In Ontario, lawyers and law schools are trying to find new ways to help students scheduled to graduate find jobs because of a lack of articling positions. It has been estimated by the Law Society of Upper Canada that just one in seven law school graduates will not acquire practical training in the coming year. This is despite the fact that to practice law in Ontario, students must complete articling. The society is working on recommendations that will be sent to law schools and private practices in the fall that will hopefully address the shortage of articling jobs.
The society thinks that by creating mandatory legal training courses, articling work could be replaced. A recent graduate of civil law from the University of Ottawa, Dan Pinsky, said he has applied to over 100 positions for articling but has received rejection letters in response.
“I definitely was aware that I probably won’t be going to the biggest firms, but I thought there’d be a lot more small firms out there hiring,” Pinsky said. “I guess I’ve slowly become disillusioned that they are not all out hiring.”
The dean of law at the University of Ottawa, Bruce Feldthusen, says that students who are articling could wind up being expensive employees for law firms.
“Many people think it’s the greatest way of training lawyers that’s ever been and I think there’s lots of merits to it,” said Feldthusen. “I just don’t think it’s financially sustainable.”