We wanted to highlight the milestones we achieved in the last year in the form of an annual report. Looking forward to another fantastic year and a growing community. Click here to view the report.
When I informed my friends that I was going to do the articling recruit, the universal response was whether I was suffering from a debilitating case of self-hatred. In their defence, we had only finished the OCI recruit in March and the Toronto articling recruit started in early July. The idea of going through another rigorous, time consuming and emotionally draining recruit mere months (four to be precise) after the OCI recruit was something that was not easy to digest. During those short months, I debated whether or not I should go through that process, especially since I really enjoyed working at MAG Crown Law Office Civil (CLOC) and received an articling offer there.
Eventually, I decided to do the articling recruit to see what’s out there. Now that it’s been almost a month since the end of my third and last (thankfully) recruit, I finally have the mental and emotional capacity to reflect on my experience. Weighing my options I knew that I loved the work at CLOC. As a student, I was involved in cases that challenged and defined the scope of governmental liability - I could see how the work I was doing helped shape the direction of the law. Opportunities like these are generally not available for individuals so early on in their career. To any student interested in litigation, I would highly recommend applying to CLOC. The scale and scope of litigation you get to experience is unparalleled and it is a surefire way to earn your stripes as a litigator. My decision to pursue other options was largely because of my interest in business development. After co-founding Legally Brown and helping to build our legal brand, I knew that business development was an area of interest that I wanted to explore further. Learning how to successfully build relationships with clients is something that I could only get from private practice. After coming to this realization, I decided to try my luck in the articling recruit. Comparing the recruits The biggest difference between the recruits was that I was in a completely different position. During the OCI recruit, I was hounded by the fear of not having a summer job. Summer jobs lead to articling jobs which lead to associate positions. I was terrified that if I didn’t secure a summer job through the formal recruit, I would completely miss my door of opportunity. Being a first generation law student with no legal contacts only added to my anxiety during the recruit. As you can imagine, this fear, which was for the most part unreasonable, affected my mental health and performance during the OCI recruit. This anxiety was greatly reduced during the articling recruit because I knew I had an amazing offer from CLOC, should I not find what I’m looking for. I entered the articling recruit with a confidence that I lacked during the OCI recruit. I strongly believe that my newly found confidence had a powerful impact on the way I presented myself and interacted with my interviewers. I guess the saying that confidence is attractive has at least some truth to it. Another difference I noticed was that a greater percentage of firms were leveraging behavioural and/or substantive questions. This change was personally a huge boon for me. While I hope I’m capable of engaging in conversation without making the other party want to run for the hills, I am well aware that I am not a winning conversationalist. However, being asked relevant, inquisitive questions about my background, experiences and skills did not only make me feel comfortable during the interview but gave me the sense that all applicants were being assessed on an even playing field. While some take issue with this model of interviewing due to qualms about increasing stress for applicants, I truly believe that this model of interviewing helps eliminate biases through standardization and restores applicants’ trust in the process. The Firm Reveal I am happy to announce that I will be articling at Dentons come August 2022! To avoid being teased that I sound like I’ve just been drafted into the NBA, I’ll briefly summarize my immense excitement about this. I interviewed with Dentons during the 1L recruit. I had the opportunity to meet with their associates and get a sense of the firm’s culture. Although I didn’t land a 1L position there, I knew I was going to apply again during the articling recruit. If there’s anything to take away from this long-winded blog post, it’s this - if at first you don’t succeed, try again. I’m proof that sometimes the second time around, things might just work out for you. If you have any questions about the articling recruit or job hunting in general, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or message us on LinkedIn. As a dual degree student, seeing your peers who started law school at the same time as you undergo OCIs and other recruits and settle into their legal placement while your second summer. I was proud to see my friends doing fantastic things with their legal career early on - each person in my immediate friend group was thriving (quite literally all nine of them landed positions that were well suited for a 2L summer position, and have accepted articling positions at fantastic places and I can’t wait to see what their journeys have in store for them).
