Let’s Get Cracking: Tips for 2L Summer Recruitment Prep

The dreaded first year of law school has come to an end — grades have been released and summer is in full swing. Although the hardest part of law school is now in the past, the hard work is far from over since prepping for the recruitment process is just around the corner.

"One of your main takeaways of 1L should have been that
procrastination can be detrimental to your success."

Honing your time management skills by planning in advance and leaving yourself some buffer time can go a long way. Approach the OCI process in a similar fashion. Start early — your nerves will thank you.

What is the 2L recruitment process?

1. Submitting your applications;
2. Receiving your OCI schedule;
3. On-Campus Interviews (OCIs);
4. Call Day for scheduling in-firm interviews;
5. In-Firm Interviews; and
6. Call Day for final offers.

I’ll expand on the first stage in this blog post, since breaking down the entire process may be overwhelming at this point. Don’t fret — you can access several online resources as well as get advice from your peers and the Career Development Office at your school, to help guide you through the entire process when the time comes… At this stage, just focus on perfecting your application to leave a good first impression on your chosen firms.

How to Successfully Prepare and Submit your Applications

The recruitment process begins with students drafting their applications and submitting them electronically to their chosen firms. A typical application will include a resume, cover letter, transcripts, and a list of anticipated upper-year courses. It may sound straightforward, but prepare to spend countless hours adjusting font size and scrolling through Thesaurus.com looking for synonyms that make you sound like a unicorn.

Although most firms will accept your completed application through an online server that will be set up specifically for this recruitment process, some firms (like McCague Borlack) will only accept applications through e-mail. The online server has an added bonus for anxiety-prone students — you’ll be able to see exactly when each firm opens and reviews your application, which will subsequently send you into a spiral of anguish and overthought. Thus, do yourself a favour and don’t look! I would compare this feature of the online server to that time we all sat and refreshed the acceptance forums on lawstudents.ca when we impatiently waited to get accepted into law school.

Make sure to do your research by looking at each individual firm's website to learn what documents they require and how they would like to receive your completed application. Firms are looking for diligent students who can follow instructions and pay attention to detail, so triple-check your application before hitting “Send” because a mistake this early on would give firms an easy reason to take you out of the running.

An easy way to organize your prep for applications would be to make an Excel spreadsheet that lists the following:

1. firms you’re applying to;
2. documents each firm requires;
3. how the firms would like to receive your documents (i.e. through the server or e-mail);
4. who to address your application to;
5. the area of law the firm specializes in (i.e. corporate or litigation);
6. three notable things about their student program (or the firm generally);
7. a list of people you have met or want to meet at the firm; and
8. anything else you think you should know about the firm for application purposes.

This spreadsheet will make your life a lot easier because you won’t have to keep scouring the internet when you’re finalizing your cover letter. All of the information you will need to know for the purpose of drafting the firm-specific cover letter will be neatly laid out in front of you. This spreadsheet will also come in handy during Step 3 and Step 5 of the recruitment process. Not only will you have a list of people you’ve reached out to at each firm (so you can slip their name in during the actual interview), you will also be able to remind yourself of what you wrote months ago in your cover letter (OCIs take place 1-2 months after applications are due).

In order to ensure your application is perfect and polished, send your completed cover letter and résumé to a friend and/or mentor who would be willing to read it over in order to catch any last-minute spelling and grammar errors. This is an extremely important step — don’t be that guy (or girl) who mixes up “their”, “they’re”, or “there”.

Final Words of Wisdom

The best advice I could give students about the application portion of this process would be to start early. The application deadline is set for August 20th, 2018, by 5:00pm. McCague Borlack is accepting applications via email to StudentApplications@mccagueborlack.com. If you plan on networking prior to the process kicking off (which is always a good idea), I would recommend starting no later than the beginning of July. You are expected to tailor each application to the firm you’re applying to, so what better way to get a feel for the firm culture, student program, and summer student work tasks than to ask the current 2L summer students, associates, partners, and student recruiters.

Lastly, please note that not every firm sends out confirmation e-mails acknowledging receipt of your application, so, unfortunately, you will have to put your faith in technology and hang tight until the OCI schedule gets posted.  Good luck with the process!

by Alyona K.

