The Seven Sister law firm Davies LLP ran the above ad in several issues of Obiter Dicta, Osgoode Hall’s law student magazine, the last one running on January 9, 2012.  The law firm is known for working its law students and associates exceptionally hard, earning it the informal nickname, “Slavies.”

As you can imagine, outrage ensued.  Especially worth reading is Osgoode Hall’s Kisha Munroe, who stated in a letter to Obiter Dicta on January 16, 2012,

That Davies saw fit to run an ad invoking the shameful, genocidal, dehumanizing practice of forced, unpaid, lifelong labour and suffering that was essential to the power the Western world now enjoys is despicable.

What is even more offensive is that the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, is still alive and well with regard to disparities in access to employment, education, wealth and justice that the descendants of slaves still suffer. It is beyond distasteful for them to jokingly compare the rarified privilege (however rigorous) of working at a Bay Street lawfirm with this history.

To their credit, Davies LLP did print an apology in the paper,

…

The intent of the advertisement was instead to try to suggest that the nickname students have used for our firm for many, many years should not dissuade students from considering applying to us for summer or articling positions. We were aiming for some selfdeprecating humour. It did not occur to our team that we would be seen as making light of slavery, rather than simply poking fun at ourselves. Obviously it should have.

We thank those who brought this to our attention and accept their criticism. We sincerely apologize to those who were offended. We will not run the advertisement again.

Frances Mahil
Director, Student Affairs
Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

No public apology is available yet on the Davies website.   Yes, this is an issue that concerns and has offended a much broader audience than just Osgoode Hall.

The fact that this occurred in the first place does highlight the insensitivity and insularity that exists in Canada’s “top” law firms.  I can already hear the voices of many lawyers I know dismissively saying that those offended are “too sensitive.” In fact Andrew Emery, another 2L at Osgoode, already wrote in to the paper,

There is nothing offensive about playing on the perception that Davies students work like slaves. It is as offensive as just saying the word “slave”. Just saying a word doesn’t make it offen sive. The joke is so mild even my Grandma could laugh at it and she thinks women shouldn’t show their elbows on television.

The lack of sensitivity by major law firms, especially at the decision making level, should actually be used to hold them accountable.  Apparently Davies LLP was not concerned enough about dissuading minority students from applying to summer or articling positions.  And rather than realizing that the strenuous hours and unrealistic work assignments that have fostered the negative reputation should be an incentive to change the firm culture and create better internal supports, the firm still thinks it’s reasonable to flaunt this reputation as “learning experience” akin to “slavery.”

Davies does have a “diversity page” on their site which states,

The creativity and different perspectives that are brought to our practice by lawyers from diverse backgrounds and communities have helped to define who we are as a firm today, and we believe that they will continue to be key factors that enable us to endure as market leaders in our chosen areas of practice.

Their NALP profile states under “diversity,”

Our goal is to recruit, hire, retain and promote exceptional students and lawyers who share Davies’ commitment to excellence…

It continues,

Our goal is to hire exceptional students who share our commitment to excellence. We are committed to our student program as the primary source of new lawyers and hire back students anticipating they will become partners of the firm very early in their career. This early partnership structure is unique among law firms and we have a very high ratio of partners to associates. As a result, very early in their careers our talented young lawyers learn to act like owners, rather than employees, and to view the firm’s relationships with its clients from that perspective.

Unlike many American law firms, Canadian ones are highly resistant to releasing statistics about their associate and partner diversity.  Of course you don’t need much time to flip through a website to get an idea of what kind of diversity they have.  And as well all should know, the real issue of  law firms diversity has a lot more to do with retention than it does recruitment.  Nobody announces it on their departure, but the insensitivities of law firm culture is one of the primary reasons why minority lawyers don’t feel fully accepted, can’t be completely productive, and ultimately choose to find more comfortable work environments.

But aside from dissuading law students and even lateral hires, there could be other implications for insensitivity by law firms.  Some clients in the American legal context have historically demanded proof that a legal team will have sufficient diversity.  In-house counsel of minority backgrounds may opt to choose another large law firm to do their legal work instead.

In other words, there are financial consequences to these poor decisions.  And although the managing partner may not be able to identify on a budget why some clients are choosing alternative service providers or explain recruitment issues, it is worth noting:  in today’s world, the “slaves” actually fight back.

You can read the article on the Canadian Lawyer 4Students site or on my blog: Simon Says.

