Opportunities in Alberta

[Lawhpefl10]

Hi! I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of opportunities there was for U of S law students to get jobs in Calgary or Edmonton? Is it a common occurrence and would it be a feasible goal to try and gain employment in Alberta after graduation?

[Renerik]

https://law.usask.ca/documents/events/career-forum-program2020.draft4.pdf

A fair amount of Calgary firms do OCIs at USask. Saw a PDF that outlined articling placements for the 4 prairie schools and a significant portion of USask grads ended up working in AB in non-biglaw positions. Can't seem to locate it at this time. 

[Lawhpefl10]

Thanks! What about positions in big law though? Would you say that attending USask hinders one’s ability to gain employment in the big law field in Alberta? Or does it not really matter in comparison to Alberta schools?

[СлаваУкраїні]

I don’t think it does. USask alumni are the third largest group in Alberta after U of A and U of C alumni. Employers are very familiar with Sask grads and don’t have a problem hiring them.

Anecdotally, I have a friend at U of T who got an interview with one of the Seven Sister firms’ Calgary office and he got the opportunity at one point to see the email addresses of all his co-interviewees. Based on the school email addresses being used, almost all of said co-interviewees were USask students (no U of A or U of C students by contrast, iirc). He didn’t end up getting the job, so it most likely went to one of them. Again, it’s anecdotal, but clearly if you have the grades going to USask won’t hold you back (at least for that firm, but again it was a very big name firm).

Edited November 20, 2021 by Salazar

[BlockedQuebecois]

Before I say anything, please note that I have absolutely no real experience with the Alberta recruit. 

With that said, since nobody brought it up I thought I would mention the only data I've ever seen for Alberta hiring is what Ultra Vires published last year. The data shows Calgary had the most 2L hires with 17, followed by Alberta at 10, then Saskatchewan with four. The class sizes of those schools are 129, 185, and 126, respectively. 

Obviously you have the problem that this data doesn't have Edmonton or Saskatchewan hiring data, but it suggests to me that, at least in Calgary, Saskatchewan is viewed about equally. 

Certainly if you get into Calgary and you want to work in Calgary, that's probably your best bet, but it's not like nobody gets hired out of Sask. 

[Lawhpefl10]

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Hoping to get into Calgary but I am applying in my third year without my degree so I have a better chance of getting into Sask.

[EarlyRetirementGoals]

So I transferred from USask after 1L to Calgary, and I participated in the 1L and 2L recruits, with the specific goal of BigLaw. I spoke extensively with Mary Anne (the head of the career services at Calgary) to get an idea of the stats, and to get an idea of what I was competing against for a 2L job. Firstly, UCalgary has an astronomical advantage in the 1L recruit, their networking opportunities are almost weekly, whereas USask has a 1 day event for 1L's. It's a big disadvantage when it comes to getting an idea of where each firm fits into the Calgary market. My 1L at Sask placed 6 students in BigLaw firms in Calgary. When speaking with Mary Anne, she was saying UCalgary ended up with students filling about 50% of the 75 1L positions. In the 2L recruit, it's a little more even, but UCalgary still ended up with almost 1/3 of the positions. If you take a look at the student distributions for the summer classes at the big firms in Calgary, it's much more weighted towards UCalgary, with U of A being a close second, and then a spread from there. 

UCalgary does a very good job of tailoring the curriculum to focus on sending grads to downtown Calgary, whereas USask had a more black letter law curriculum - as an example USask offers 1 oil and gas course, UCalgary offers Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Contracts, Energy Law, and a practitioner taught M&A course specifically geared towards BigLaw. USask is a great school, but UCalgary is very hard to compete with in the Calgary market job market. 

[Philosophy]

On 11/21/2021 at 2:50 PM, Lawhpefl10 said:

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Hoping to get into Calgary but I am applying in my third year without my degree so I have a better chance of getting into Sask.

I don't know your situation but what's the rush in going to law school right away? With your stats, if you finish up your degree it seems like you would have a pretty good chance of getting into U of C / U of A. 

Is it absolutely imperative that you go to law school this year? Even if it means going to your non-first choice school in a worse city with relatively worse career outcomes for the province that you want to work in?

 

 

[Notworthy]

3 hours ago, EarlyRetirementGoals said:

So I transferred from USask after 1L to Calgary, and I participated in the 1L and 2L recruits, with the specific goal of BigLaw. I spoke extensively with Mary Anne (the head of the career services at Calgary) to get an idea of the stats, and to get an idea of what I was competing against for a 2L job. Firstly, UCalgary has an astronomical advantage in the 1L recruit, their networking opportunities are almost weekly, whereas USask has a 1 day event for 1L's. It's a big disadvantage when it comes to getting an idea of where each firm fits into the Calgary market. My 1L at Sask placed 6 students in BigLaw firms in Calgary. When speaking with Mary Anne, she was saying UCalgary ended up with students filling about 50% of the 75 1L positions. In the 2L recruit, it's a little more even, but UCalgary still ended up with almost 1/3 of the positions. If you take a look at the student distributions for the summer classes at the big firms in Calgary, it's much more weighted towards UCalgary, with U of A being a close second, and then a spread from there. 