Forget the molehills...

Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. 

This is one of those easier said than done types of things. What exactly does this mean? To me, it means attributing the proper amount of work, time and energy to the appropriate task and avoiding getting trapped in your own mind when it comes to new tasks or ones that on the surface, appear to be frightening, such as attending your first motion.

Don’t psyche yourself out.

Many people will tell you that it’s ok to be over prepared. While I generally agree with this, there are certain limits you can learn through experience. For instance, how many times should I rehearse my opening address to the master for a motion on consent? In fact, I had this very issue... I spent the night before a motion rehearsing over and over exactly what I was going to say in hopes that I would avoid making any mistakes. The more I rehearsed the more daunting the task became and I built the motion up to be a massive event that consumed my every thought and emotion until I was able to speak in front of the master.

The funny part about this is, after all, that practice, stress and being about as nervous as an articling student on their first motion could possibly be, before I was able to start my spiel, the master said; “This is on consent, right? Can I see the order?” Just like that, the motion, the very same one that I had spent so much time preparing for, was over before I could even say my name.

Know where to draw the line.

Realize when you are sufficiently prepared to avoid obsessing over something that doesn’t warrant that amount of energy.

Being adequately prepared for anything is definitely very important. It may seem obvious to say, but being underprepared is not the idea I’m trying to convey. What’s important is finding that sweet spot between knowing when you’re sufficiently prepared and not becoming too immersed in the task so as to let it seem like an obstacle in your mind that is preventing you from being able to relax.

Through experience, I have gotten better at properly attributing the proportionate amount of work and preparation required to the nature of the tasks I am given. I have also realized it is usually when there is the element of the unknown at play, where I begin to over-prepare. It is important to not let the fact that it is your first time doing a particular task overshadow the idea that the potential task may be very simple.

The basic takeaway from this is that through experience, we should learn how to reserve our efforts for the tasks that are actually “mountains” and get better at distinguishing them from “molehills”. Plus be aware our minds are capable of playing tricks on us and making tasks appear to be more difficult or daunting than they actually are.

Michael G.

Tips for the Bar Exam

So you just wrote your final exam of law school. Inevitably upon completing the exam, you celebrate because you’re about to graduate and finally be done with school. You also begin planning how amazing your time off in the summer will be before you start Articling. However, something just doesn’t seem right. Although you know you should be ecstatic and excited for your summer, you just can’t seem to figure out why the feeling is not of pure joy. Oh right, you registered to write the bar exam in June!

Remember, it’s only 6 weeks of intense studying and then you can relax.

Materials
A week after completing your last exam, you might find yourself picking up the materials for the bar. As you’re handed the two separate bundles of materials (barristers and solicitors), the first thing you might do is check how many pages there are in total. That’s right, about 1800 pages but don’t worry, about 300 of them are common to both exams. A week prior you were feeling immensely happy for being done school but now, you quickly begin to feel the stress of having to write two exams that culminate your entire efforts in the past 3 years.

Delayed Reaction
Although writing the bar may seem like a difficult and daunting task, I’m going to tell you that it was certainly not as bad as I made it out to be. One of the more difficult things to come to terms with was that my celebration for being done law school and being able to fully enjoy the summer were to be delayed until the middle of June. Once you come to terms with delaying your summer plans, gain a feel for what the materials are like and set a reading schedule. It’s really all about staying focused and ensuring that you get through the materials at least once, and of course, be sure to have good indices. Remember, it’s only 6 weeks of intense studying and then you can relax.

Exam Day
On exam day, make sure you arrive early, pack nutritious food and most importantly, stay calm. I can’t stress that last point enough. Of course being adequately prepared will also help ensure that you are calm and collected before and during the exam. Try not to rush questions, but also do not spend too much time on one if you just can’t seem to get the answer. Timing is much more important than being stubborn and not moving on from a question when you’ve already dwelled on it for too long. If this happens, I suggest choosing the answer that you think might be correct, or a random one if they all seem equally plausible, and noting it so you can come back if there is some time at the end. The reason I suggest filling in an answer and not leaving it blank is because you may find that you run out of time by the end and it’s better to at least have an answer than to leave it blank. Just don’t press too hard with your pencil, you might need to erase and correct it.


