I appreciate the importance of rehabilitation, but surely there are limits, particularly where the safety of others is concerned.

How a law school, of all institutions, could justify admitting someone with this history is beyond me. It strikes me as an affront to the legal profession and the principles it is meant to uphold.

Curious what others think.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/convicted-killer-mcgill-law-school-9.7382625

So had house fire in Dec 2025, house not completed still. We are waiting since July 24 2026 for building permit and City of Brampton did not give us any information when will they give us one. I want house to be built and go back. Has anyone faced this? Are we supposed to hire a lawyer and fight this with City of Brampton?

Quick question: can someone tell me what the Calgary pay scale is for each of the associate years from 3rd to 6th year? I know Bennett Jones is an outlier so I would also include them in that scale.

Posting on behalf of a friend who is in a very difficult situation.
My friend began an articling position at a law firm and worked there for approximately two months. Unfortunately, the environment was extremely toxic, with little opportunity for learning, training, poor structure, vague instructions and just overall a very difficult environment in terms of top down management.

After proactively asking for feedback, my friend received formal feedback from the firm, but then was terminated within seven business days of receiving that feedback. The firm terminated the articling contract without cause.

This situation has put my friend in an incredibly difficult position, particularly given the potential impact on their legal career and articling timeline.

Does anyone know of any open articling positions currently in Ontario?

I’m an articling student (JD) at a national firm. My interest lies in litigation. Today a partner gave me a detailed feedback basically saying my writing skills are shit. This was my first time drafting a demand letter on my own.

How do I improve my writing skills so as not to disappoint him again? How did you improve your writing? Seeking serious advice.

*** Lawyers of Canada: How do you reconcile the gaps in our justice system when it comes to fraud victims?

I’m rewriting my original post because I think my point got lost in the debate.
My partner was a victim of fraud, and going through this has opened my eyes to how difficult it can be for an ordinary person to recover stolen money. You can spend thousands on lawyers, win a judgment, and still end up with nothing. Freezing assets before trial and tracing hidden money can be prohibitively expensive, and even after winning, enforcement is another battle.

I understand that lawyers can’t guarantee outcomes, courts have specific roles, and nobody should be expected to work for free. But explaining how the system works isn’t the same as asking whether it works well enough.

The government has powerful tools to collect debts from ordinary citizens, yet fraud victims can be left fighting on their own to recover money that was stolen from them. If the legal system is their only legitimate avenue for justice, but the tools they need are financially out of reach, what realistic options do they have?

And honestly, I’m curious about something else. Do lawyers become desensitized to these problems? Do you see how ordinary people can be financially destroyed by fraud, accept that the system has serious gaps, do what you can for your client, collect your fees and move on to the next case? Or does it genuinely bother you that people in your own communities can be failed this way?
I know lawyers have families, bills and their own lives to worry about. I’m not asking anyone to sacrifice their livelihood. I’m asking whether working within the system eventually means accepting its failures rather than questioning them.
I’ve accepted what happened to my partner. I’m speaking up because I don’t want the next person to go through this and discover these gaps only after their life savings are gone.

For Canadian lawyers, I genuinely want to know: do you see these problems, too?

And what do you think needs to change to give ordinary fraud victims a realistic chance at justice?

So I applied to some internships but on my resume I put a job down for a place that doesn’t exist under the same name anymore. I wasn’t aware of the name change and looking at the place after their merger, it seems like their employment accounts for the years prior to the merger are chaotic at the moment.

I’m pretty concerned about if this will be flagged during employment verification. Right now, interviews haven’t even started but I wonder if I’ll be rejected right off the bat because they looked at my resume and did an employment verification. I already got rejected from one place in the resume review stage and I really wonder if it was merely because their system flagged this employment issue (they however, never mentioned anything aside from this year being a competitive pool). I’m more concerned of when the verification happens because if it happens during the interview stage, then at the very least I would have the opportunity to explain. I would appreciate some help with this!

Any Toronto legal aid family lawyers accepting new clients dealing with child separation?
Called about 20 today and all said they were at capacity.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a high school senior in Canada preparing to apply for undergraduate International Relations programs and my long-term career goal is to become a Canadian diplomat / Foreign Service Officer.

I’m a Canadian citizen and fully bilingual in French and English, so I know I have a decent starting base, but I want to build a strong resume while I’m in school.

A few things I’d love advice on:

• What student internships or co-ops should I target early on? (How early should I sign up for FSWEP?)
• What extracurriculars or skills stand out the most to GAC?
• Are there good alternative entry paths if FSO recruitment takes a while?
• Is doing Law school after undergrad actually helpful for this path?

Appreciate any tips or realistic advice!

I'm a 2025 call currently practicing in commercial litigation and I've been looking for a way out and into corporate transactional work, which is what I wanted to do from outset. The reason I'm in commercial lit is because the market was awful in 2025 post-articling and I completed my articling in-house (corporate/commercial transactional role), which probably didn't help.

