Staying Organized as an Articling Student

The transition from life as a law student to an articling student comes with a steep learning curve. 

Aside from the 12-week summer student term – which flies by in the blink of an eye – articling is the first real glimpse into the life of a practicing lawyer.

In my first three weeks with multiple assignments on the go at once and field trips scheduled by mentoring lawyers, and Ashley Faust, Student Director, I realized staying organized is crucial for both my success as an articling student and the success of the firm’s clients. These are the methods that have helped me stay organized.

Recording Assignment Details – Immediately!

At MB, our main source of assignments is the “list”, an email group where lawyers send tasks to all articling students. The firm is busy, so the list often moves quickly. To keep track of all my assignments, when a new assignment comes in, I immediately record important details on a spreadsheet provided by Ashley, including a breakdown of the tasks to be completed, the assigning lawyer, the client file number, and the due date. I then track my progress using a light system: green indicates I’m currently working on the assignment, yellow indicates I am awaiting feedback on the draft I’ve submitted, and red indicates my work has been approved. This system helps me manage deadlines to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Filing Emails

Whether it is messages from lawyers and clients, conflict checks, or updates about firm social events, managing the high volume of emails is challenging. To help stay organized, I create separate email folders for each new assignment. This allows me to file related emails into the appropriate folder, ensuring that all correspondence for an assignment is neatly recorded and easily accessible.>

Diarize Field Trips & Due Dates

MB prioritizes hands-on learning for articling students, so we attend several “field trips”. In the first few weeks of the articling term, I’ve already been scheduled to attend a mediation, an examination for discovery, a pre-trial conference, a motion, and an application. Using Outlook calendar, I diarize my field trips and set up reminders 3-4 days in advance. This gives me time to contact the lawyer for instructions and to review the file before attending. Proper scheduling allows me to organize assignment due dates around these field trips.

Establishing good habits as an articling student will make me more successful as a lawyer -- when organization and time management are even more crucial. After all, failing to keep track of deadlines as a lawyer could result in serious consequences, such as missed limitation periods, or a client being noted in default. Being organized also helps reduce stress because I know everything is accounted for and I have ample time to complete my assignments.

However, no matter how hard I try to stay organized, I know things will come up to throw my plans out of whack. In those situations, it is extremely comforting to have a supportive MB team around me. Whether it is reaching out to Ashley for advice on managing competing deadlines or calling over the cubicle to ask another articling student for assistance, I know there will always be someone ready and willing to help in any way they can. 

by Draeden L.

Balancing Life as a Personal Trainer turned Law Student

 

As a law student and personal trainer, I knew transitioning from student life to a professional environment would be challenging. How would I balance my time between a demanding job, getting to the gym, and staying on top of my nutrition? Would I have to forgo all social events and personal activities I enjoy? Definitely not!

Balancing the demands of law with my passion for fitness has taught me invaluable lessons about maintaining both physical and mental health.

This summer, my strategy for staying healthy, and productive included finding ways to eat nutritiously on busy days, doing exercises that alleviated pain from sitting at a desk, and creating routines to reduce stress.

Prioritizing Healthy Eating

One of the biggest changes in my life was the shift in my eating habits. Working in law is demanding, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of convenience foods. However, I’ve found that maintaining a healthy diet is crucial for both my energy levels and mental clarity. When I haven't the time to make lunch, I choose“healthier” on-the-go food choices at my favourite coffee shop!

Stretches and Exercises for Back and Neck Pain 

Spending long hours studying or working at a computer takes a toll on my back and neck. These are the stretches I do regularly to prevent pain.

Reducing Stress

I found creating a structured daily routine is one of the best ways to achieve success. It helps me get clear on my priorities, organize my time, and boost productivity. To make the most out of my 24 hours and limit procrastination, planning my day allows me to stay focused on my goals and direct my attention to the important things that I can control.

These are the things I considered when creating a productive schedule:

• Morning Routine: I start my day with a healthy breakfast and a quick workout to boost my energy and focus.
  
  
• Work and Study Blocks: I set specific times for working, ensuring I stay on track with my assignments.
  
  
• Breaks and Physical Activity: I incorporate short breaks and physical activity throughout the day to keep my mind and body fresh.
  
  
• Evening Wind Down: I dedicate time in the evening to relax and unwind, which helps me maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Finding Balance

In conclusion, change is inevitable and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Success depends on how I choose to approach the circumstances changing around me. Balancing a career in law has its challenges, but with the right routine and mindset, it’s possible to do less and achieve more.

I also found inspiration reading the ultimate self-help book, "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. It's infamous for a reason and it’s included in the Spotify Premium membership. So, grab your headphones and get walking!

by Zlata B.

Buckle Up… We’re going on a Field Trip!

When I originally looked at firms participating in the Ottawa recruitment, the first quality that stood out about MB was their commitment to students for hands-on participation in all areas of civil litigation. This was reiterated in every step of the interview process starting with OCI’s and all the way to in-firm interviews. 

Everyone kept going on about the ‘field trips’. 

While this was an intriguing aspect and something that certainly drew me to the firm, I still never expected to have so many ‘field trips’ available to me in my summer term (and it’s not even over yet!)