Go for June
The study time and the exams will fly by, just as the last 3 years already have. Before you know it, you’ll be articling and all the stress of law school and the bar will seem distant and inconsequential. In fact, I strongly recommend writing the bar in June if it fits into your schedule because you will likely still be in exam mode from your finals, and you will not have to stress over the exams while you Article.

In summary
Give the materials the time they deserve, try not to stress too much on exam day and remember, if you’re prepared, it should all work out.

Michael G.

February 2018 - In answer to the comment below:  Melissa P replies:

I would suggest taking the following online practice tests as I found them very helpful:

• Barpreppal
• Ontario Law Exams
• Canbarprep

Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

matters are very often resolved without judicial intervention, sometimes on the eve of a motion or trial...

As articling students, we often assist on motions or trials that require several hours of preparation before a hearing date. We conduct our research, draft our materials, and wait with anticipation for the hearing date that took months or years to obtain. However, these matters are very often resolved without judicial intervention, sometimes on the eve of a motion or trial. Even if the result is advantageous, the anti-climax, at times, can be quite disappointing.

As is often the case with the litigants themselves, we wanted our day in court. It is sometimes difficult to keep our eyes on the prize; we won without having to go through the risk of the motion or trial. This completely reasonable intellectual rationalization offers little comfort to an articling student, whose time and effort seems to have been for naught.

I have found solace in another, equally valid rationalization; the positive result or resolution would never have been possible without the preparation for the motion or trial. One’s strategic position can be significantly altered when an opposing party reads well-researched, well-written materials. At that point, a master or judge may no longer be necessary.

Therefore, while the drama may be somewhat muted, I have learned to take an advantageous result obtained before a motion or trial as what it is: a win that was earned.

Eric K.

Ottawa Interviews

February in Ottawa means three things to students:

1. Like Ground Hog day, you've got at least 6 more weeks of frozen temperatures to look forward to.
2. Mid-terms are literally around the corner so your study time, and your level of procrastination, should be up to an all-time high.
3. Interview season is here!

Get a sense of who will be interviewing you by reading our lawyers’ online bios...

Interviews for the 2014 summer student positions are coming up next week at our Ottawa office and all of us here are thrilled to welcome you to our office for a chat.

I was in your shoes recently when I was interviewed for the Ottawa office articling position. While I can’t shorten our brutal Canadian winters or help you study for midterms, I can surely give you some tips for the Ottawa firm interviews.

Shivaan’s Top Tenacious Tips!

Get a sense of the potential interviewers

Nothing cuts the edge of interview jitters better than knowing that you have some sincere appreciation of  your interviewers’ experience and craft. Get a sense of who will be interviewing you by reading our lawyers’ online bios, and don’t forget to check out their articles which are also posted on our site. I bet you that at least one of our lawyers have written on a legal topic that will interest you.

Bring YOUR game to the interview

This might sound strange, but part of your preparation should be to consider who you are and how you got onto your current path. I am sure there is an interesting and even endearing story behind you. Tap into the part of you that has been temporarily bogged under text books and case summaries. Who you are and how you got to where you are is YOUR selling point. So, bring it.

The reason why MB has considered you for the summer position is because they saw something from your resume that jumped out at them, aside from your legal experience or education. Check out the profiles of our lawyers, articling students, and previous summer students. You will notice that we all come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. MB values a workplace with members who have diverse experiences.

I’m not going to lie; I was nervous coming in for the interview for the articling position at MB. I was coming to the table with certainly more non-legal experiences than legal-experiences, and didn't know how that would be received in the interview. I was pleasantly surprised by my interviewer’s genuine interest to discuss not just my legal experience but my non-legal experience. We both had a common love for photography and travel, and it made for some great conversation. For me, it was important finding a place that appreciates me for who I am, and that’s what I found at MB.

Go ahead and showcase your proudest achievements and qualities!

You’re a star, so shine like one

You've decided to interview with a litigation firm so speaking must be something you love to do. Being able present oral submissions in front of a master or discussing settlement with opposing counsel, will be an important part of your future career as a litigator at MB.

