Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50715
and professional practice and responsibil- ity. U.K. students must go through the Bar Professional Training Course, which in- volves one full year or two part-time years of practice simulations, practical training, and other skills development. A U.S.-style bar exam system is also an option. Many lawyers view articling as a deeply student. It's an expensive model to train legal professionals, and it can have excel- lent outcomes. But I guess the question is, has it become too expensive? Can we aff ord to provide the number of articling spots that we need? And are we providing a pretty good, uniform experience as arti- cles? Th ose are really questions I know the Any change that we make in the admissions process, if you ask us the question, 'How does that serve the public interest?' we'd better have a good answer. ALAN TRELEAVEN, LAW SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA rooted tradition that must be preserved regardless of short-term consequences. Treleaven, for one, does not subscribe to that belief. He says law societies in Can- ada must act in the public interest to en- sure newly called lawyers have eff ective, hands-on training that includes exposure to providing legal services to real clients. "Articling is the vehicle through which we've chosen to do that," he explains. "Any change that we make in the admissions process, if you ask us the question, 'How does that serve the public interest?' we'd better have a good answer." Queen's University Faculty of Law dean William Flanagan says another key consideration in the discussion over arti- cling's future is that students' experiences vary widely depending on the fi rm that takes them on. It's tough to argue that a student at a well-resourced Bay Street fi rm receives the same training as one working under a sole practitioner. Flanagan says better-resourced fi rms off er students the kind of mentorship that the articling ex- perience intends to foster. Th at may not be possible, however, at all smaller fi rms, where there's neither time nor money for that same type of training. "Th at's an im- portant thing to take into account — that articling is not necessarily a uniform ex- perience," he says. "In some regard, it's a bit of a limousine model of training. It's costly; it requires a considerable invest- ment by the fi rm in training an articling law society is committed to examining." At the end of the day, Flanagan basi- cally believes it's unfair to bring a student through law school and fail to make room for them in the profession for any reason other than the fact that they've failed to pass the bar exams. "If they can't qualify just because there are no articling posi- tions, I'm not sure that's fair to that appli- cant," he says. On top of it all, the growing shortage of articling spots doesn't seem to be con- fi ned to any specifi c segment of the law school population. Dean Mayo Moran of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law says for the 2008-09 articling term, only two or three per cent of the school's stu- dents failed to land a position. For 2010- 11, she says the number remains "well be- low 10 per cent, but there is an increase." Notes Moran: "Given what it takes to get into U of T law school and the reputation, if those students are having trouble, then other students are as well." Moran has traditionally been a staunch backer of articling, but is now willing to concede that it is timely for the law society in Ontario to look at alternatives. She ap- plauds Pawlitza for striking the new task force, but Moran continues to advocate for the program's continuation, despite the current shortage of positions. "I've always been a fan of articling," she says. "It's a very good partnership between the profession and the academy, and I think we do well what we do, and then the pro- fession does the initial stage of hands-on practical training. It's been a great part- nership that's led to an outstanding legal profession. I would be sorry to throw the baby out with the bathwater because there are problems with it." U of T's dean acknowledges that schools have some responsibility to help students land an articling position. She references the ongoing debate in the Unit- ed States, where law schools are criticized for accepting students, despite knowing full well that job prospects are dim fol- lowing graduation. Some have said it's immoral for schools to accept heſt y tu- ition from students in such circumstanc- es. "We're not in that position in Canada, but I do think we need to be responsible with the way that we admit classes," says Moran. "Once we admit people, we need to support them and help them fi nd em- ployment. I think we need to encourage the profession to off er articling positions, because the number of places off ering articling has shrunk basically to govern- ment and large fi rm private practice." Moran notes that law schools have fi xed costs, and there are always incen- tives to boost enrolment based on that re- ality. "At the same time, you don't want to take on students where there's no prospect of them getting work," she says. "I don't think anyone's doing that, but I wouldn't want to see that happen." Students are also quite fortunate that large fi rms have been eager to take on the heavy burden of helping bookend their training. Each year Canada's large and mid-size fi rms usher in a fresh crop of stu- dents, with many of the top fi rms off ering extensive training regimens for their hires, on top of the legal work for which they are typically well compensated. Some may look at this massive investment by fi rms as an unfair burden. Aſt er all, it's the law soci- eties that require completion of an articling term, and the law schools that bring stu- dents to that point in their training. Nev- ertheless, large fi rms appear steadfast in their support of the articling requirement. "From our perspective, students represent our fi rm's greatest source for future asso- ciates and partners," says Natalie Zinman, director of student programs at Gowling Lafl eur Henderson LLP in Toronto. "We C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS F all 2011 19