Articling Programme

We are one of the few remaining firms that look outside of its summer student group to hire articling students. We participated in the articling student recruitment process last year, and hired 12 additional articling students for 2006/2007 through this process. For 2007/2008 articling student positions, we expect to hire approximately 8 to 12 additional students through this process.

The focus of Stikeman Elliott's articling programme is flexibility. We provide you with the option of obtaining a broad exposure to several practice areas over your articling term or focusing your interests on a few particular practice areas.

Some of the highlights of our articling programme include:

Flexibility of the Rotation System: You get to choose how much time you spend, in any combination of three to seven-month periods between the two rotations that we offer:  corporate/real estate and litigation/tax/labour.  The corporate/real estate rotation includes work with the corporate, securities, real estate, land use/environmental and competition groups, while the litigation/tax/labour rotation includes litigation, tax, insolvency, employment/labour, tax planning and tax appeals work, as well as experience with competition, environmental and land use litigation.

Mentorship Programme: You will be matched with three mentors (a partner and two associates) from your practice area(s) of interest. Your mentors will work with you on files, provide you with ongoing guidance, and help you manage a diverse workload to gain a well-rounded articling experience.

Work Allocation and Responsibility:  Students are offered an unusually high degree of individual responsibility here in the expectation that their initiative, maturity and practice skills will develop more rapidly.  You will work with a broad range of lawyers, including your mentors and lawyers you approach. You will get the opportunity to take on a high level of challenging work and responsibility, and will be responsible in part for monitoring your own workload.   Students meet as a group once a week with Ritu Bhasin, Director of Student and Associate Programmes, to discuss individual workload and periodically will discuss work with their mentors as well.

Continuing Legal Education Programme: We have a very comprehensive CLE programme for articling and summer students that includes intensive in-house seminars, seminars conducted by external organizations we invite to the firm, and practice area discussions that are followed by group dinners for students and lawyers.

Evaluation Process: Articling students receive formal feedback three times during the articling term. The Students Committee reviews and discusses review feedback from the lawyers you have worked with and then provides each student with an individualized message from the Committee. At the end of the articling year, our students are asked to evaluate their articling experience, which helps the firm to continually improve our articling programme.

Hireback Process: Our hireback record has always been excellent, between 80% and 100% in recent years, and we expect our hireback ratios will continue to be very high going forward.

Number of Articling Students Typically Hired: 20 to 25 (we are one of the few remaining firms that looks outside of its summer student group to hire additional articling students).

Articling Compensation and Benefits

• Salary: Our articling compensation philosophy is to pay our students at or near the top of the market for students at full-service Toronto firms. Currently, our articling students are paid $1,300 per week.
• Bonuses: Students who commit to completing their articles with us receive a "pre-articling bonus" up to a maximum of $4,000. In past years, we have also given a discretionary, merit based bonus to articling students at the end of the articling term.
• Technology: We offer articling students and associates a one-time technology grant of $1,000 towards the purchase of technology that will assist them in their practice. We also pay for and provide a BlackBerry to all articling students for their use during their time working with us.
• Vacation: Articling students receive two weeks paid vacation within the ten-month articling period.
• Bar Admission Process: We pay tuition and salary for our students during the Skills and Professional Responsibility Program of the Bar admission process and the licensing examinations.
• Fitness Membership: The firm pays the initiation fee and 50% of the monthly fitness membership fee for articling students.
• Health Care/Dental Plan - Articling students receive an extended health care and dental plan.