However, there’s another part of your career where speaking is very important. I’ll let you in on a little secret: MB is in the customer service industry. MB’s main goal is to ensure customer satisfaction by providing quality legal services. A big part of our jobs is developing meaningful connections with clients. Your interviewer will want to get a sense of how comfortable you are speaking with others. Let your conversationalist side shine in the interview.

Be choosy

Nothing is worse than getting something that you didn't bargain for. Be prepared to bring thoughtful questions to your interview. Be ready to voice the ideas and values that are important to you. If you have questions after reading up on our philosophy and principles from the site, bring them with you. Remember, it’s as much about you interviewing the firm, as it is the firm interviewing you.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: be yourself and let your sincere interest come through.

Fingers crossed for a swift end to this polar vortex, good luck with midterm exams, and I’m looking forward to meeting you next week!

Shivaan dS.

The Power of Preparation

The time is 9:10 am. The room is filled with professionals of all ages, sitting around tables with notepads open, pens poised, and coffees steaming. With a few taps on the microphone, all attention swivels to the front of the room where nine people sit around a u-shaped table. As they take a last look at their notes, the mediator begins to speak and they all settle in for the morning’s show…

...we learned just how much work goes into preparing for mediation – real or staged.

No, these are not the stage directions for a new play in town, but rather how I spent a morning last week. A month ago, an email went out around the firm that one of the partners was putting on a mediation advocacy seminar and would anyone like to volunteer to participate. The articling students jumped at the opportunity to partake, and, along with a few of the associates, we learned just how much work goes into preparing for mediation – real or staged.

At our first prep meeting for the mock mediation, it was stressed that preparation was the key to doing a good job. We needed to learn our roles, be they as clients or counsel, know what our goals and motivations are, and prepare for how we would react when information we didn’t necessarily want to come out came out.

I myself was playing a particularly unhinged client, lying to herself, her lawyer, and her employer. My character had gone to Jamaica with her boyfriend while on Short Term Disability, and had lied about her troubled history with drugs, alcohol, and the law on her job application. She wanted to keep her job, but more than that, she wanted to feel vindicated in the decisions she had made.

As I learned more about my character and how I wanted to present her I realized that the kind of investigation I was doing was the same I would need to do if I was representing her instead of simply playing her at mediation. In order to be a good advocate, it would not be enough to just replicate the pleadings and take information at face value into mediation.

And so as the mediation unfolded and we each played our parts – intentionally flawed to show the pitfalls of styles perfectly acceptable in the truly adversarial courtroom setting – we all felt the power of preparation taking over. When information we were unaware of was presented to us, we were able to respond convincingly. When the mediator asked questions that went three or four levels deep about our motivations, we were able to give plausible explanations. While the rave reviews at the end of the seminar were heartening (it was suggested we take the show on the road!), what we really took away was that there simply is no substitute to being well prepared.

Kati A.

If I could turn back time...

Even looking back to two months ago, before we were entrenched in attending settlement conferences or mediations, meeting with clients or presenting at seminars, or whether it’s just keeping up with the day to day carriage of our files, and doing it all, here are a couple things that I have learned that I wish I would have known before:

Here are a couple things that I have learned that I wish I would have known before...

1. No matter how confident you are in your case, opposing counsel usually feels the same way.

Now that I have been to a few settlement conferences and mediations, I have learned a lesson that all lawyers inevitably already know; opposing counsel usually thinks that they are just as right as you think you are. Now that I have come to this realization, I have increased my focus during preparation on better understanding what angle and approach the other side might take. Not only does this help me in determining deficiencies in my own case that I need to address (better I address it than have opposing counsel bring it up in court) but it also allows me to anticipate, and thus better respond to, the arguments that will be made against me.

2. If you’re not over prepared, you’re under prepared

The juggling act that we engage in before every appearance truly is a spectacle. We must be able to balance our time with our need to be fully prepared, and further with our need to act in a cost effective, yet efficient manner. However, after watching Masters refuse to grant various ex parte motions because counsel either could not provide answers to basic questions about their case or because they neglected to ensure that their pleadings were in accordance to the Rules, it appears that this problem doesn’t disappear once you are called to the bar. Being well prepared is a virtue, and although it may take some additional time upfront, in the long term it will almost always save you time, stress, and last minute research.

