4 F A L L 2 0 1 5 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 S T U D E N T S
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PAD YOUR WALLET
LAW SCHOOL FUTURES
University of Alberta law dean
Ian Holloway focuses on the
future of legal education.
AB INITIO
Online columnist and 3L
Ted Flett explores the ups and
downs of life as a law student.
4STUDENTS
LPP: answering a different call
W
hile it's too early to declare Ontario's English- and French-language Law Practice
Program an overnight success a er just one year, it's interesting to consider its
successes and breakthroughs, and acknowledge it's a program many law grads
might have benefi ted from in the past — perhaps more so than from traditional articling.
Instead of looking at it as an "alternative" to articling or the bottom rung of what
detractors see as a two-tier system, is it perhaps more appropriate to view it as an entirely
diff erent beast aimed at arming certain law school grads with the skills for the future of
the practice of law depending on their own personal career goals?
A er speaking with the LPP grads we interviewed for the cover story, it seems there's
been too much focus on the declining opportunities for articling in big law and the
reduction in hire-back rates. e reality is many graduating from law school are not
headed for Bay Street. It's also estimated that 50 per cent of those who do go to work at
big fi rms end up leaving a er three years. So why not equip them for the future? ere are
also many foreign-trained lawyers who sought out LPP as a means to become licensed.
What's interesting, too, is the employers who participated in the LPP program now
have a view as to how they can play a role in addressing the articling crisis. e law
fi rms we spoke with that off ered placements said that, while they are still believers in
traditional articling, they recognized the need for others to have a passage to their call
and saw no reason not to support the LPP.
As Simon Mortimer of Toronto labour and employment fi rm Hicks Morley Hamilton
Stewart Storie LLP told us, while much of the knowledge the LPP candidate arrived with
didn't have direct applicability to the L&E practice, he was much like any other new
student arriving in need of the "real-life experience."
Mortimer says it takes at least eight weeks to assimilate into the fairly large fi rm of
more than 100 lawyers, making four months a short time. Some students felt that way
as well.
Hicks Morley views the LPP program as more of an internship, while articling is a path
to becoming an associate.
Fair enough. But it seems there is ample room for a second means toward gaining
employment in law a er law school.
It's time to move past any "stigma" associated with LPP and view it as another way
forward for a new generation of law grads.