I was wondering for those who have made the switch, how did you do it? I've been doing coffee chats for the better part of 5-6 months now and I still can't find any firm, small, mid-size or big law, to give me chance. I know training a junior isn't something any firms wants to do as it's a drain and a risk but maybe I'm not selling myself enough? At this point, I just feel stuck in a practice area I never wanted to be in.

Any advice is appreciated.

do the paralegals and legal assistants leave you out of emails (don’t cc u) even when they know you’re actively working on the file 🙄 idk if I’m overthinking and it’s just an honest mistake LOL

Family lawyers of the sub,

Help me get well-versed in this area of law which I didn’t like it much during law school but now find interesting, when I actually started working.

I would like to get a list of books to read and CPD courses that would be useful.

I want to preface by saying I am not a lawyer. I work legal admin and am in the process of doing a paralegal diploma, and while we do have some substantive law in the program, it's not enough to be familiar.

I'm on a student board for my program and we are putting together a trivia night for the students in our program. I keep hearing American lawyers bring up things like the "bong hits 4 Jesus" case or the "burning rat" case or the "Harrier jet" case online, and I think things like this would be great for legal trivia.

Is there anything like this for Canadian law students? What happened? Please enlighten me about the Canadian lawyer in-jokes about Canadian legal cases.

Edit: I wanted to hop in and share my recent fave from my hometown - Whitehouse v RBC Dominion Securities Inc., wrongful dismissal case. Counterclaim for damages to reputation. Both cases dismissed by the ABQB. Ms. Stolarchuk is a favourite character from the case.

I like the organization, my legal work, and most of the legal team. I work under a terrible micro manager who is a good lawyer but poor leader. She loves control, things being done her way, and is so slow to review things and complete tasks. Is it worth resigning and looking elsewhere or any recommendations for managing this frustrating issue? Reporting to the GC won’t go a long way because GC is far removed from the work we do.

Took a job at this random firm I applied to as a new call. Employment contract was a standard offer letter with no real termination clause. Just fired today. The admin told me to pack up and go home as the Partners didn’t like me. I’ve been there for around less than a months. Firm treated me like trash from day one. They told me I didn’t meet the billable after the first week of employment. Given little to no instructions on assignments. No feedback. I thought all was fine till a week ago. Just got an email now that the Firm won’t be paying any other monies out and I’m not owed anything extra, including my vacation pay (3 days’ pay I think)

Any idea how to go forward from here? Do I get an employment lawyer? Report to the LSO? My self esteem is ruined and so I am trying to also get MH support as well.

Just curious.

Hello all.

I’m writing both solicitor and barrister exams in November. I’m 6 weeks pregnant and I’m just anxious about everything.

I once asked my principal for a compassionate abridgement (before pregnancy) and she said no. I asked her because I wanted to take time off to study without pushing my end date further because I am not enjoying this articling experience, and want to get out of here ASAP, and hopefully get called to the bar in March.

The good part is that we’re transitioning to work remotely starting mid November. I still don’t think I can keep up with this position once the nausea and fatigue really hit. I’m just feeling hopeless. Idk what to do.

If anyone has been in a similar situation, how did you navigate?

Also please be nice to me.

Any neurospicy lawyers practicing have any tips on time keeping? The various pulls for attention throughout the day have me posting .5 for a 10 hour work day and I feel like I am always back tracking trying to reconfigure what I have done in the day… also for those folks who wanna say “just post as you go” that doesn’t work for me and hasn’t since I started in practice YEARS ago… I’m looking for something new that might work for me if it works for others with non neurotypical brains…

TYIA <3 much love and appreciation

Also, I am an Internationally Trained Lawer (ITL). So any suggestions from ITL’s would be really helpful.

It’s going to be a long haul but I can’t wait to get out of this billable hours nonsense

If i already paid a lawyer can I ask for a refund or no?

I am a 9 year call on mat leave and expecting second child. I am not returning to my previous firm. When and how do I disclosure that I am expecting to deliver in the coming months when interviewing with new firms. I interviewed with a firm and learned that they are looking to have someone take over another lawyers practice while she is on mat leave. I initially decided to disclose it after I received an offer/accept an offer. I feel deceitful not disclosing it off the bat but I also recognize I am under no obligation to disclose the pregnancy at this stage. Looking for some guidance/advice on how to handle this. I don’t want this to damage my reputation.

Hi everyone, i am a fresh grad from law school and i passed the bar and got called, but have been struggling a lot with finding a job. i am interested in corporate law and i don't care to work on bay street (yet because i know i have to get my foot in the door somewhere first). i've done a ton of networking, cold calling and emailing and applied to actual job postings on Indeed and LinkedIn. I am desperate to find work!!!

I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with reaching out to legal recruitment firms and agencies who are the middleman in helping you get hired i.e. they sort of play a matchmaker role between you and the firm. Does anyone have any experience working with a recruitment firm or a legal recruiter? How was your experience and is it worth contacting them? any advice is appreciated.

Reputable Ontario school, decent grades, reputable in-house articling role where no one got hired back. Been a few months and can hardly get an interview.

Going back to the drawing board but goddamn wasn’t supposed to go this way - is the market especially bad or am I just approaching this wrong.