CPLED offers students a series of online and face-to-face courses designed to meet law society requirements for competency. Would-be lawyers must pass the CPLED courses and successfully complete their articles before becoming eligible to be licensed as a lawyer. Aikins is a regional firm, and the experience of big national firms such as Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP is much the same. Partner David Kruse is co-chairman of the firm's Toronto student program, which receives 700 to 800 applications every year from law students. About 30 get positions and they are usually top students. "The system, as it exists now, does work for big firms like ours," says Kruse, but he worries about the long-term impact of so many would-be lawyers not getting articles. "Will our children want to be lawyers?" he wonders. Kruse acknowledges that Blakes' objective will remain to hire the best people possible. If articles are abandoned or undergo a metamorphosis, the firm will still hire and train graduates to be corporate lawyers, whatever the process is called. "We are in the business of providing advice. We're only as good as the people we hire." While many voices complain about lack of opportunity for young lawyers, the shortage of barristers and solicitors in areas outside the major centres is a problem across the country. In fact, this undersupply is part of the rationale for the opening in 2011 of a new law school at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C., and the planned opening this September of the new law school at Lakehead University. "[We] are preparing students for the practice of law in rural and smaller centres," says Lakehead's founding dean of law Lee Stuesser. While that is the argument made by the new law schools, the case for training lawyers and other professionals in settings away from the metropolis so they will upon graduation settle in the hinterland remains unproven. The president of the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association, Cyril Gurevitch, runs a successful partnership in Grande Prairie, Alta., some five and a half hours northwest of Edmonton. He has dedicated himself to access to justice for rural Albertans. As far as he is concerned the only articling "crisis" in northern and small-town Alberta is the inability to attract young lawyers. He insists going to a regional centre is "a plausible solution for people who can't get articles in big cities," adding the problem of supplying legal services in smaller centres is only going to get worse as older lawyers retire. He says interesting law "doesn't end at the boundaries of Edmonton and Calgary." www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m F e b r uary 2013 25

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