Canadian Lawyer 4Students

A lawyer up here could work 20 or 24 hours a day if he was so inclined. And there's full employment. Alexander Zaitzeff, Watkins Law First-year students will learn to draft documents like contracts and wills — a departure from the traditional model of simply analyzing appellate court decisions. In first-year criminal law students will conduct a bail hearing. "Academics in isolation need to be applied to bring them to life," says Stuesser. "We're going to be integrating skills within all our core courses." As part of this focus on skills, the law faculty will be made up of professors with practical experience. "What I'm looking for are practitioner-scholars," Stuesser says. "To be blunt, I think a lot of the problem with law schools these days is there's too many doctors and not enough lawyers." Students seem to be getting behind the new approach. Adam Schenk, a lifelong resident of Thunder Bay with an undergraduate degree from Lakehead, will be one of 55 students in the inaugural class when the school opens Sept. 3. Schenk says he was drawn to the new law school because the curriculum promises to make students "not only legally knowledgeable, but also well prepared to enter the field and actually practise law." If Stuesser gets his way, Lakehead graduates will not only be ready to practise law, but licensed too. He submitted a proposal to the Law Society of Upper Canada for a Law Practice Program that — if approved — will allow students to practise without having to article. The program would take place over the course of the three-year degree, and at no extra cost — a major boon, since the added cost was a major criticism of the LSUC's proposed alternative path to articling. Because the program would run concurrent with law school, effectively students would have to commit to finding articles well in advance. Still, Stuesser predicts the majority of students will opt into the LPP program, which would have a co-op component. While having a law school in the neighbourhood has many in the Northern Ontario legal community excited, not everyone is convinced that once the school opens its doors it will solve the significant access to justice problems in rural Canada. The principal issue is not the number of lawyers, but cost, according to Fred Bellefeuille, senior legal counsel and director of the legal department at the Union of Ontario Indians in North Bay, Ont. Between the endemic poverty in so many First Nations communities, the complexity of local laws, and the increased expense associated with delivering legal services to remote areas, cost becomes a significant barrier for many, he says. With so many complications, it's hard to see how simply adding a few more lawyers to local communities will substantially improve access to legal services. "I think it will help," says Bellefeuille. "But it's not the total solution." Even if an increase in lawyers would improve access to legal services in rural communities, a tailored curriculum and thorough application process is still no guarantee graduates will choose to build their careers in those locations. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, which was created to address similar problems of underserviced rural communities, has succeeded in retaining its graduates to practise in those areas. Sixty-five per cent of NOSM family medicine graduates stay to work in Northern Ontario. Still, it's difficult to predict whether the law faculty will see similar results. Dave Pierce, who grew up west of Thunder Bay in Fort Frances, Ont., won't be heading for the cement canyons of the big city any time soon. He has an MA from Lakehead, and works at the Nishnawbe Aski First Nation's political advocacy group. Better class sizes and job prospects are a plus, but for him the best part of having a local law school is that he won't have to relocate. "To be honest I was kind of dreading having to go back to southern Ontario to attend law school," he says. "So it kind of was very fortuitous." The cost of attending Lakehead's law school is also less than others in Ontario. Its annual tuition is $15,140 compared to just under $21,500 for a JD year at Osgoode Hall Law School or $16,709 at Western and almost $29,000 for those entering first year law at the University of Toronto. Lakehead law students aren't all like Pierce. Alison Morris, from Revelstoke, B.C., has no connection to Northern Ontario, and knew next to nothing about Lakehead before applying to be a part of the new law faculty. Although she grew up in small towns, Morris says she isn't ready to commit to practising in rural Canada. "I definitely wouldn't rule it out," she says, adding getting some early experience at a big city firm might be a good place to start, and she can always move to a smaller community later on. When asked about retention, Stuesser doesn't seem too concerned. "I don't think any law school can protect that," he says. "You provide a path and hope that students follow that path." ■ C A N A D I A N Law yer 4 students fall 2013 31 *

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