UCalgary does a very good job of tailoring the curriculum to focus on sending grads to downtown Calgary, whereas USask had a more black letter law curriculum - as an example USask offers 1 oil and gas course, UCalgary offers Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Contracts, Energy Law, and a practitioner taught M&A course specifically geared towards BigLaw. USask is a great school, but UCalgary is very hard to compete with in the Calgary market job market. 

Hey can you DM me please and tell me about your transfer story I really want to hear it! 

[Lawhpefl10]

On 4/6/2022 at 9:12 PM, EarlyRetirementGoals said:

So I transferred from USask after 1L to Calgary, and I participated in the 1L and 2L recruits, with the specific goal of BigLaw. I spoke extensively with Mary Anne (the head of the career services at Calgary) to get an idea of the stats, and to get an idea of what I was competing against for a 2L job. Firstly, UCalgary has an astronomical advantage in the 1L recruit, their networking opportunities are almost weekly, whereas USask has a 1 day event for 1L's. It's a big disadvantage when it comes to getting an idea of where each firm fits into the Calgary market. My 1L at Sask placed 6 students in BigLaw firms in Calgary. When speaking with Mary Anne, she was saying UCalgary ended up with students filling about 50% of the 75 1L positions. In the 2L recruit, it's a little more even, but UCalgary still ended up with almost 1/3 of the positions. If you take a look at the student distributions for the summer classes at the big firms in Calgary, it's much more weighted towards UCalgary, with U of A being a close second, and then a spread from there. 

UCalgary does a very good job of tailoring the curriculum to focus on sending grads to downtown Calgary, whereas USask had a more black letter law curriculum - as an example USask offers 1 oil and gas course, UCalgary offers Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Contracts, Energy Law, and a practitioner taught M&A course specifically geared towards BigLaw. USask is a great school, but UCalgary is very hard to compete with in the Calgary market job market. 

Thank you for the info! I am curious though how many people actually participate in the 1L and 2L Calgary recruit from USask?

On 4/6/2022 at 10:13 PM, Philosophy said:

I don't know your situation but what's the rush in going to law school right away? With your stats, if you finish up your degree it seems like you would have a pretty good chance of getting into U of C / U of A. 

Is it absolutely imperative that you go to law school this year? Even if it means going to your non-first choice school in a worse city with relatively worse career outcomes for the province that you want to work in?

 

 

Obviously it is not imperative that I go to law school this year (is it imperative for someone to go to law school ever though?). I am aware that I could finish my degree and apply again next year; however, I have a very substantial scholarship that I would rather use towards my law degree than towards another year of undergrad. I had very much the same thought regarding career outcomes and which school I go to (hence the OP). My original post came from looking at the ultra vires data (which after the fact I have heard is not the best when it comes to Calgary accuracy from multiple people) as I was curious as to whether less people getting hired from Sask was due to less people being from Calgary/wanting to work in Calgary or if there was a bias of some kind regarding the program.

[Big Pecker]

If anyone is looking for another perspective on this, I got a 1L job in Calgary while at USask. Feel free to reach out! 

[EarlyRetirementGoals]

From my 1L at Sask there was probably about 30 ish students who applied (there was a 1L networking event specifically for Calgary). For 2 L, speaking with many of my friends still there it seemed a little more for 2L (40 ish). I can't tell you if that's usual though.

 

[Lawhpefl10]

3 minutes ago, EarlyRetirementGoals said:

From my 1L at Sask there was probably about 30 ish students who applied (there was a 1L networking event specifically for Calgary). For 2 L, speaking with many of my friends still there it seemed a little more for 2L (40 ish). I can't tell you if that's usual though.

 

Thanks for the info! This definitely adds some context to the numbers for me and I appreciate the feedback.

[CheeseToast]

There seemed to be a reasonable amount of usask people at this years 1L Calgary recruit from what I could tell. I'll also add that there are plenty of great mid-size firms in AB that pay pretty well so you shouldn't feel like you need to work at the biggest firms right off the bat.

Edited April 11, 2022 by CheeseToast

[t3ctonics]

From what I've seen, usually about a third of each U of S class has the goal of going to Alberta, and almost all end up there (certainly not all biglaw, but only a minority of U of S students actually want to go that route). For context, I think more than half of each U of S law class plans on staying in Saskatchewan and ends up doing so. 

Once someone is practicing there seems to be no significant obstacle to moving between Saskatchewan and Alberta either. I know several lawyers who worked at large firms in Saskatchewan and made lateral moves to national firms in Calgary. Also some that came to SK from AB, but not as many, and a decent number that actively practice in both provinces.