May El-Abdallah is a former articling student at LAWPRO. This article originally appeared in the 2012 Student Edition of LAWPRO Magazine.

Law school can be a steep learning curve, and stepping into the world of practice can seem even more daunting. One of the most common complaints I hear from recent graduates is that they feel under-prepared to deal with the day-to-day realities of practice that they are confronting as articling students or recent calls.

While there may never be a substitute for hands-on learning, here are a few lessons my colleagues and I wish we had learned in law . . . [more]

In a competitive job market, it’s important to consider not only what kind of work YOU want to do (and in what kind of environment), but also what legal employers are looking for in a new hire.

This does NOT mean that you need to contort yourself and your interests into a one-size-fits-all mold to have any hope of finding a job. In fact, when we asked law firm spokespeople from across Ontario to describe the perfect candidate, we were surprised with the variety in their responses (see our article “Finders & keepers: Recruiting and retaining the best talent . . . [more]

Lawyers work hard and play hard, except for the play part. This asymmetry is owed to the great demands on time and energy that the law profession features as it clings to the old adage that being a lawyer is not a job, it’s a life. With an air of resignation, this vision of the 24/7 advocate is largely accepted. After all, it’s the law profession. Forfeiting a balanced life is just part of the deal. Whether this vision should be accepted, however, is another question. Testing the ethical soundness of the lawyer’s exemption from a work-life balance begs examination . . . [more]

Last summer the law section of The Guardian newspaper in the UK asked readers to submit their ideas for “books every law student should read”. The response included everything from Charles Dickens to Richard Susskind, with many more suggestions appearing in the comments section.

Here’s the article. Do Slaw readers agree with the choices? What books do you think are essential for Canadian law students? . . . [more]

The FAQs below answer some of the more common questions we hear from newly called lawyers. The answers will help you determine if you need insurance coverage (or whether you’re exempt) and which steps you need to take to get your LAWPRO insurance coverage in place.

What is professional liability insurance?
Professional liability insurance is designed to indemnify lawyers against the consequences of a lawyer’s liability for a client’s loss. For this reason, only lawyers in private practice are subject to the mandatory insurance requirement.

What is private practice?
Private practice, for the purpose of LAWPRO’s insurance program, is the . . . [more]

Nothing in the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Rules of Professional Conduct places much real pressure on the profession to incorporate equality in a meaningful way. If law schools cannot instill the true worth of equality into the minds of future lawyers, the expectation for a truly diverse Canadian legal profession becomes no more than an unrealistic pipe dream. By presenting ethical training as the sort of “easy” course students take in order to graduate, law schools may simply be creating new lawyers who are, as Professor Rosemary Cairns Way described, only “rhetorically committed” to equality.

Handbooks for equality: Hiring . . . [more]

For over 10 years LAWPRO Magazine has provided Ontario lawyers with a wealth of practice management and claims prevention content. It is delivered (in paper or electronic format) to every practicing lawyer in Ontario.

In 2012 LAWPRO decided to extend the reach of the magazine beyond lawyers already in practice to the law schools on Ontario. At first it was a magazine stand featuring the LAWPRO brand and the latest regular issue of the magazine, but the idea quickly evolved to creating a student-focused issue of the magazine. We wanted to a) introduce students to LAWPRO and what we do . . . [more]

There is a lot to think about beyond substantive law when you are starting a law practice. With that in mind, under the practicePRO banner LAWPRO has created the New Lawyer Resource page containing what we feel are the best resources we have to offer to new and soon-to-be-lawyers.

The page has two aims: 1) to help newly minted lawyers understand more about things like managing a practice, client relations, practice finances, marketing, and legal technology; and 2) its an introduction to the risk and practice management articles, precedents, checklists and other materials practicePRO offers to lawyers.

From a claims . . . [more]

As we did last year, we’re having a modest Law Student Week on Slaw. In the coming week we’ll post each day a student essay chosen by Slaw columnist and Ottawa University law prof Adam Dodek from papers submitted by his first year students. As well, the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO) will provide daily posts of interest and benefit to law students.

As Professor Dodek said in his introductory post last year:

I have found that our students have great perspectives on these issues because they were so recently members of that ridiculous term that only lawyers use: “lay

Dan Pinnington / Excerpted from LAWPRO Magazine, Student Issue #1, 2012

With over 120 million users in more than 200 countries (including at least a million lawyers) and web traffic that ranks it as the 13 th most visited site on the planet, LinkedIn is the social networking tool of choice for professionals.

LinkedIn can also be useful to law students in a number of ways. First, it can help with your job search. A LinkedIn network can be helpful for finding people you (or your contacts) know at law firms you are interested in. Second, it gives you some . . . [more]

by Marie Maron* 

[This article was first published in the Canadian Lawyer and is reprinted here with their permission and the permission of the author.]

There are three types of lawyers at a firm: the finders, the minders, and the grinders. The finders bring in the clients, the minders manage them, and the grinders, well, they carry out the time-consuming, sometimes tedious, and often thankless, tasks for the rest of the group.

Who ends up as those poor worker bees? The junior staffers, naturally; students and junior associates. But, hey, they don’t cost as much as senior lawyers. And they . . . [more]

by Kaitlin Bradley

[footnotes omitted; available on request]

Solicitor-client privilege must yield to prevention of economic harm. Law society rules should provide the option to breach solicitor-client privilege in cases of impending fraud. It appears that there are three main arguments supporting a position against allowing an economic harm exception: that it is not the lawyer’s responsibility; that interference with solicitor-client privilege would irreparably harm solicitor-client relationships; and finally that economic harm is “a risk you take” when investing. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the movement in the legal profession to recognize an economic harm exception, . . . [more]