After
reading my fellow articling students’ posts, I was really looking forward to
sharing my own experiences with all of you. Each and every one of my
weeks at MB has been filled with interesting and exciting
experiences, so I was sure that I would have no problem writing a blog post.
And then this week happened… no court appearances, no discoveries and/or
mediations to attend – just a week of playing catch up on missed calls and
emails, etc.
While it
was great to catch up on these rather mundane tasks, writing about my filing …
well that‘s not very exciting for you, the readers… Therefore, I decided to
take you back to my last week, and tell you what happened... (trust me, it’s
good).
The week
started off with me arguing my first contested motion! While I was
nervous, I had a sense of confidence because several months before, I appeared
before the court for another contested matter - MY first small claims court
trial! It was a professional negligence matter and I had never been
more nervous! I could not believe that I was getting the opportunity to
meet with the clients, prep them for their examination in chief, and write my
own opening and closing. With the support of the other students and
lawyers in the office, I managed to pull off a WIN; so I figured if I could
handle a trial on my own – I could handle this motion…
The motion
related to a costs order and both parties had the opportunity to present their
arguments to the Court. It was a great opportunity to practice my oral
advocacy and to speak on my feet (believe it or not, it gets easier the more
times you do it)….It was also a nice bonus to have the Judge rule in our
favour…
Next up on
my week was assisting one of the lawyers in writing a factum. It was a
complicated employment law issue and I was definitely feeling out of my
depth. But here is the great thing about McCague—you can always ask for
help! I was able to show several lawyers drafts of my writing and
received lots of helpful advice. Thirty pages later, I had drafted one of
my first factums. A couple days later, I then had the opportunity to
attend with that lawyer and watch him argue the factum that I had helped
draft. It was a pretty cool experience.
I could
tell you even more stories about last week….but I am enjoying my “slow”
week…and I have more filing and catching up to do. Until next time…
NG