Canadian Lawyer 4Students

10 s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 s t u d e n t s What are some of those skills and competencies? ere are a variety of competencies. Some of them are quite obvious. Strong analyti- cal skills are certainly one of the things that we look for, strong oral communication skills, students who have a client-service orientation — because everything that we do here is about our clients. Additionally, it can be a challenging ca- reer, for sure, and sometimes students are expected to work long hours. So resilience and a strong work ethic are also some of the competencies that we look for. We're always encouraging our lawyers to share feedback with our students and other lawyers so that they can improve on what they do. Oral communications skills are critical when dealing with our clients. It's important that our lawyers and students are concise, professional, and articulate. How do you identify those types of skills when interviewing? Our competencies-based recruitment ap- proach is quite unique because what we're trying to do is get our interviewer to learn about the students. What motivates them? What has their historical experience been, whether it's through extracurricular or ac- ademic experience? We really are trying to fi gure out what drives the students, what their strengths are, what they like doing, what their passions are, what motivates them. So the competencies-based approach means that we're bringing students into their experiences. When we're talking with them in the interview context, we want to learn more about their past experiences, why they chose certain initiatives, what they enjoy doing, what frustrated them about certain work environments. How are students' marks weighted against their other experiences? We talked earlier about analytical skills, and why that's important. I personally re- view all 900-plus resumes in September when we get them and I do that to ensure consistency of decision-making across law schools, and certainly to make sure that we're focusing on the competencies when we're doing our review. In terms of grades, that's one way of de- termining analytical skills — especially when we're reviewing on paper. at having been said, we have a number of competen- cies and grades are, while important, not a determinate factor. When we're looking for students with leadership potential, or initia- tive, strong work ethic — those competen- cies are equally as important as grades. What can recruits expect from their experience at McCarthys? When I speak to our students, I'm con- tinuously astonished by the opportunities that they get . . . being summer students or articling students. I would say that a large majority of our students in the business law rotation would have opportunities to A & Q * A * A & * & A & A * A & A * A Q * Q * Q A Q A * A Q A & Q & * & Q & A & A Q A & A * A & A Q A & A OUR STRENGTH IS YOUR FUTURE Meaningful work is in your grasp at Bereskin & Parr. Along with being one of Canada's leading IP law firms, we're also a place that values its people — and your input — and that makes Bereskin & Parr a great place to grow. We invite you to join us. Bereskin & Parr LLP | Toronto | Mississauga | Waterloo Region | Montréal | bereskinparr.com ntitled-1 1 14-01-27 7:45 PM

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