The Junior Lawyer Playbook: AI, Articling, and How to Stand Out When Everyone Has the Same Degree

Okay.

Interesting.

So as part of your interests, I love that you mentor articling students through the Law Society of Ontario.

And I know that there's so much insight and there's so much that you can... provide and help to law students having been through it yourself and taking a different journey and showing and really illustrating there are options.

If you're not looking for that classic law firm experience or career, as you say, it's not for everyone, as is entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

And I just love that you're demonstrating and helping students consider perhaps another career or helping them through their more traditional career into a law firm.

So what's the most common thing you're seeing from students in what they're getting wrong or what, not wrong, but where they're challenged? What are you

seeing from your experience with students these days? So it all depends on the category of if we're talking about juniors or students versus let's call it mid-career.

But I'll just address the students or the articling students or juniors.

So there's almost like a twofold problem with that.

One is there's a lot of, okay, well, I went to school.

And now I'm here and I need mentorship.

So they will sit there and wait for someone to mentor them.

And lawyers are busy.

They have clients.

They have things they want to do.

They don't want to necessarily babysit.

So let's say they give a junior lawyer a task.

And then the junior lawyer goes, okay, well, when do you need it by? And what the middle lawyer is thinking is, when do I need it by? Now.

But, you know, if you have to ask, you know, so...

I find that what they get wrong is there's a lot of kind of waiting around.

I'm waiting to do something as opposed to taking the initiative, saying, can I sit in on a...

I just want to sit.

And then writing notes of words or things that they don't understand and having a conversation with their principal and maybe asking if they can...

Help with with things like really taking the initiative that would be very helpful, as well as finding out opportunities within their own communities.

Okay.

Interesting.

So as part of your interests, I love that you mentor articling students through the Law Society of Ontario.

And I know that there's so much insight and there's so much that you can... provide and help to law students having been through it yourself and taking a different journey and showing and really illustrating there are options.

If you're not looking for that classic law firm experience or career, as you say, it's not for everyone, as is entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

And I just love that you're demonstrating and helping students consider perhaps another career or helping them through their more traditional career into a law firm.

So what's the most common thing you're seeing from students in what they're getting wrong or what, not wrong, but where they're challenged? What are you

seeing from your experience with students these days? So it all depends on the category of if we're talking about juniors or students versus let's call it mid-career.

But I'll just address the students or the articling students or juniors.

So there's almost like a twofold problem with that.

One is there's a lot of, okay, well, I went to school.

And now I'm here and I need mentorship.

So they will sit there and wait for someone to mentor them.

And lawyers are busy.

They have clients.

They have things they want to do.

They don't want to necessarily babysit.

So let's say they give a junior lawyer a task.

And then the junior lawyer goes, okay, well, when do you need it by? And what the middle lawyer is thinking is, when do I need it by? Now.

But, you know, if you have to ask, you know, so...

I find that what they get wrong is there's a lot of kind of waiting around.

I'm waiting to do something as opposed to taking the initiative, saying, can I sit in on a...

I just want to sit.

And then writing notes of words or things that they don't understand and having a conversation with their principal and maybe asking if they can...

Help with with things like really taking the initiative that would be very helpful, as well as finding out opportunities within their own communities.