Family Law on Monday, Privacy Law on Tuesday, and Transportation Law on Wednesday...

Being an articling student is one of the few times in a legal career where we are afforded the opportunity to practice several different areas of law in any given week. As you may have gleaned from the title, I’ve been given this chance during my articling term with McCague Borlack LLP.

For my development, I keep track of all the assignments I complete.

"Here’s what my daily journals
look like in a typical week..."

Monday - Family Law

My week began with completing the first draft of a separation agreement for one of our clients. It was exciting because I needed to draft terms that reflected our client’s interests. This included going through a risk analysis of each key term to see if it could be used against us. Being trained at a firm that primarily does litigation work, I have been provided with insight into the ways that contractual terms can be effectively drafted to accomplish their goals.

Tuesday - Privacy Law

I was tasked with conducting legal research around the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act [PIPEDA]. After my research, I wrote to our client to advise on whether their practices and policies were compliant with PIPEDA and helped them prepare consent forms. My newfound interest in Privacy Law is entirely because of the diverse legal work I am given at our firm.

Wednesday - Transportation Law

I began a transportation law-related action in New Brunswick. This involved researching how to bring an action in New Brunswick, reviewing all the relevant documents, drafting a Notice of Action with a Statement of Claim, then serving and filing the Claim. This wasn’t the first time I had to bring an action in another province, nor will it be the last.

Thursday - Mediation

I attended a mediation for which I prepared the mediation brief. We settled, and it was amazing to see the arguments I prepared come to life and help create a positive result for our client.

As you can see, many of my weeks and days end up being filled with various areas of law. It always keeps me engaged and I look forward to assignments that have me exploring a new area.

by Paul J.

Bringing a Motion for the First Time: Step-by-Step

I believed to attend and speak to a motion in Court would be a cornerstone of my articling experience. 

"Luckily, last month, I was asked to assist a lawyer to bring an unopposed motion for the first time."

This was a five-step process:

1. Submitting the motion confirmation form: The purpose of this form is to provide the Court with all necessary information regarding the motion being brought forward, including the date and jurisdiction, the estimated time required for the motion, and the position of the parties involved.
   
   
2. Confirming the position of all parties: The motion confirmation form must be sent to all parties for their review as a part of scheduling the motion. The party making the motion must discuss this matter with all parties and each party must confirm whether they are unopposed, opposed, or otherwise consent to this motion prior to the date of the motion.
   
   
3. Upload documents onto Caselines: Caselines is the portal used in Ontario to ensure that the judicial official has access to your materials. Uploading to Caselines is mandatory and material that is not uploaded will likely not be reviewed in advance. Using Caselines for the first time was challenging, but with help from the articling group and the lawyer I was working with, I was able to navigate this system with ease.
   
   
I also learned that the Superior Court of Justice operates with strict timelines; for instance, you need to get the Civil Motion Confirmation Form to be emailed to the court by 2:00 p.m. five days prior to the hearing, excluding weekends and holidays and motion materials must be uploaded into CaseLines at least three days in advance of the hearing. Given the rigidness of these timelines, it is beneficial to begin gathering and submitting motion materials as early as possible.


4. Attending Court and speaking to the motion: I presented the motion to the Justice and answered any questions she had about the motion. I also had to make some edits to the draft order, so I had a Word version of the Order on hand. Since this was my first time attending Court, I made sure that I knew the matter I was speaking to very well. Answering questions requires quick and agile thinking, so it is important to be fully prepared and well-versed prior to the day of the motion.
   
   
5. Issuing the Order with the Court and serving it on all parties: Once the relief you are seeking is obtained in the form of an Order, the Order must be issued and entered at the Courthouse. Once issued, the Order is to be served on opposing Counsel.

While speaking to a motion in Court can be a daunting process, it is also one that is exciting and rewarding!

by Kritika S.

Articling in 270 rows

With final reviews and offers to come, I find myself looking back on how far I have come since I started here in August. Back then, everything seemed very foreign. Pleadings sounded like a desert and summarizing thousands of pages of productions sounded like a daunting task.

Looking at my assignment worksheet on excel (which every articling student likely has an iteration of) it looks like I have completed roughly 270 unique assignments to date. These assignments differ in complexity, length of time required to complete, and how interesting they were. In reviewing the list, I would say that there are probably seven categories of assignments that I have worked on:

1. Pleadings (i.e., Statements of Defence, Claim, Third Party Claims, Defences, etc.);
2. Research;
3. Summaries (i.e., summarize affidavits of documents or undertakings productions);
4. Review and Compile’ (i.e., affidavits of documents, books of authority, etc.);
5. Motion Materials (i.e., affidavits, notices of motion, motion records, etc.);
6. Written Advocacy (i.e., mediation briefs, pre-trial briefs, factums, etc.); and,
7. Oral advocacy (i.e., speaking to a motion).

