Help! I want to be a solicitor but I have a clerkship lined up

[ontariogogogo]

I am a current 3L. I was lucky and got a clerkship for 2025-2026, so I will be articling and then clerking. 

I have recently decided I want to be a solicitor and go into corporate work at my firm. I would love to have a solicigator practice, but my firm makes us chose only one (litigation or solicitor) and we can't do both really after articling.

Can anyone give me advice or lmk their experience navigating wanting to get a hire back for solicitor work, but leaving after articling for a clerkship? 

I have thought about doing litigation work during my articling year (and trying to do some of the solicitor work I want to do), getting a hire back offer for litigation, but once I finish my clerkship, telling my firm I would like to switch to corporate solicitor work OR asking them to let me do both solicitor and litigation in the niche area I want to work in. When it comes down to it, if I had to pick, I would pick solicitor. I just worry it's a negative to my hire back (and career?) to want to go into a solicitor group, but then leave for a clerkship after articling. 

I would also love to hear from people who clerked but didn't do litigation.

Just to clarify, I still want to clerk, I think it will be such an amazing experience.

[chaboywb]

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”

The above is a dramatic way of saying I think its an odd decision to focus on litigation during articling, try to get hired back as a litigator and do a clerkship so that you can end up a solicitor. I think you should focus on solicitor work as an articling student and try to get hired back as one - I would be surprised if your firm would be happy with you pulling a 180 on them after hireback.

As to the clerkship, I personally don't know anybody who clerked and then had a solicitor practice except for one tax lawyer, but I doubt it's fatal. Just unusual and has a chance of being a complete waste of time.

[scooter]

My two cents... just pursue the type of work you're interested in from the start.

If your firm has an issue with you leaving to clerk, well... plenty of fish in the sea. At least you have some solicitor experience to put on your resume/talk about in interviews. Otherwise you're in a position where you've done a litigation-focused articling term, a clerkship, and now you're trying to convince someone who doesn't know you that they should hire you for a non-litigation role.

Also, if you end up disliking the solicitor work during articling, you shouldn't really have a problem moving in the other direction and finding a litigation role after your clerkship.

 

[BlockedQuebecois]

1 hour ago, chaboywb said:

As to the clerkship, I personally don't know anybody who clerked and then had a solicitor practice except for one tax lawyer, but I doubt it's fatal. Just unusual and has a chance of being a complete waste of time.

It’s obviously rare, because most people who clerk want to be lawyers, but a few former clerks I know have decided to give up and become solicitors 🙂  

Edited April 15 by BlockedQuebecois

[Lawstudents20202020]

54 minutes ago, BlockedQuebecois said:

It’s obviously rare, because most people who clerk want to be lawyers, but a few former clerks I know have decided to give up and become solicitors 🙂  

This feels reminiscent of the "true scientists" debates from my undergrad.

https://xkcd.com/435/ I think this applies here, with criminal defense lawyers being firmly being at the high end of the scale.

[ontariogogogo]

2 hours ago, scooter said:

My two cents... just pursue the type of work you're interested in from the start.

This is very simple and good advice. 

I think I will give both a good shot during articling and see which I prefer.

[notsocoolcucumber]

I agree with the advice said so far. I just wanted to add that if you do good work for the solicitor group (and they like you), that is the best way to get hired back into that group.

I would not worry about clerking being litigation focused and that being a bad career move long term for a corporate career. I clerked with a good handful of folks at the FC/FCA, who ended up going into corporate work or quasi corporate work, and none of them regretted their choice to clerk. In my experience, firms think about clerking as being akin to an additional year of training - clerking is an opportunity that you can only do as a young lawyer, and they understand that it is great experience. Clerking also build a great network! Since it sounds like you do have litigation interests, I have no doubt that you will have a great experience. 

I will add too that clerking is known (at least among clerks) to be a good career reset - people pivot their careers all the time/ pivot firms/ pivot fields. You may find yourself wanting to change it up, and clerking will give you options to do so!

 

[Rashabon]

I know of one person that clerked and came back as a corporate lawyer. He spent his summer in corporate and everyone knew he was going to come back as a corporate lawyer, but he clerked at the ONCA instead of articling.

Movements between groups do happen but setting up to be a litigator only to switch post clerkship is a bit harder.