Former Ontario Bar Association (OBA) President Lee Akazaki is also soliciting your input in a poll on his new site.  Here are the results at the time of posting:

Articling Task Force Consultation Sessions Start January 16

In December 2011, Convocation approved the dissemination of the Articling Task Force Consultation Report to the profession. The Articling Task Force will be holding consultation sessions across the province starting in January. The goal of the consultation is to consider practical solutions to the issues the Consultation Report raises. The profession and all interested parties are invited to attend the sessions.

To register, please rsvp for the session you wish to attend at the email address below. It is important to pre-register (and to include your contact information) so that we can contact you in the event that a session has to be cancelled or rescheduled.

Light refreshments will be served.
Oshawa
January 16, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Quality Hotel & Conference Centre Oshawa
1011 Bloor Street East
Oshawa L1H 7K6
rsvp Oshawa@lsuc.on.ca
Sudbury
January 17, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m. Radisson Hotel Sudbury
85 St. Anne Street
Sudbury P3E 4S4
rsvp Sudbury@lsuc.on.ca

Toronto
January 18, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.The Law Society of Upper Canada
130 Queen Street West
Toronto M5H 2N6
rsvp Toronto@lsuc.on.ca

Thunder Bay
January 30, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Victoria Inn
555 West Arthur Street
Thunder Bay P7E 5R5
rsvp ThunderBay@lsuc.on.ca

London
February 13, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Best Western Lamplighter Inn
591 Wellington Road South
London N6C 4R3
rsvp London@lsuc.on.ca

Windsor
February 16, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m. Hilton Hotel Windsor
277 Riverside Drive West
Windsor N9A 7C5
rsvp Windsor@lsuc.on.ca

Barrie
February 27, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Holiday Inn Barrie Hotel & Conference Centre
20 Fairview Road
Barrie L4N 4P3
rsvp Barrie@lsuc.on.ca

Hamilton
February 28, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Sheraton Hotel
116 King Street West
Hamilton
rsvp Hamilton@lsuc.on.ca

Ottawa
February 29, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Delta Ottawa City Centre
101 Lyon Street
Ottawa,Ontario K1R 5T9
rsvp Ottawa@lsuc.on.ca
Kingston
March 5, 2012
5 to 6:30 p.m.Radisson Hotel Kingston Waterfront
1 Johnson Street
Kingston K7L 1A2
rsvp Kingston@lsuc.on.ca

The Task Force is also accepting written comments. Written comments are welcome until March 15, 2012. Please direct them to:

Sophia Sperdakos
The Law Society of Upper Canada
130 Queen Street West
Toronto, M5H 2N6
ssperdak@lsuc.on.ca

Instead of remaining virtually a lawyer after law school (i.e., all that fresh-minted lawyer status without that lawyer job), maybe you should start thinking of a life as a virtual lawyer.

If you’ve got the GPA and a nice internship or two under your belt, then this information is not for you. In fact, you’re probably so deep in your firm’s pocket you don’t have time for this kind of light reading, or you’re using the four free hours you have a week to spend your outrageous paycheck.

For the rest of us, though, the explosive growth of ecommerce has sowed a fertile land where we can plant a virtual shingle, or contract our work out to digital firms.

Web sites like LegalZoom.com are getting the jump on providing people with legal documents that enable them to handle their legal affairs pro se – without attorneys. Considering this shift toward legal autonomy, it pays for attorneys to think about ways to attract Internet clientele to their services via the Internet.

And, Web businesses are catching on.

Employment hubs like Elance.com have set aside specific areas for online legal services. Here, clients can post their legal issues and potential legal representatives bid to win contracts on those services. It is revolutionizing the way people think about approaching the legal industry.

Imagine – instead of calling Ajax Legal Services and setting up an appointment (which hopefully includes a free consultation), clients just describe what they need and let lawyers bid each other out.

So, you say to yourself, “That sounds horrible. Why would I want to waste my time achieving the lowest bid to do a ton of legal work?” The answer is – what else are you doing?

While law school grads in Canada face a different environment than US law grads, numbers from the US legal market suggest new lawyers still face challenges in finding legal employment after graduation. A Northwestern Law Study found that 15,000 legal jobs at large US law firms have vanished since 2008. And according to a report by the National Association for Legal Career Professionals on fall 2010 law school recruiting, “entry-level recruiting volumes have not returned to anything like the levels measured before the recession”.

The short story is you’ve got to gut it out and get with the times if you really want to practice law.  And now, the virtual route is just as viable as the traditional route if you’re willing to face the competition and do your time in the trenches.