As a result, at the back of my mind I didn’t want my 1L summer to be a bust. I wanted to diversify my experiences and maximize output. I ensured that this summer I kept busy and tried to gain experience in different areas of the law. Was that the best use of my time? Absolutely. Another summer impacted by lockdowns, COVID-19 impacts, the emphasis was to continue to motivate myself to learn and grow as an individual. I worked four different jobs in the field of business law, securities litigation, employment law, and estate law! Of these experiences, I would like to reflect on my time at Epilogue Wills (“Epilogue”). First and foremost, it started on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been an ally in learning more about what people do with a JD/MBA education. Alumni from my school have curated careers that range from strictly business-focused positions to a variety of law-based roles. This time I found lawyers who combined the two - working in estate law but not as lawyers, as tech entrepreneurs. It sounded like quite a different experience since it related to a legal tech based startup which simplifies the process of will-making for Canadians. Sidebar - If you’re reading this and are above the age of majority, you should definitely look into getting a will for your assets. If you’re a student and think you don’t need a will, think about your social media accounts - there is a will for that - the social media will! Back to my story, I applied via email and thought to myself that it would be really cool to work in an entrepreneurial environment where both co-founders are lawyers! The culture Culture is key. It can make or break your experience and drive. Being surrounded by individuals who treat you like a valued team member even if you’re the most junior person at the company/ firm can set the tone and vary the experience from if that was not the case. The best place to get a feel for culture is in the interview. The first impression of speaking with potential team member(s) and expectations is why I enjoy partaking in interviews to learn more about the goal of the company and people who work there. The interview was a conversation! I got to learn about both co-founders and the company, as they learned about me. When they extended me the offer - I accepted immediately! I was immersed in the company’s culture through meeting the rest of the team and being in constant dialogue with team members based on my tasks. The co-founders, as busy as they were expanding the business across Maritime provinces, were only a Slack message away when it came to meeting with me to provide me with feedback on the tasks I did. It really aligned with theories I learned in Organizational Behaviour about the ideal environment to work in! The co-founders always asked if I had the ability to enjoy the nice weather, partake in summer activities and make time for myself. They made sure I was not overburdened, which was greatly appreciated from the standpoint as a student who may not know if the work they are doing is ever enough and up to par with the standards. Even as a student, the co-founders asked for my take on the law after conducting research - I felt like a valued member and got comfortable with discussing the law outside of a classroom. What did my role look like? My role consisted of two major responsibilities: legal research and blog writing. The legal research component sounded daunting at first, since there was an end of term project associated with it. However, when I was assigned this topic - I would get subsumed with conducting research and comparative analysis that I wouldn’t even notice the time flying by. I worked with the co-founder to showcase my findings, discuss legal opinions and continue to contribute to my end of term project. Blog writing combined my interest in the law and writing - sound familiar? It differed slightly from my experience here at Legally Brown since the emphasis was on specific topics such as Notary publics and will making. I also improved my SEO writing, and received feedback and direction directly from the Director of Content. Whichever task I received, I never felt like I was abandoned or doing an ancillary piece - it felt like I had a voice and my opinion mattered. I enjoyed the level of autonomy as well and definitely had a positive experience. So for those individuals who have an opportunity to work at a start-up I say embark on it! You will learn a lot more than technical skills. My love for estate law I had an inclination towards corporate transactional work since undergrad - based on the mere specialization and my gravitation towards accounting and finance based courses. This carried through in the MBA. However, there is overlap between the aforementioned disciplines and estate law in Personal Finance. That course taught me the importance of wills and estate planning not for myself but the impact and ease it would have for my loved ones. Besides that, everything substantive I learned was on the job - so by no means are the courses prerequisites. I had a crash course in wills and estate law taught by the co-founders in the beginning of my internship. Working at the Epilogue this summer showcased the dynamic nature of the law - the digitization of witnessing, the accessibility in creating wills from one’s home, and the impending changes in legislation globally. Conclusion My 1L summer was definitely a boom. A second summer of “non-traditional'' big law allowed me to choose my own adventure through different types of roles in the legal industry and apply the knowledge/ skills I obtained from my education thus far. I’m really excited to see what this school year has in store for me and where my journey takes me next summer. By: Karen Randhawa |
Legally BrownThree Osgoode Hall Law students sharing their lived experiences and providing *unsolicited* advice. Archives
December 2021
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