FAQ
What are you looking for in the students you hire?
We are looking for bright, engaged, and self-motivated people who show a real interest in our practice, together with excellent team skills, judgment, work ethic and leadership skills. We embrace diversity and a broad range of talents and backgrounds, and look for people who enjoy a high level of responsibility and teamwork, work hard, and will add to the texture of our firm.
What distinguishes your firm from other firms?
We are a young firm both in age and in spirit. We have mandates of the highest quality. We are entrepreneurial and give our students and associates opportunities to work with stimulating colleagues in a team environment on national and international files. We encourage our students and associates to take on lots of responsibility early in their career, with the firm supplying top-notch support with a minimum of hierarchy and structure.
How many articling students do you hire?
We participate in the Articling Student Matching Program which is conducted under the supervision of the Law Society of Alberta. For the 2009/2010 articling year, the Calgary office hired four articling students. For the 2010/2011 articling year, we expect to hire four to five students.
How many summer students do you hire?
For the summer of 2008, we hired two first year students and three second year students. We plan to hire three to five summer students for the summer of 2009.
What is your hireback record for articling students?
Our hireback record has always been excellent and, while there is no guaranteed hireback, we expect our hireback ratios will continue to be high going forward. We expend a great deal of time and effort selecting articling students that we believe share our passion, commitment and ideas. This is reflected in our exceptional hireback record.
What international opportunities are available at Stikeman Elliott LLP?
We generally staff our foreign offices (New York, London, Sydney) with lawyers from our domestic offices, with one or two opportunities on average arising throughout the firm every year.
What sort of continuing legal education programs do you have for students?
We have a comprehensive CLE program for articling and summer students. We offer intensive in-house CLE seminars that are put on by our lawyers, as well as selected educational seminars offered by external organizations we invite to the firm. We send our articling students to Toronto for a training session. We also encourage our students to attend CBA luncheons and relevant external courses.
What is the typical workload for associates?
The firm assumes a rough budget of 1,800 hours for each associate.
