Queens BigLaw

[Mike]

Hi - I have recently been interested in Queens Law school, for many reasons, however if any prior student or individual with insight could chime in; is Queens a good school to pursue BIgLaw? What kind of EC's would you recommend? What courses would you recommend? any other input to pursue corporate law, during OCI's, and articling. Thanks so much 

[QMT20]

I went to Queen's and am now in big law (though in litigation not in corporate). I would say it's a good school to pursue big law in Toronto or Ottawa. There's a couple people who land in Vancouver every year as well. For Toronto, U of T is the best for landing in big law followed by Osgoode. Queen's is in the next tier with Western and they typically do better than Ottawa and Windsor which also place every year. 

Grades in law school are much more important than ECs for landing a job in big law. If you're going for litigation you should try do a moot or a legal aid clinic. For corporate it can be helpful to show a real interest, but everyone tries to show an interest by doing corporate law club etc so it won't make you stand out. Grades are just the most important consideration. 

Courses for corporate you take business associations as a mandatory course in 2L. Then at Queen's you should try to take securities regulation, competition, structuring business transactions, corporate finance, and private equity. For litigation, take trial advocacy and I'd recommend admin but other than that (and moot/clinic) you can take whatever you want. 

Edited December 23, 2021 by QMT20

[Rashabon]

It's fine. It's not as good as U of T or Osgoode but it does well enough. Take whatever ECs interest you. Courses are largely irrelevant if you want to pursue big law, since you'll be applying with first year grades.