What about jurisdiction and providing legal services across state lines, you ask? That’s a good question. You can be on the cutting edge, and companies like DirectLaw.com are paving the way.

If you’re unconvinced, use the most valuable skill you likely learned in law school – networking – and coordinate with other disenfranchised attorneys to organize your own multi-jurisdictional conglomerate.

It’s not impossible. It’s the future.

James Madeiros is a recent law school grad and staff writer at Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a resource site for criminal justice degrees and careers.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Recently, the Law School Survey of Students Engagement (LSSSE) released the reports of its 2010 survey that gathered information from students of 77 Canadian and American law schools on how they felt about the quality of education they were getting.  The results of this survey reflect Professor Ferguson’s concern. About half of the students felt that they were not inadequately prepared for the practice. “Predictably perhaps, the study found that students with practical experience in clinics or pro bono work were more likely than other students to report that their law schools provided adequate professional preparation…”  Other factors that were found to have a positive impact on the overall development of students included interaction with the faculty. More specifically the report outlines that engaging in discussions with professors regarding the assignments, talking about job search activities or even talking to them through email, result into a more positive impact on the professional development of law students.

The survey also found that only a fraction of students takes advantage of the enriching opportunities available to them. “Results show that only one-third of third-year law students worked with a faculty member on a research project during their law school careers. Only 20 percent of all students frequently (“often” or “very often”) discussed ideas from readings or classes with faculty, and less than a third (29 percent) among them frequently discussed their career plans with a professor.”

The International Business Times article from which I gathered the result of the LSSSE survey seems to tie in the “under-emphasis by law schools in preparing their students” for the professional world with the difficulties faced by law school graduates in obtaining positions. It is undeniable that the onus of law schools in producing prepared law students cannot be discharged unless adequate, though perhaps competitive opportunities are provided for law students to take advantage of in building themselves up for the practice. Though it may be different in US law schools, in my experience, Western Law provides ample opportunities for its students. Hence, the need for an exclusively Canadian survey with criteria similar to LSSSE makes itself apparent.

One question that comes to mind is whether with the strong emphasis placed by the employers on law students’ transcripts, there is any time left for us to try to engage in clinical programs.  It is an uncontested fact that firms and government organizations alike look at your transcripts first and you may as well save some trees and not apply if you’ve got Cs and/or low Bs and not much legal experience. That’s when the students usually turn to gaining practical experience to add some weight to their application for positions that are not occupied by A students yet. After all if you’ve got straight As, why bother with clinics? That makes the conclusion somehow easier to draw that clinical work is usually used as a “secondary option” or an “alternative” when students feel less confident about the impression that their marks may make on the employers. Though it cant be denied that many students turn to clinics “genuinely” to gain experience, there remains the concern that due to the pressure from the job market, this option may be just used as a “plan B” by some. This no-so-genuine interest in clinical work, to my opinion, not only impacts the quality of experience gained by the students, but also the efficiency and worth of the results delivered to the clients.

Whether a mandatory clinical program in Canadian law schools will result in more prepared law students is subject to debate, though not too difficult to agree with. But in contrast to what the International Business Times article concludes, whether such programs will “enhance [law students’] professional prospects in the long run” is only more speculative.

Regardless, the results of LSSSE, unsurprisingly point out that the practical work in law school may no longer be just extracurricular to the legal education but rather essential and necessary for it.

Lately, I have been pushing hard, trying to make everything work at the firm, trying to become accredited as a mediator and arbitrator, trying to keep my publishing house on track (we just signed 3 new authors), and coping with having four children. At work , we are trying to focus our practice towards 2 or 3 areas, rather than being a general practice. It’s really paying off, especially as we forge strong relationships with business partners. We are also opening up a mediation/arbitration/coaching centre in our law office, and that is really exciting. The world is my oyster, so to speak.

However, all of this takes its toll. I went out for supper a couple weeks ago with some classmates. They seemed genuinely tired of the lawyer life. Long hours, high demands, boredom, difficulty with senior lawyers, etc. My demands are not quite the same. I do have stress, the requirement of a steep learning curve, high customer service expectations, and the challenge of keeping a full staff.

I thought I would comment on how I cope with the stress.

I work as little as possible. For me, that means a 40-50 hour work week, usually closer to the former. I learned early on in my practice that anything more for me, personally, brings with it too high a cost, to health, to mind and to my relationships. When I am at work, I try to work really hard, really fast, and really smart.

