Canadian Lawyer 4Students

16 F a l l 2 0 1 4 C A N A D I A N L a w y e r 4 s t u d e n t s representing the Canadian monitor in the Nortel Networks Corp. trial. "Ask lawyers what they're working on. Try and engage your- self in their line of work. See what you can do to make their lives easier. It may also go without saying but do good work. Once you do good work, lawyers will be more likely to give you that more interesting assignment that you're seeking," says Wong. "I think one of the most important things for all articling stu- dents is to take initiative. If you're working on a big file, some- times it's easy to feel lost in the big picture. So ask if you can read the pleadings for the file or read whatever is being submitted for a motion — that helps you see the big picture and see where your work fits into the bigger picture," he adds. Also, ask to attend strategy meetings or motions or even attend trials, which will help you see where your research is taking the file. Natalie Zinman, Gowlings director of student programs, says Wong, who had summered with the firm the year before, had been an articling student for about a month when Stam came looking for a student who might be a fit for the file. "We knew he was a strong team player," says Zinman. Wong had done his intensive rotation in Gowlings' litigation de- partment and was very interested in working on the Nortel file. He initially assisted with the discovery process and helped Stam with depositions and document discovery. "I was really excited to work on it because I had heard so much about this file before and it was really an exciting opportunity for me because of the scale of the file and I knew it was going to be a very public case as well," he says. While most articling students work long hours, being on one file with such a high profile offered a variety of tasks but was a concentrated effort. "Sometimes I was involved in strategy meet- ings or other times invited to sit in on depositions, other days it was document review and, in some instances, there was some draing to do, so it varied quite a bit," he says. His advice to other articling students looking to get invited on to a big file? Do good work and take initiative to understand the big picture. "I also didn't quite appreciate until this year the importance of technology in a big litigation file. I think a lot of firms are using e-discovery tools because of the number of docu- ments between parties for a litigation file. As a student, it's a great opportunity to learn how to use e-discovery soware programs because more and more files, whether large or small, will start to use these programs," says Wong. "It's a great transferrable skill." Wong says he had a lot of support at the firm and emphasizes the importance of developing good working relationships with everyone on the team. "e law clerks, paralegals, and adminis- trative assistants were really great at providing assistance in every part of this file. It's really important to get to know them well and develop good working relationships with them. ey can really help you out when there are significant time pressures." Not all big cases involve going to the Supreme Court or being part of business-page headlines but they do bring experiences that can help a student find their way to a practice area. Graham Fulton says he was a fairly "raw student" when he was approached by a partner at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP's infra- structure group to work on a deal for the John Hart Generating Station rehabilitation — a BC Hydro power plant on Vancouver Island's Campbell River. e University of Western Ontario Fac- ulty of Law grad says he didn't know what area of law he wanted to focus on going into his articling position at Blakes. "I was a pretty blank slate when I started," says Fulton. "I was leaning more to the solicitor side but other than that I had no real indica- tion. Certainly by the end of the John Hart project I was pretty set on infrastructure." He had summered at the firm in 2012 but had been an arti- cling student for about two weeks when he was approached to work on the project. "It was right off the bat during my first ro- tation," he recalls. "One of the lawyers in charge of the project came to my office and sat down with me for about 40 minutes and walked me through the project, the structuring of it, the vari- ous entities, and some of the key dates." Fulton stayed on the project well into his second rotation — about four months. He logged a lot of hours, gaining exposure to many different areas of law and the opportunity to work with a va- riety of lawyers at the firm. "ere were times they let me take the first cut at draing certain documents which I didn't expect to be doing as an articling student. It was a fantastic experience because I could do the work, hand it to the lawyer who had assigned it to me, and they would mark it up and walk me through what was good and more importantly what they would change." For a lot of articling students, their involvement in different files is oen transitory — coming in to do a closing or a discrete aspect of a deal for brief periods of time but Fulton feels he had "substantial involvement" in the infrastructure project. "By the end, I really felt I understood what was going on and what the key moving parts were and how the deal was structured. I really appreciated that side of it," he says. ere were a number of late nights working on the project, Fulton recalls. "I remember a couple of times finishing an assign- ment at midnight or thereaer and going to hand it to the lawyer If people don't know you are interested and engaged they won't try and involve you, so my advice would be let your interests be known and speak to as many people who are doing the kind of law you like to do as possible. Lauren Posloski

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