During our first week, Ashley, the Student Director, set up guided visits to the Ottawa and Toronto courthouse libraries. By the end of the second week, she had started coordinating appearances so that we could witness various steps in the civil litigation process!

My first ‘field trip’ – assigned to me from “The List” – was a two-day examination for discoveries on a commercial litigation file. I had no expectation of how the two days would go, and although it was much faster-paced than I had expected, I still learned a lot about the process. Then, I had the opportunity to attend discoveries for an MVA file. Having previously attended the commercial lit discovery, I thought I knew what I was walking into. But because it was another lawyer and a different type of law, it was completely different than the first one!

I have also had the opportunity to attend a mediation, where I spoke directly with an adjuster from an insurance company about their role in the process. I've also sat in on calls with clients when they’re being prepared for discoveries, and I have attended case conferences with judges!

Seeing how different lawyers approach various steps of the litigation process has been an unforgettable start to my legal career and an invaluable and unique way to learn about the legal profession. One of my biggest takeaways so far this summer is that every ‘field trip’ is different, and I will undoubtedly learn something new from each one I attend!

by Lauren M.

Finding my Sea Legs

I am working on a file that involves admiralty law, a practice area I had hoped to encounter this summer. What interests me about admiralty law is its reach and impact span every corner of the globe. Where there is water, there is shipping, where there is shipping, there are contracts, and where there are contracts, there are terms limiting liability. That's the prominent takeaway from my work on this assignment (so far anyway).

The incident at hand is not exactly a marine disaster, but it involves the carriage of goods by sea, nonetheless. The assignment has me feeling as though one part of me is on solid ground, while another is adrift at sea. It’s not as though I’ve capsized in a hurricane, it’s more of an issue of finding my sea legs.

Although Admiralty Law 101 is not a course offered at my school, I waded into the waters as best I could. 

Questions on my mind included: what are the relevant statutes, what are customary practices of the trade, what is a “bill of lading,” what happens in case of conflict of laws, and does this specific issue exist in the case law? After scouring the depths of WestLaw and Canlii, I felt as though I had assembled a watertight understanding of how the issue could be dealt with.

I completed what I thought I was supposed to do and met with the assigning lawyer, eager to discuss my findings. While I may have been on the right tack (pun intended), the lawyer’s words took the wind out of my sails: "Does this help our client?” In other words, all the research I immersed myself in may have been on point, but was it useful to the case? That's the sort of reframing I needed.

I suppose this is what my law professors have been implying when they have said “You need to learn to think like a lawyer.” As in, it’s one thing to “know” the law, but it’s another thing entirely to apply it in practice. Though it would be nice to learn as much as possible about this area of law, it's not practical. More importantly, it's not helpful. I am grateful for this interaction, as it helped me chart a new course of research on the matter. In the future, I will formulate a more concise research question before diving in.

While I may not land on the other side of this assignment as a decorated maritime lawyer, I have been exposed to an area of practice I would not otherwise have encountered in law school. I'm glad that my summer experience has so quickly expanded my legal lexicon, and I have my eyes trained on the horizon for more of these experiences.

by Joseph C.

Survey Says...

On Monday morning Ashley, the Student Director, emailed each of the eight summer students: “Please complete the attached questionnaire and send it back to me.”

The questionnaire was a survey with a list of tasks such as “drafted statement of claim”, and “worked on a personal injury claim, etc.,” with the option to select “yes” or “no” upon completion of the task.

Monday marked four weeks since we began working as summer students at MB, the time flew by, which wasn’t surprising. What was surprising, however, was the multitude of tasks we had been exposed to in those four short weeks. I filled in “Yes” to nearly half of the survey.

During OCI’s and In Firm Interviews last September, everyone in the interviews boasted about MB’s summer program and the hands-on experience the summer students receive. I’ll admit I was skeptical. How could such a program be possible? I had always been told that summer students -- especially those at downtown firms in Toronto -- would be tasked with nothing more than file production, research, and memo writing. Pre-OCIs, I expected my summer to be spent on Westlaw.

Then, in November, when I first visited MB in person, I was elated to learn that the summer students are exposed to meaningful litigation experiences during their term. While still skeptical, the MB articling students, outside of the interview, really drilled in the notion that things are different here.

In fact, Ashley has made it her mission to ensure that every single summer student attended both a mediation and an ED in their first few weeks. I was taken aback by this commitment. I thought I would be lucky if I attended a single ED all summer; I had no idea that exposing the summer students to these proceedings was the expectation, not the hope.

While not all work can be as exciting as attending a heated mediation, I’ve found that even the more “tedious” tasks -- i.e. drafting damages briefs or affidavits of documents -- are stepping stones to learning about the entire litigation process. The best way to learn about the development of a case is to analyze every single relevant document. I now have a much greater understanding of the way a file progresses, and how and why certain steps in the litigation process are taken.

Drafting statements of claim, statements of defence, mediation briefs, and initial reports has kept me engaged in client files. These tasks all serve their own unique purpose in the development of a case, which is why I am grateful for the opportunity to work on them.

After four weeks at MB, I am delighted at how many meaningful tasks we have been allowed to work on. Come August, I’m certain I’ll be able to complete Ashley’s survey to nearly 100%.

By Jordan J