Articled Students
McQuarrie Hunter LLP has a long tradition of providing well-rounded, balanced and practical articles.
We are able to provide experience in most areas of the law. Our articled students are afforded the opportunity to deal directly with clients, and they often represent clients from the initial contact through to the conclusion of the matter, under a lawyer's supervision. All students spend time in both our Surrey and New Westminster offices, and may be involved in a variety of legal areas at one time.
We believe that the articling period is primarily for the education and professional development of the student. Accordingly, we do not place billing expectations on our articled students, nor do we expect them to work 70-hour weeks. We do expect our articled students to put forth their best effort in developing good work practices, sound professional ethics and a habit of professional courtesy, and to get the highest-quality articles possible.
Although we try to expose our articled students to a wide variety of work, students take the primary responsibility for the quality of their articles, and are expected to seek kinds of work that may not be coming their way or in which they feel they need more experience. Students are introduced to court work gradually, first observing, then conducting non-contentious applications and finally, where possible, arguing against opposition. Students are encouraged to attend professional development courses and Bar Association meetings in their areas of interest, and we welcome their involvement in the community and legal profession. We pay salary during the Professional Legal Training Course as well as the course fees.
We prefer to hire associates from among our articled students, and most of our current partners started their legal careers as articled students with McQuarrie Hunter LLP. As much as possible, we consider each student separately when it comes time to decide whether or not to offer an associate position; students do not compete against each other to be kept on. In the past we have offered employment to about half of our articled students. Whether or not a student is hired as a first year associate depends upon a number of factors, including the availability of work in that person's chosen practice area. We find this varies considerably from year to year, and there is no set standard or criteria upon which the decision is made.
Our practice has been to have one or more students per year, with start dates in May and September whenever possible. Articling interviews are held in late June or early July of each year, so applications should be submitted well before mid-June.
We also consider summer student applications. We make our decision with respect to summer students in late December, so summer student applications should be submitted before the end of November.
For further information about joining McQuarrie Hunter LLP as an articled student or summer student, please contact:
Wade Winkler, Partner
604-526-1821