Has Anyone Else Noticed How Few Firms in Vancouver are Participating in the Articling Recruit?

[CleanHands]

1 minute ago, Constantine said:

Man I just posted to ask about the Vancouver recruit, not to start a civil war in the comments. ☹️

When the apocalypse comes, the Western world will be spending their dying moments arguing about pronouns.

[canuckfanatic]

7 minutes ago, Constantine said:

Man I just posted to ask about the Vancouver recruit, not to start a civil war in the comments. ☹️

Regulars on any forum are pedantic, but it's even worse when most of them are trained to argue

[CleanHands]

4 minutes ago, canuckfanatic said:

Regulars on any forum are pedantic, but it's even worse when most of them are trained to argue

I don't recall anything resembling training from law school. lol

[pastmidnight]

Back to your original post OP – I don’t think the lack of firms participating in the structured Vancouver articling recruit this year is particularly surprising, though it may be disappointing for people who struck out during the 2L recruit.

Hiring is largely dictated by the market. A few years ago, more firms (including many that generally only hire students during the 2L recruit) were participating in the Vancouver articling recruit because the demand for legal services was crazy. Firms realized that they needed more students to meet that demand. As the market has cooled, there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of firms participating in the articling recruit, as most firms have met their needs through the 2L recruit.

Like others have said, firms that find that they do need more students will generally try to fill those gaps by reaching out to students they liked and almost made offers to during the 2L recruit. A few years ago, COVID made it much more challenging for recruiters to interact with/get to know students during the 2L recruit. I recall, for example, that there were more big firms participating in the 2021 articling recruit than usual, and I suspect that the virtual recruit's limitations was the reason they decided to do so, rather than reaching out to students they met and interviewed during the 2020 2L recruit.

I would echo the suggestion that you broaden your search beyond downtown Vancouver. You will find an articling position – it just may not be in downtown Vancouver or with a big firm.

[wine for lunch]

7 hours ago, pastmidnight said:

Hiring is largely dictated by the market. 

I posted not long ago on this topic and I wanted to mine everyone's knowledge for some more info again.

How bad is the market now - 2010 bad? Am applying around to 2024 articling positions all around greater Van and there's no shortage of applicants for every posting, even in June. It feels depressing to read posts on here from 2Ls stressing about not finding a position, when you're still looking at this point.

[Pantalaimon]

On 6/5/2024 at 10:38 AM, Constantine said:

Man I just posted to ask about the Vancouver recruit, not to start a civil war in the comments. ☹️

I see you're new here!

[Constantine]

On 6/5/2024 at 12:21 PM, pastmidnight said:

Back to your original post OP – I don’t think the lack of firms participating in the structured Vancouver articling recruit this year is particularly surprising, though it may be disappointing for people who struck out during the 2L recruit.

Hiring is largely dictated by the market. A few years ago, more firms (including many that generally only hire students during the 2L recruit) were participating in the Vancouver articling recruit because the demand for legal services was crazy. Firms realized that they needed more students to meet that demand. As the market has cooled, there has been a corresponding decrease in the number of firms participating in the articling recruit, as most firms have met their needs through the 2L recruit.

Like others have said, firms that find that they do need more students will generally try to fill those gaps by reaching out to students they liked and almost made offers to during the 2L recruit. A few years ago, COVID made it much more challenging for recruiters to interact with/get to know students during the 2L recruit. I recall, for example, that there were more big firms participating in the 2021 articling recruit than usual, and I suspect that the virtual recruit's limitations was the reason they decided to do so, rather than reaching out to students they met and interviewed during the 2020 2L recruit.

I would echo the suggestion that you broaden your search beyond downtown Vancouver. You will find an articling position – it just may not be in downtown Vancouver or with a big firm.

Ah okay makes sense. I will 100% have to increase where I apply to then to make sure I land something. I suppose one benefit of landing a firm outside of Vancouver would be the money I save by not having to commute so far out from south of the Fraser. I am also willing to article for a firm that may be a bit outside my scope of interest, as I know that it's better to be adaptable and open to different experiences. 

19 hours ago, wine for lunch said:

I posted not long ago on this topic and I wanted to mine everyone's knowledge for some more info again.

How bad is the market now - 2010 bad? Am applying around to 2024 articling positions all around greater Van and there's no shortage of applicants for every posting, even in June. It feels depressing to read posts on here from 2Ls stressing about not finding a position, when you're still looking at this point.

Are you just applying to a small amount of firms? 

[wine for lunch]

25 minutes ago, Constantine said:

Ah okay makes sense. I will 100% have to increase where I apply to then to make sure I land something. I suppose one benefit of landing a firm outside of Vancouver would be the money I save by not having to commute so far out from south of the Fraser. I am also willing to article for a firm that may be a bit outside my scope of interest, as I know that it's better to be adaptable and open to different experiences. 

Are you just applying to a small amount of firms? 

I've been applying generally to most firms so far. I also didn't go to school in UBC so it's making things a bit harder. 

[pastmidnight]

22 hours ago, wine for lunch said:

I posted not long ago on this topic and I wanted to mine everyone's knowledge for some more info again.

How bad is the market now - 2010 bad? Am applying around to 2024 articling positions all around greater Van and there's no shortage of applicants for every posting, even in June. It feels depressing to read posts on here from 2Ls stressing about not finding a position, when you're still looking at this point.

I am still a student so I will defer to any lawyers who want to weigh in, but I do not think the market is 2010 bad. It’s more that the types of employers that generally hire students during the articling recruit have both been more impacted by the downturn than the types of employers that usually hire through the 2L recruit. The former were also hit harder by COVID than the latter.

I think the problem you’re facing is slightly different than the one OP is facing. OP’s biggest problem, IMO, is that if they restrict their applications to the smaller-than-usual number of firms in the structured recruit, they’re going to be competing with really strong students who slipped through the cracks during the 2L recruit or who did not apply to the 2L recruit at all because the kinds of employers they are interested in were not participating, for a smaller-than-usual number of positions.

The problem you’re facing, IMO, is predominantly that there are more students than ever before. There are more Canadian JDs than there were a few years ago – TMU graduated its first class last year (I know TMU grads don’t have to article, but many are choosing to), and schools across the country have been increasing their classes sizes – some by choice, some because they made too many offers during the 2021 and 2022 admissions cycles (we know TRU had to, uOttawa allegedly had to do so as well by a much larger number, and I am sure there are other schools that also had to but managed to keep it quiet). There are more non-Canadian JDs trying to secure articling positions than there were a few years ago – COVID travel bans would have interfered with both Canadian NCA and non-Canadian NCA candidates’ plans in 2020 and 2021. In 2021, there were both more positions and fewer students. The opposite is true now. I unfortunately think that students in the classes of 2024 and 2025 who didn’t obtain an articling position before starting 3L are going to find themselves up against more competition than ever before. Not trying to fear monger – I just don’t want anyone who does not have articles yet to feel like they’re the problem, when nine times out of ten I would wager it’s not them, it's that there is more competition than ever before.

[wine for lunch]

21 hours ago, pastmidnight said:

The problem you’re facing, IMO, is predominantly that there are more students than ever before.

It feels hopeless yeah. I've even considered falling back on my previous career until I find something.