3. Lawyers are real people, in fact, so are partners

Now that we have experience working alongside partners and associates alike, the initial feeling of horror that we experienced when having to ask partners or senior lawyers a question is gone. Although they have significantly more experience and are much busier than us, they have no problem in answering even our most basic questions. An equally important finding is that as with most people, Partners have a sense of humour! For example, as I was sitting in a partner's office getting instructions on an assignment, he pointed to a stack of 10+ banker boxes next to me and said “that’s all the material for this file that you’ll need” just to laugh at the look of terror on my face (the file was in fact neatly stored into only 6 banker boxes).

4. Take a map whenever you walk in Toronto's PATH

At least once a week you will hear me say “I swear it was right here yesterday!” I can now draft complicated factums, argue motions and successfully attend settlement conferences, but I still cannot figure out where Yogen Fruz is!


With eight more months to the articling term, I can’t even imagine what else I will look back on and say ‘ if only I knew…”

David O.

OCI Speed Interviews - A Survival Guide

Thoroughly revised resumes, a conference centre full of curtain enclosed cubicles, nervous law students pacing hallways, announcers broadcasting “your 17 minutes are up,” and here you are – in the middle of OCIs – a.k.a. On Campus Interviews. It is that time of year again.

OCIs are often likened to speed-dating where interviewers from forty or more Toronto firms await eager law students who have mere minutes to wow them.

OCIs are often likened to speed-dating where interviewers from forty or more Toronto firms await eager law students who have mere minutes to wow them. As anyone can imagine, preparation is not only necessary for each firm’s interview, but also for surviving the day. As you are competing with classmates, and your family is bewildered by the concept of “speed-interviewing”, planning for OCI’s is very isolating. So, I surveyed my fellow MB articling students, who all snapped up a summer gig at MB through their OCIs, and here is some seasoned advise to all OCI-ing students.

1. Talk to upper year students and students at the firm. This is No. 1 for a reason. Students are a goldmine and this simple task will impart a wealth of information about the firm’s personality and focus. Whether the student was successful or not, they may have useful information on the firm, the interviewers, or questions asked.

2. Be prepared with answers. Some of their questions will be standard and you can look them up on any recruiting site. Read up and prepare. Some firms ask abstract or philosophical questions, such as “tell us something about yourself that is not on your resume,” so it is good to anticipate these too.

3. Also have questions prepared. Never under-estimate the importance of your questions back. Don’t be shy, questions reveal to them where your interests lay and could give you important answers about the firm.

4. Do not necessarily talk to the interviewers like they are your parents' friends. I was advised to many times but I am very comfortable around my parents’ friends so it wouldn’t work for me. So while you should try to appear and feel comfortable in the interview, be careful not to be too casual. Always err on the side of professional.

5. Get a good night’s sleep and wake up early. If you are not a morning person, like me, you should leave yourself a lot of time in the morning to really wake up. Read the newspaper or similar task to oil the gears in your brain and get them churning.

6. Get your facts straight! Make sure you don’t mix up the facts about each firm. An articling student recalled a horror OCI story where he went on for 5 minutes praising a firm’s rotation system, which did not exist. Keep notes on each firm and study them before you go in. Remember, talking to the upper years and articling students about their firms will be the best resources for creating your notes.

7. Know every line of your resume and prepare a ‘story’ for each one. Some interviewers will ask about obscure or even mundane parts of your resume, so you have to be prepared to wow them with each and every part, and of course, ensure everything is true!

8. Be yourself and enjoy it. You get to talk about yourself for the entire day! Despite the fact that it is competitive and intimidating, OCIs can be a lot of fun. You have worked hard to get here, now it’s time to show it off. You are awesome and the interviewers want to know why. Sell yourself, but be careful not to cross into over-confidence.

9. Pack snacks. OCIs can be exhausting, so it’s important to keep your energy levels up! Bringing some healthy snacks such as an apple, almonds, and/or a power bar will really help you stay at the top of your game.

10. Smile and relax. It’s just a job!

Good Luck everyone and happy OCI-ing! I hope to see you in November!

Emily C.