Trying to mentally prepare for articling at a corporate law firm in Calgary

[LionelHutz]

How many hours a week of working are typical?

How many times should I expect to end my day in the fetal position under a desk?

I hear many stories/legends, I would like someone to give it to me straight, how brutal is articling in biglaw (in Calgary/any big city)?

[Ryn]

Honestly a lot of this depends on where you're working. It will even vary quite a bit firm to firm.

That said, as someone who articled in biglaw, I can speak to my experience, for whatever that may be worth.

For me it was 10-12 hour days, 5 days a week. I was lucky enough that my weekends were generally free with only a few exceptions. The partners I worked most with tried their best to respect weekends (both theirs and mine), but I understand this is not universal. Over my 10 months there were some even longer days, but thankfully those were pretty rare. The learning curve is huge and you will find yourself trying to cram a lot of things into a very short period of time. The pace is very quick and you'll get piled a lot of work on you.

You will probably have to do a bunch of work that is too technical for a clerk but not something a lawyer wants to bill out at their rates. Things like reviewing due diligence data rooms, or if you're in a litigation rotation, looking through productions. There will be lots of legal research, probably a nice chunk on obscure topics that have sparse case law so you're going to spend hours reading cases and creating summaries for yourself in preparation for your memo to the partner on the file. On transactions, you'll probably help with drafting ancillary documents, working through a closing agenda, or preparing for closing. Closing days, especially on big 8+ figure deals, will be very long and there will be a lot of moving parts. And of course all of these items will have pretty tight turn-arounds, and you'll be doing things simultaneously for multiple partners/associates, so there's always the time pressure and requirement to multitask efficiently.

You will have to learn early on what your capacity limit is and how to say no. Sometimes it's hard, especially having to say no to partners who have come to rely on you, and you don't want to let them down, etc., but it's a skill that is necessary to develop or your sanity and ultimately productivity will suffer significantly.

In summary, articling can be, and often is, especially in big law, hard. But I assume that most people going that route know what they're getting into. Certainly they should. Long hours, pressure to perform your best every day. Dealing with the inevitable mistakes and learning from them so they don't happen again. Maintaining relationships with the partners so you can have a good shot at becoming an associate. And so on.

I think it's worth it. It's about a year of your life, so it's pretty long. But the experience I got in that short period of time is incredibly valuable. I found that I learned an immense amount of things by the end that you just can't learn any other way. It won't be easy, but I think if you maintain the right attitude and put your best effort into it, you'll find it ultimately positive.

Though, don't get me wrong, I was very happy when it ended! 😆

[WyattDerp]

2 hours ago, Ryn said:

Honestly a lot of this depends on where you're working. It will even vary quite a bit firm to firm.

This is the biggest factor. If you're at a sweat shop, you're going to have a bad time.

That being said, I found the biggest challenge was/is having almost no control over your schedule and very little insight into what your work stream is going to look like from day to day or hour to hour (including weekends). Plan for 10-12 hours a day and at least a few on weekends as the normal with potential for significant increases to that during busy times. 

Just go into it prepared to learn and work hard. The expectation is that you are smart, have a good attitude and can grind - its our job to teach you to be competent. Like any job there are good bosses and bad and it will take you a while to sort that out. The junior associates you work with are your best resource to figure out who is who without experiencing it first hand.

Best piece of advice I have is treat everyone with respect, especially support staff. If you don't know who someone is, assume they are a senior partner. If they are, they will expect it anyway and, if they aren't, they are usually tickled pink.

Good luck.

Edited January 26, 2022 by WyattDerp

[LionelHutz]

Thank you both! 

Very helpful in setting reasonable expectations for articling. 

My previous career was in an industry where 12 hour days and some weekend work was quite normal. Although I do not love it hopefully that experience has prepared me a bit.