While any list is necessarily over or under-inclusive, and your mileage may vary, I would say that the list is a fair representation of an articling student’s life at a civil litigation firm.

Looking back, I am proud of how far I have come, and how much I have learned. When I interviewed with the firm, I was told something to the effect of ‘we train litigators’, and I can confidently say that that promise has been fulfilled. The firm has allowed me to be involved in each and every step of the litigation process, from the pleading stage to the execution stage, and for that, I am very grateful.

There’s no real takeaway here, but if one is required, I would say it is amazing just how much you can learn in the right setting.

by Conner S.

Here's a peek into one Articling Student’s work

As articling students, we are given the opportunity to assist lawyers with different types of work. Our assignments vary, depending on the file’s stage in the course of litigation.

One of my past assignments required me to research case law where a party had suffered similar injuries as our client and to focus specifically on the non-pecuniary damages awarded by the court. 

My research would ultimately assist the lawyer with their post-discovery report, which must be prepared for the client after an examination for discovery. This report typically entails pertinent evidence from the examination for discovery, along with the lawyer’s revised liability and damages assessment of the file.

In order to find relevant cases, I took a three-step approach.

1. I logged into the firm's Westlaw account, an online legal research platform. I also spoke to a Westlaw representative over the phone, who introduced me to the “Personal Injury Quantum Service” tool. By inputting certain general details, such as the type of injuries sustained, age group of the injured party, and jurisdiction, the tool populated the applicable cases along with a range of damages awarded in those cases. 
   
   
2. Then, I met with our firm’s designated Westlaw representative over Microsoft Teams. I shared my screen, allowing me to learn more about the fascinating Westlaw platform and obtain more thorough research results. 
   
   
3. As a final step, I sent a firm e-mail to the “MB lawyers'"group, asking for their insight on this topic. One of the lawyers directed me to the “Compendium of Damages awarded in personal injury actions across Ontario”, which was compiled by CCLA and was useful for my assignment.

The examples above are indicative of the vast variety of resources available to students for their work. While it is inevitable that we will get assignments we have never done before on topics we are unfamiliar with, what remains consistent throughout is the firm's support available to help us every step of the way.

by Ashna G.

Look for a Firm That Includes Students in Decision Making

Ottawa recruitment is coming up and I remember how daunting the OCI process is. For those that aren’t aware, OCIs are when second-year law students apply for summer jobs, in hopes that the employer will ask them to article. 

"The amount of time, energy and pressure facing students during recruitment is unmatched in any other hiring process that I’m aware of."

Students write firm-specific resumes and cover letters, they submit them through the web portal and they eagerly wait to see which firms will interview them. In my year, this process was done in person. The first interview was held at the convention centre. Every 15 minutes, you’d rush off to the next interview. It’s speed dating reinvented for employment. This process went on for two days, yet classes kept going. After the initial interview, you were invited to the firm to meet more people and continue the interview process. Each firm met with selected candidates three to four times. At the end of the interview period, students eagerly wait for call day to find out if they landed a job.

The process is so stressful and cumbersome for students. I was shocked to learn it is equally taxing on the firms that participate in the program. The recruitment process is unreal. In an industry that is all about hourly targets and billables, it’s amazing how much time and effort is spent ensuring they hire not only the best candidates but the best fit for their organization.

McCague’s Student Program is spearheaded by Ashley Faust. Although a team effort, Ashley goes above and beyond to make sure the program runs smoothly. Ashley calls on current students and encourages them to be part of the interview process. That just shows how dedicated McCague is to the program. If they weren’t certain they offer their students a rewarding and challenging mentorship program, they’d never encourage current students to talk to future ones. Not only did McCague encourage our participation, but they also considered our comments when discussing who they wanted to hire. To me, that spoke volumes about the kind of collaborative, open and equal environment that McCague offers. 

 While this process was in person for me, the firms have done an excellent job mimicking the experience through zoom. This is advantageous for students because they aren’t rushing to and from firms. Plus, they may get an opportunity to meet more lawyers. I do recommend that students prepare as thoroughly as they would had the interviews been in person and not read from a script while they are on zoom.

All that being said, I recommend students look for a firm that puts them in touch with their students. That demonstrates confidence in what they have to offer and remember, you’re interviewing them as much as they are you.

by Sandra W.