Student program focuses on mentorship and support
TRANSCRIPT
Anita Yuk, Articling Student:
The way that Gowling WLG Vancouver sets up its mentorship program is you get a junior associate, a senior associate and then your principal is a partner. I got to see what it means to be a good lawyer. What it means to be a happy lawyer, even further on your career at the beginning when work is very intense, of course. I think guidance is definitely the most valuable takeaway.
Max Brunette, Partner, Co-chair – Vancouver Student Recruiting Committee:
At this stage, for a young lawyer’s careers, law school is about the analytical training that you receive — understanding how to analyze issues, understanding how to read cases. Our job is to train you, if you are interested in corporate law, to train you on the corporate side of the practice. I think you need to have an open mind to that. I think a mistake a lot of young lawyers make is thinking they have to select a niche area too early and to me that slows down skill development. I think we’ll have much better lawyers out there who spent the first two, three, four years in practice trying different areas, broadening their skill base, and at the end of the day that will result in a better partner and a better lawyer.
Stacey Hanley, Partner, Co-chair – Vancouver Student Recruiting Committee:
I think students are surprised by the level of responsibility they’re given early on. Coming out of law school they’re quite new and they’re quite fresh. I think they find it’s exciting and very different from studies when they’re given a real file with real problems involving real people.
Kean Silverthorn, Summer Student:
There’s a formal mentorship program where we’re each matched up with two formal mentors. We’ll routinely go for lunches and coffees and they’ll ask us how the summer is going, but beyond that, there’s a really strong informal mentorship called “Juror Within the Law Firm” here, and you’ll constantly just be asking different lawyers their opinions on files and just general life advice, and that’s been really strong here.
Anita Yuk, Articling Student:
You’re constantly encouraged to talk to other lawyers, associates, partners, other articling students and you’re also encouraged to attend different events, or join different groups, so that you get a sense of what it is that you might like to practice one day.
Max Brunette, Partner, Co-chair – Vancouver Student Recruiting Committee:
We have a number of sort of informal things in terms of “Lunch and Learns”. We have a lot of social events that are geared around the students which is a good opportunity for students to meet more senior lawyers on an informal basis.
Kathy Tran, Summer Student:
I feel that the Summer Student Program at Gowling has helped me be able to kind of bridge that gap between being a law student and being focused on the academics. Learning what it’s like to be a working professional practitioner. Not only am I able to learn from watching how lawyers conduct themselves on a day-to-day basis, I’m able to kind of do the work that a real lawyer would be doing. The fact that Gowling is able to kind of provide summer students with that opportunity really speaks to how well I feel that I’m prepared to kind of move forward in my career.
[Off-camera speaker]:
Well, I’m sold. I want to come too.
Kathy Tran, Summer Student:
Ha ha ha ha! Mission accomplished!