I manage my time like a freak! Every morning, I review my week’s goals (which I set out on Monday morning). I review my daily affirmations (I have 7 goals that I repeat to myself 3 times each day). I then do up my daily task list, reviewing the previous day’s list and accomplishments. I then prioritize that list. Then, I set aside some time to check and respond to emails, to return phone messages, and to get updates or update my staff. Once I am satisfied that the day is set out properly, I start to attack my list. I try to avoid interruptions, using my staff to screen calls, mail, faxes, etc. I try not to move down the list until the top priority items are completed. If I think that an item is just not going to happen, I make a note on my list, and then move on. I review the list at the end of each day (giving myself a grade out of 5), and then try to leave work at work.

I treat staff like gold, or at least the best that I can. Only my wife is more important to my success when compared to my legal assistants/paralegals. They make my world go round. I offer bonusses, flexibility, encouragement, and I share my thoughts, feelings and expectations with them as much as possible.

I do yoga. My wife is a yoga instructor, so that is a huge bonus. I attend her class once as week, and try to incorporate stretching, and some meditation throughout the week.

I sleep! Hardly ever less than 7 hours per night. More often closer to 8. I should try to get to bed earlier, but it’s hard with kids.

I exercise. At least 3 times a week, I hit the gym, strap on the running shoes, or do some other form of rigorous activity.

I practice my faith. I go to church regularly. I volunteer regularly. I read uplifting articles, books, and scriptures regularly. I read scriptures and pray with my family every day. I meditate on the larger picture often, praying at least three times each day.

I eat really well. My wife is a fantastic cook. Different members of our family have different food sensitivites or allergies, so we don’t eat much wheat, milk or sugar. My kids can’t eat sugar, so I eat less as a result. We eat a lot of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. We eat few saturated fats or “other” foods. We all take our vitamins each day.

I am a very motivated person, not unlike most in the legal profession. Please don’t think that my comments above are meant to make me look like like a perfected being. I am by no means near perfection. These things have developed over time. I have failed at each of them on many occassions. However, my intention is to master these things so that I can maintain my health, my career, my sanity, and my family over the next 2-3 decades. My friends do often ask me how I accomplish so much with so many challenges and so little time. It is through this formation of habits, through an attempt towards self-mastery, that I find the energy, the drive, and the love for my life.

The above habits may be beneficial to you as you prepare for law school, as you push your way through law school, or as you establish yourself as a lawyer. I wish you the best of luck.

If there is something that you do to help you cope, please let all of us know. We can all stand to learn something new, positive and helpful.

ATTORNEY/CLIENT EXPECTATIONS

What You Can Expect From Us

Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You. Unless absolutely necessary, we reserve our weekends for our families and private pursuits.  Therefore, it is not our policy to work on Saturday, Sunday or legal holidays and we do not provide emergency numbers for these times. Periodically, and truly for our own convenience, we may look at and answer your email over the weekend, but this is generally the exception and should not to be relied upon by you that we are accessible on weekends.

We’ve Never Met A Perfect Person. Have You? We’re great, but please do not think we are perfect.  We are very competent attorneys and paralegals, but occasionally we may make a mistake.  We will correct a mistake if we find it or if you point it out. Just as you would not want to be yelled at or accused of not doing your job or insulted because of the mistake, please give us the same respect.

Don’t Call Us.  We’ll Call You. We always return phone calls, generally in the order they are received and based on the ‘legal’ urgency of the situation.  If you leave a message, trust your message will be passed on to the attorney and returned within one business day, either by the attorney or our support staff.  Knowing this, we ask you to please not call multiple times in a day. During working hours, e-mail is the quickest way to express yourself and get the response you need from an attorney.

Don’t Come A Knockin’. In this law firm, our attorneys primarily work by appointment.  Please do not show up at our offices to speak with an attorney without an appointment as we may not be as welcoming as you would like or expect.  You’re entitled to our full attention and this is why we’ll gladly schedule an appointment as appropriate.

Want To Save Money? Please utilize our paralegals to answer your questions and give you status reports.  Our paralegals are very experienced and can, most of the time, respond to your request.  Our paralegals are billed at less than than 50% of what the attorneys charge so take advantage of their experience and knowledge.  If you are not satisfied with the response or we  determine your request requires a response by the attorney we’ll certainly handle accordingly. It’s  not that we don’t like talking with you or wouldn’t love to bill you more attorney time, but do you really want to give us more money than necessary?

Is it realistic? How would clients react?