On August 31, 2017, the OBA Young Lawyers’ Division in Ottawa hosted its annual event Expert Advice on Launching your Legal Career: I have my Law Degree, Now What? Staying true to its title, the program prsented a panel of experienced lawyers from a variety of areas of the practice, covering the topics that us fresh-faced articling students need to know about, and answering the questions we have been waiting to ask.
The first part of the event focused on ways to facilitate the transition from school into the legal profession. The charismatic Jonathan Richardson kicked off the event by giving us tips on how to successfully integrate into a firm's culture. It turns out that moving into a new law office is a lot like moving into a university dorm: clean up after yourself, come prepared, take your social planning activities very seriously, adapt to your surroundings, and have fun!
David Ang then shared his stories on how he has been able to use his network to shape his legal career, reminding us that sometimes our social and personal connections are the most important ones. This message was well complemented by Frances Shapiro Munn’s wisdom on how to maximize our time. Her overall message is one that I found particularly important to hear early in our legal careers: work hard, then go live your life.
The second part of the event focused on more practical matters. Ray Leclair from LawPro demystified the professional liability insurance and gave us tips on how to cover our (ahem)...
Frances Shapiro Munn brought us on a step-by-step journey of a small claims matter and Kyle Van Schie gave an extremely straight-forward and useful presentation that should have been entitled Motions Court for Dummies. Madeline Thurston then outlined different ways that students can get involved in transactional work during their articles and we were given refreshers on effective research and writing techniques.
Highlight of the day was the short presentation given by Alex Charette from Scotia Wealth Management on how to handle our finances. In less than 10 minutes, he zipped through how students should be budgeting to manage our post-law-school debt while also paying our bills, and saving for a car. And a house. And retirement… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a room of people take notes so fast.
About the author
Kathleen Carkner, Articling student with Soloway Wright LLP
Be sure to check out the second part of this series!
