Students: Articling Program
We encourage applications from all interested parties for the articling positions which we offer each year.
We generally hire six or seven articling students each year for our 12-month articling rotation. This includes our returning summer students. While we do guarantee articles for our summer students, generally there are three articling positions open for those who did not actually summer with our firm, so we encourage applications from all interested parties.
We also welcome applications from students who plan to clerk with the courts. We provide clerks with the usual 12-month articling program, including the Professional Legal Training Course (“PLTC”). Clerks will be paid as first year associates after their call date.
The estimated workload per week for our articled students is 50 hours. A typical workload includes research; drafting pleadings, agreements and other documents; preparing for and attending chambers, trials, hearings, examinations for discovery and meetings; interviewing witnesses; reviewing documents; and preparing seminar papers and other presentations on various legal issues.
We consider Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP to be an ideal learning ground for new lawyers. We are a regionally-based firm with local, national and international clients. We are a multi-service firm rather than a boutique. We are of a moderate size, allowing our lawyers to gain a greater degree of diversity in their practice and the firm to maintain a more congenial environment. All of these things come to bear on our articled student rotation program.
In our experience, most young lawyers are not entirely sure where their practice preferences lie until they have had an opportunity to experience life practicing in different areas of the law. Upon joining our firm as an articled student, you will be placed in a rotational system to maximize your exposure to a diverse range of legal areas. In each rotation, we actively encourage our students to assume as much responsibility as possible under the guidance of senior lawyers. This includes participation in practice group and client team meetings, and taking part in client marketing activities whenever practicable.
Although we recognize that good research skills are essential to your development as a lawyer, we do our best to ensure that the articling experience is much broader than research.
During the rotation in our business law practice, students will likely be engaged in drafting:
Students will also research and prepare legal memoranda, meet with clients, and prepare documents relating to residential and commercial real estate transactions and the purchase and sale of corporations through share or asset sales. Students may also assist in private and public financings.
During our litigation rotation, we expect that our students will:
Students will also meet with our senior litigation lawyers to develop strategy in pending cases and prepare matters for trial.
In addition to our Ascend™ training program, our articling program includes an intensive orientation and a "Student Boot Camp" series of in-house seminars, designed to ensure that our students' hands on education is supplemented with more formal training. We also offer our students bi-weekly lunch seminars on practical subjects. We have a Partner who oversees the Student Program and a committee of lawyers who are actively involved with our students to ensure they gain the most from their articling experience. All of our articling students are also matched with both a senior lawyer and a junior lawyer, to play direct mentorship roles.
Throughout the articling year, we include our articled students in all firm functions, which gives students an opportunity to meet with lawyers and staff on a social basis. We also sponsor functions for students alone, to build camaraderie within our student group. It is our intention that, at the end of the articling experience, our students will not only have had a thorough professional experience, but will also have established friendships which will last throughout the balance of their professional careers.
To apply for articling positions with Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP, please send your resume, a copy of your law school transcript and your undergraduate marks to Christine York, Director of Associates and Students.
The deadline for applications for 2010/2011 positions is June 30, 2009.
In accordance with the Vancouver Bar Association Guidelines, interviews will be conducted in August, 2009.
To view the list of our current articling students click here.
