Have you ever considered bringing an articling student into your firm? If so, now might be the time. The Career Services Offices of the UVic and UBC Faculties of Law would like B.C. lawyers to know that a number of high calibre third-year law students are still seeking 2007-2008 articling positions.

For a law student, articling is a critical stage of legal training, and a mandatory step on the path to call and admission. Students are eager to put their skills to work and to experience the practice of law under expert guidance. Articles offer that opportunity.

Students can perform useful and billable work that benefits a firm or legal department. For a lawyer who serves as principal to a student, that assistance is valuable. But principals can also draw satisfaction from the important contribution they make. Principals help develop their students into good lawyers through guidance, training and mentorship. This benefits not only those students, but the profession as a whole.

The CBABC website now contains a Shared Articles Registry developed jointly by the Career Services Offices of the UBC and UVic Faculties of Law, the CBABC Branch, and the Law Society of B.C. The Registry offers new and innovative opportunities for firms who either cannot provide a full articling program or who do not have the financial resources to hire an articling student for the whole articling period. Firms and organizations can use the Registry to advertise their need for an articling student, specifying length of articles available and practice areas covered. Students can then search for available articles and take steps to contact firms and organizations and work out a shared articles program that meets the requirements of the Law Society Admission Program.

To become a principal, you must be a practising lawyer in good standing with the Law Society with seven years practice experience. For more on the qualifications of principals and the articling relationship, please see Law Society Rules 2-27 through 2-46. See also background information – including the current articling agreement and checklist – in the “Licensing & Membership” section of the Society’s website at www.lawsociety.bc.ca. If you are not certain if you qualify as a principal, please contact Lesley Small, Manager, Credentials & Licensing at the Law Society of B.C. at 604-669-2533 or lsmall@lsbc.org.

The UBC and UVic Career Services offices are ready to assist lawyers that can offer articling positions by answering questions, posting positions and advertising to students.

Please contact:

UBC – Kaila Mikkelsen, Co-Director, Career Services at mikkelsen@law.ubc.ca, 604-822-6350, fax: 604-822-9486 or Nadia Myerthall, Co-Director, Career Services at myerthall@law.ubc.ca, 604-827-5052, fax: 604-822-9486.
 
UVic – Jennifer Moroskat, Career Development Officer at moroskat@uvic.ca, 250-472-4719, fax: 250-721-6390.

This article was published in the April 2007 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2007, all rights reserved.