Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50901
ANNE SPAFFORD, Lerners LLP, Toronto Practising medical malpractice law + PROS: • Doing medical malpractice work, you necessarily acquire a great deal of knowl- edge of medical matters, which is helpful in everyday life. • Since it is a very specialized area, it is a small bar and there is a great deal of collegiality. Also, because there are very few "dabblers," most lawyers doing the work are very knowledgeable in the area. • Generally speaking, it is not a paper-intense practice so you won't spend hours and hours going through/organizing documents. • For the most part, the factual and legal issues are interest- ing and challenging. • For those of us doing the defence work, the clients are very sophisticated. Practising medical malpractice law Pacific Medical Law, Vancouver + PROS: • If you're curious and never want to be bored, then medical malpractice litigation is defi - nitely an area of the law to explore. You will be faced with a dizzying array of human interest stories set within a complex area of the law. - CONS: • Th e personal challenge, or some may say "con," of this area of the law is listening to so many despairing patients or their fami- lies, yet interacting with each individual with humanity and pro- fessionalism. • Th e legal challenge is the great number of injured people medi- cal malpractice lawyers cannot help because the economic risk of litigating their cases outweighs their potential monetary re- covery. ■ Dimock Stratton is a great place to article and work Everyone at the firm is very supportive, the work is challenging, and I gained valuable experience working with seasoned lawyers. Choosing to summer and article here were definitely the right decisions for me. Three years later, I know I'm off to a great start in my career in ip law. Dimock Stratton llp experience. results. 20 Queen W. 32nd fl, Toronto | 416.971.7202 | dimock.com C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS SPRING 2011 33 titled-1 1 2/16/11 4:31:39 P LINDA WONG, - CONS: • All of these cases involve someone having a bad outcome while receiving medical treatment. Th e plaintiff s/patients can be very sympathetic so whether you act for plaintiff s or defendants, it is important not to get involved from an emo- tional standpoint. • Some cases literally involve blood and guts, so it is not for the faint-hearted. • For those doing plaintiff work, these cases tend to be very diffi cult to succeed on. • Since the area is very specialized, there is a steep learning curve. It is not for dabblers. • All cases involve the retainer of experts so it is critical to de- termine what expert is needed and it helps tremendously to know who the experts are and be able to get them to agree to assist you on a case. Without experts, your case will likely fail, whether you are acting for the plaintiff s or defendants. Jennifer Ko, Associate *