Young Lawyers and Articling Students as Employees: What Rights Do You Have?

As lawyers, we’re generally good at advocating for our clients. However, we’re not all as good at advocating for ourselves. Many lawyers do not know what they are (or are not) entitled to under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”). Some are unsure as to whether or not they have written employment agreements. 

Lawyers and articling students fall under the exemptions set out by O. Reg 285/01 of the ESA, which also includes professions such as doctors, architects, engineers and accountants. As such, lawyers are not entitled to many of the basic rights enjoyed by other workers, including minimum wage, daily or weekly limits on hours of work, overtime pay, eating periods, time off between shifts and daily rest periods. 

Technically speaking, lawyers are also exempt from the right to vacation with pay, public holidays and public holiday pay under the ESA. 

Of course, it is assumed that lawyers and articling students will be paid enough to compensate for any long hours, and autonomous enough to negotiate and manage their own schedule including lunch times, start times, rest periods and vacation. Usually, the terms of your employment will be structured such that your contractual rights, including wages and vacation time, are well in excess of what you would be entitled to under the ESA.  

So what are lawyers entitled to as employees? For a start, under the ESA you are entitled to notice of termination or pay in lieu thereof, and severance pay if you have five or more years of service and your firm’s payroll is over $2.5 million. You are also entitled to common law reasonable notice of the termination of your employment. Your employment agreement may guarantee or limit you to a certain amount of notice of termination of employment. As a result, lawyers should consider getting an employment lawyer to review their contracts before signing.