Canadian Lawyer 4Students

TIPS FOR PRINCIPALS YOU'LL NEVER KNOW UNTIL YOU TRY 2 Ron Everard of Calgary firm Everard Kubitz changed the habit of a lifetime in law in 2002, hiring his first articling student more than two decades into his career. Until then, he'd been happy to leave the training to larger firms and hire young associates instead, with mixed results. A persistent student convinced him to take her on and Everard has never looked back. "I don't think I was alone in thinking [I was] never going to have a student, but that experience changed my thinking," he says. "We could expose her early to our culture and our way of doing things." Toronto family lawyer Robert Shawyer says he never thought of acting as an articling principal until he discovered how little experience was needed to become one, and thinks the shortage of positions in Ontario could be eased simply by making lawyers aware when they become eligible. "The majority of lawyers don't understand what the requirements of being an articling principal are," he says. In Ontario, lawyers need just three years of experience to become a principal. It's the same in Manitoba, while Alberta's law society requires four years. Others, such as Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, demand five years of experience. PLAY THE LONG GAME As much as you'd like to think they'll be profit generators from the get-go, articling students are unlikely to pay for themselves in the early days. And you shouldn't expect them to, says Ron Everard. "You're looking at someone who's going to be around long term. You can't see it as cheap labour for a year, and bring in another student the next. That's false economics. We have a practice here that's growing and you want someone who will fit long term," he says. Less than a decade ago, Justin Clark was one of the first articling students taken on at Brampton, Ont., firm Simmons Da Silva and Sinton LLP. Now he's a partner, and sees his own path as a model for future students. "We get to find future lawyers who are going to grow our firm, and our training process works with that in mind. They learn about the practice of law and how it works, they learn about going to court and the lawyer-client relationship, how to network and build a practice," Clark says. "If that student turns into a successful lawyer, I'm not sure there's really a cost at all to the firm." 1 3 There's no denying there is a cost to principals in articling, and it's probably not going to go well unless you're fully committed. Apart from the financial outlay in the form of a salary, some thought has to go into the kind of work the student will do, as well as the practical considerations that come with an extra body in the office, such as finding space and setting up a phone line. "It is costly and requires a significant degree of efforts relative to returns if the wrong articling student is hired in a small firm," says Selwyn Pieters, a sole practitioner from Toronto who has taken on several articling students in just over six years of practice. He says he felt compelled to do his bit to deal with the shortage, and takes extra care to make sure he selects the correct candidate. "The right articling student is someone who is driven, practical, teachable, dependable, and can use common sense and judgment," says Pieters. According to Aaron Grinhaus, firms that make the investment and plan carefully can reap the rewards. "The firm gets a workhorse and your time gets freed up to do more mar- keting. Anything you can do to get more busi- ness is going to improve the quality of a small firm," he says. C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS S PRING 2012 23 S PRING 2012 23 COMMIT TO IT

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