Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/153216
Practising personal injury law JAMes CuMInG, Cuming & Gillespie, Calgary + PROS: • Our personal injury practice involves acting only for plaintiffs. As such, we have the privilege of acting for individuals and their families and making a very direct and significant impact on their current situation, as well as their future. • As a firm we have chosen to limit our personal injury practice to serious injury claims. By doing so we can expend whatever time and resources each claim requires. • The benefit of being proactive and the independence in the scheduling of our practice allows us the ability to prioritize and schedule time for our families (and ourselves) to pursue rounded lives away from the office. • Having a smaller practice allows us to create a non-bureaucratic setting where we can think "outside the box" and assist our clients in non-traditional ways. We go so far as to retain private health-care providers for our clients. Assisting in our clients' recoveries can be as rewarding as resolving their claims. • Practising at a high level in an area of national interest has given us the opportunity to create excellent referral networks. We literally have friends across the country to whom we refer clients and work together on claims. This symbiosis assists our clients at the highest level, and fosters friendships and camaraderie as opposed to segmentation and competition. – CONS: • The most difficult days are those where we are contacted to consult on a catastrophic claim and we are unable to assist the injured party because their claim doesn't have the requisite components to pursue a tort action. • We typically enter our client's lives at a time of grief, turmoil, and despair. We warn our staff that usually "no one calls us when they've had a good day." • As a contingent fee-based personal injury practice, our efforts and investments in time do not always result in revenue and other tangible benefits. • Given the nature of our practice, and our internal financing of disbursements, we face significant pressures that those in a large partnership aren't confronted with. We need to ensure we have trials and/or mediations set yearround to foster continuous cash flow, balancing to avoid potential overscheduling or significant cash flow gaps. Practising in the B.C. Interior AndReW POWeLL, nixon Wenger LLP, Vernon, B.C. + PROS: – • The Okanagan Valley is renowned for its beauty and its climate. Everything they say about the lakes, golf courses, ski hills, and wineries is true. The lifestyle opportunities are second to none. • Also, one of the perks of living in a tourist area is you can enjoy a little cosmopolitan �lair without the stress of actually being in a city. • The relatively small size of the communities is terri�ic for raising a family and commuting is easy. • Similarly, the small size of the local bar makes for a collegial feel and a comfortable familiarity with the local lawyers, judges, and other members of the legal community. CONS: • I'm not sure this is a "con" so much as something to think about, but practising in a small community is a much less private affair than it might be in a larger city. Lawyers are very much known and recognized, which is great for developing business contacts, and leads to all kinds of opportunities for community service and involvement, but you do have to be prepared to be more of a public personality. • Also, you have to have realistic ideas about the scope of work available: A small town may not feed a highly specialized practice. Although there is plenty of work available, it will pay if you try to stay a little more generalized. C A N A D I A N Law yer 4 students fall 2013 33