Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50905
CHARLOTTE WILLSON, Heenan Blaikie LLP, Toronto Practising labour and employment law + PROS: • Labour and employment law is an exciting area of the law where lawyers have diverse practices and the work is anything but routine. • Labour and employment law is unique in that the amount of solicitor work (i.e. providing written legal opinions) is roughly equivalent to the amount of litigation (i.e. rep- resenting clients in front of a court or an administrative tribunal). • Th e issues that fall directly within a labour and employ- ment lawyer's bailiwick are quite varied. For example, labour and employment lawyers handle matters involving employ- ment standards legislation, union certifi cations, etc. • As well, other areas of the law that are not specifi c to labour and employment factor quite heavily in this area of practice, such as human rights, tax, and tort law (i.e. an al- Practising on Bay Street LUCAS E. LUNG, Lerners LLP + PROS: • Toronto is Canada's largest city and the home of the Ontario Court of Appeal. Many important cases are heard in the courts in Toronto, and as a litigation associate, there is a good chance that you will have an oppor- tunity to work on some interesting, high-profi le cases. • For young associates, the most signifi cant benefi t of working at a fi rm in downtown Toronto is the quality and availability of training and mentorship programs. Th is is not to say that you can't get good training and mentoring at smaller fi rms off Bay Street, but training programs at larger fi rms are generally more structured and better resourced. • Your best resource is your colleagues. You will work with lawyers who specialize in many diff erent areas of the law, so you can gain exposure to a variety of diff erent work. Also, if you don't understand a particular concept or need advice on strategy or procedure, help is usually just down the hall. ATTN: Ontario law students! FREE SUBSCRIPTION $125 VALUE! 38 F A L L 2010 C ANADIAN Lawy er 4STUDENTS - CONS: • Th e nightmare stories of Bay Street lawyers working through the night, every night, are somewhat exagger- ated, but the fast-paced nature of a Bay Street practice will no doubt translate into some late nights. It is possible to achieve work-life balance, but you need to make a con- scious eff ort to ensure you properly prioritize non-work activities. • It is sometimes easy to get lost in large fi rms with hun- dreds of lawyers, many of whom you will never meet. As a young associate, you have to make an extra eff ort to ensure you establish a presence and carve out a role for yourself at the fi rm. • Litigation associates at large Bay Street fi rms general- ly do not get into court as oſt en as their non-Bay Street peers. Th e reality is that clients with cases worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars do not want junior associ- ates arguing signifi cant motions or applications. You have to consciously seek out your advocacy opportunities, ei- ther on smaller fi les or through pro bono work. COURTESY OF LawPRO O reverses special HST levy Visit litigationstudent.com to register legation that an employer defamed his or her former employee). - CONS: • Despite its many positive attri- butes, labour and employment law is not without its drawbacks. Most notably, because the practice area is diverse, it oſt en takes junior lawyers a long period of time to master all of the pertinent skill sets. • Labour and employment law is not the most lucrative practice area. While lawyers in this practice area can earn very respectable incomes, those who choose to practise in other areas of the law, such as intellectual property or securities, will typically have greater opportunities to earn larger sums of money. Lawyers, paralegals mobilize for skirmish at law society AGM Law s F Inside This Issue 2 6 9 O & ,, Inside This Issue 3 Clinic's racism complaint to go ahead Adjudicator refuses LAO's bid to dismiss agency's claims A 7 9 Critics slam Canada's record on arbitration T on arbitration deal Click here to subscribe to subsc toda oda subscribe todo ay o day tto LAWTIM STIMES TIME T ME MES TIMES