No 2L summer Job. What should I do moving forward?

[Johnny-Alky]

So as the title says I have no summer job lined up. 

I’m wondering what this means for me going into articling recruits and 3L. Am I totally fucked for these too because all of my colleagues will have had work experience and I wont?  How should I mitigate this damage? I know there may yet be opportunities but I just want the cold hard truth if I can’t manage anything. 

 

[Darth Vader]

8 minutes ago, Johnny-Alky said:

So as the title says I have no summer job lined up. 

I’m wondering what this means for me going into articling recruits and 3L. Am I totally fucked for these too because all of my colleagues will have had work experience and I wont?  How should I mitigate this damage? I know there may yet be opportunities but I just want the cold hard truth if I can’t manage anything. 

 

Most of your colleagues who secured 2L summer jobs will not be participating in the articling recruit because their firms will likely hire them back for articling. You also should be aware of the kind of jobs that are available to you in the articling recruit. In Ontario, it's mostly PI, insurance defence, labour and employment, some retail law areas like family and wills and estates, and some government. If you can network and get a summer job at a PI or insurance defence firm for the summer, then you have higher chances of landing a job in the articling recruit. 

What are your practice area interests?

[Johnny-Alky]

14 minutes ago, Darth Vader said:

What are your practice area interests?

I am really interested in commercial real-estate and commercial transactions. Are there not really any opportunities in these fields? 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Johnny-Alky
Make clearer

[WhoKnows]

4 minutes ago, Johnny-Alky said:

I am really interested in commercial real-estate/transactional work. Are there not really any opportunities in these fields? 

There are, but they are fewer and further between. So you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. I didn't have a 2L job, and similarly struck out in the articling recruit, and ended up in transactional practice. It can be done, but I won't lie to you and say it would be easy. 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by WhoKnows

[Johnny-Alky]

4 minutes ago, WhoKnows said:

There are, but they are fewer and further between. So you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. I didn't have a 2L job, and similarly struck out in the articling recruit, and ended up in transactional practice. It can be done, but I won't lie to you and say it would be easy. 

 

In your opinion, what can I do to best prepare myself? 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Johnny-Alky
Make clearer

[Darth Vader]

1 hour ago, Johnny-Alky said:

I am really interested in commercial real-estate and commercial transactions. Are there not really any opportunities in these fields? 

1-2 Big law firms usually participate in the recruit but they hire far fewer students (i.e. Bennett Jones only hired 1 student a few years back). You can probably count the number of corporate firms in the articling recruit on 2 hands. And they usually each hire less than 5 students. 

In all honesty, there is a high chance you will strike out during the articling recruit if you focus only on corporate law. As I said, the majority of jobs are with PI and insurance defence firms and they like to see civil litigation experience; labour firms which like to see union-side labour experience; management-side employment firms which like to see a general interest in employment law; and government which primarily consists of criminal law jobs.

There are of course opportunities in every field, but if you want to give yourself a realistic chance of getting a job in the articling recruit, you need to expand beyond commercial real estate and corporate law. 

[diddlysquatflenderson]

I was in a similar position at this point last year in 2L, I ended up getting a summer job with a small law firm in my hometown closer to April by emailing a bunch of firms that I searched up in my city, and got experience in real estate, commercial, and wills and estate. When I applied for articling, I went through the formal recruit and struck out but got a bunch of interviews at least from my summer experience. Since then, I've kept applying to postings on my school job site for articling (and there's a lot of commercial/corporate and real estate firms btw) and after several interviews again, I just landed one at the end of the first semester at a mid-sized real estate and commercial/corporate law firm.

So, its definitely not too late to find an opportunity to get experience in the fields of corporate/commercial law and real estate law, even if you have to work at a small firm in your hometown or volunteer at a firm that can give you relevant experience. And once you get that experience, there's lots of opportunities to find articling in those fields, even if it takes a while to go through the articling search.

Just keep at it and the work will pay off!