Canadian Lawyer 4Students

Ferrere has no desire to move from his native country. He received his BA and LLB from New Zealand's Univer- sity of Otago in 2007, and then clerked at a court and practised corporate civil litigation at a law firm. Aſter working in the profession for four years, he de- cided to pursue an LLM from U of T. He enjoyed studying the law and wanted to increase his legal education so he chose Canada because post-graduate degrees from overseas are highly regarded in New Zealand and the justice system is similar to the one he knows quite well. "New Zealand's got quite a tradition of heading to Canada actually, I've had quite a few colleagues that have come over here," he says. "I think the general reason is because the Canadian legal system is actually quite similar to New Zealand, coming from that Common- wealth tradition." Studying in Canada is also much cheaper than going to other countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States, he adds, and he is fasci- nated by the Canadian legal landscape. The biggest difference between the two countries, he notes, is that New Zea- land doesn't have a federal system of government like Canada, which took him some time to figure out. Rodriguez Ferrere says there seems to be a lot more pressure at law school in Canada as opposed to back home. "[E]verything that you do at univer- sity, at law school, is solely focused on what you're going to do aſterwards. It's certainly a consideration and everyone wants to get into practice aſter they do law school in New Zealand as well, but it feels less of a pressure-cooker environ- ment than there is over here. It seems to be over here that everything is driven towards getting a job on Bay Street, and if you don't then you've failed," he ex- plains. He says he hasn't been directly en- couraged to practise in Canada, but just being in classes with other JD students who are so driven and determined to go into private practice creates an intense environment. "I haven't met anybody that isn't going into practice aſter law school," he says. There seems to be an expectation in Canada that law graduates dout_4st_Mar_11.indd 1 will go into private practice, whereas that expectation doesn't really exist in New Zealand, he adds. However, Rodriguez Ferrere isn't worried about getting hired on Bay Street since he plans to return to New Zealand aſter graduation. He says he doesn't want to go through the pro- cess required for students with foreign law degrees to qualify to practise in Canada, which would include writing several equivalency exams and obtain- ing a work visa. He's also more inclined toward academic work rather than re- turning to private practice. ■ For more information on how to qualify to practise law in Canada if you received your law degree in another country, visit the National Committee on Accredi- tation's web site: flsc.ca/en/national- committee-on-accreditation. Looking for the right fi t in intellectual property? Ridout & Maybee LLP is a long-established intellectual property boutique. Our legal expertise and real-world technical knowledge are highly recommended in independent international surveys. We are a fi rm of approximately 45 intellectual property professionals – large enough to handle the most interesting and challenging intellectual property matters while remaining small enough to provide a tight-knit and collegial work environment. TORONTO MISSISSAUGA OTTAWA www.ridoutmaybee.com C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS S PRING 2012 31 2/23/11 11:03:09 AM

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