TKNumber3

It's arguably personal preference, but the clearly correct answer is they should not be worn outside formal dress. Realistically don't be "French cuff guy" and it shouldn't be an issue. Try not to wear them on more casual shirts and don't wear them without a tie (again, personal preferences).

STEM can be a wide scope, but personally I didn't find any unique issues. The preferred writing approach in law mirrors STEM a bit. Objective->Summary->point by point analysis is consistent with how lab reports or papers are drafted (IMO at least). I found that prior exposure helpful in drafting summaries or memos, as well as exams. The rest is pretty self contained, so you're learning the same brand new stuff as someone from any other background.

Biglaw's problem (well, not exclusively big law), especially as a more junior associate, is always a general lack of predictability. Client decides late Thursday they want random request by Monday. Guess who has to rearrange weekend plans to get it done? (Hint, usually not the higher ups on the file). I think Ottawa has a good number of gov't and tribunal options. Obviously depends on your area of interest. Not too sure on in house, may be somewhat more limited with lots of larger companies being based out of the GTA.

Not sure why we necro'd a year old post... That said, from talking to some people with experience in this type of position it can give you good experience provided your strategy is to use it as a stepping stone. Not overly interesting as a long term option (unless you're a freak who enjoys doc review).

Generally speaking: 1. About what you'd expect for big law, but not quite as bad as Toronto. Lots to do and not enough people to do it. Biggest issue is typically the lack of predictability. 2. Most starting salaries are on NALP. If memory serves they're around 75-85k to start but I could be wrong on that. Add 10k a year for the first 4 years or so, after that it gets more individualized. 3. What do you mean for this? Stick it out and there's a good chance for partnership. Otherwise there's lots of local gov't or tribunal positions people often jump to.

Also, 60% isn't purely "cost", the partners also get a cut for bringing in the business for you to work on.

8-6 as a "base" day seems pretty accurate, plus some evenings and weekends here and there. Obviously not all billable, but on good days you only lose 1-2 hours. Bigger problem is there's no real "normal" week; bounces from slow to crazy to average to slow again.

No personal experience, but I feel that the work experience associated with having a P Eng would be more relevant than the designation. As for maintaining it, can't comment on liability, but would be surprised if anything you did as a lawyer would ever wander into an engineering opinion. Either way, your firm probably wouldn't pay your fees so you'd have to decide if maintaining it was worth it.

Can you sign up for a car share service like Zipcar? If you only need it occasionally that may be an option, though you'll want it to be reliable.

Best to view it as not just hireback, but also hiring generally. If you do good work and the lawyers like you but can't make the numbers work to bring you back they will usually reach out to their colleagues elsewhere to recommend you. So basically learn everything you can and do good work.

There is an insane amount of time for the gym during school, it's articling and practice where you'll need to force a set time and keep the routine. It's doable though, I found the morning was the easiest to go consistently cause you're never really sure when your day will end. Others would break up a workday with an early evening gym trip followed by more work if needed on busy days.

I'd be careful with this though, as I'm always worried that papers on "pet" issues have to be top notch given the profs extra familiarity with the issue.

Faxes will always exist until they are no longer classified as a manner of service. I'd love for firms to have a "[email protected]" general email, rather than a generic fax that then gets emailed to me in poor quality. But as it is I have to opt in to e-service for each and every file.

Would you rather they hid it from you? Have them say we place an emphasis on work life balance and value everyone's free time, only to show up and realize it's a lie? Recruiting is an expensive, time consuming and stressful endeavour. Best to be as transparent about what you expect as you can.

One thing I would say is never self-edit to alter your efficiency. First, as said above nobody really cares for articling students. Second, firms don't seem to expect new associates to be 90%+, they recognize there is a learning curve. Third, if you have 30% efficiency that may indicate a fixable problem such as missing the scope of the question asked, or not being aware of existing templates. In the end it is a metric you should be aware of, but unless it is way off it is a metric outside of your control so don't stress it too much.