For Women in Law By Women in Law

An Introduction to the LiL Articling Student Life Initiative

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We welcome Guest Blogger and Harper Grey Research Lawyer and Student Coordinator, Emilie LeDuc to the Dear LiL blog to introduce the newest initiative from Life in Law: LiL Articling Student Life! Our latest resource is geared towards assisting women articling students as they navigate the transition between the life of a law student and that of a new associate.

I wear a number of hats at Harper Grey, but I consider my most important job to be helping our articling students navigate the transition from law school to lawyering. The articling year is a time of great change. Many students experience stress  as they simultaneously try to understand how law is actually practiced; try to make important decisions about their career paths; and, of course, try to make a good impression and get hired back.

I often joke with our students that, at about four or five years’ of call, lawyers tend to develop amnesia about what it was like to be a student. We forget the pressure of wanting to do a good job without having any (or very little) practical knowledge. We come to think that we’ve just always known what we know. We forget that, once upon a time, we did not know what a third party was, never mind how to apply to add one.

At our firm, we encourage our junior associates to help mentor our students because junior associates have recently lived through the articling process. They have a keen understanding of what articling students need to know to make the year easier. Junior associates are a safe place for students to ask what they may think are “dumb” questions. Perhaps most importantly, junior associates can still remember how it felt to be an articling student. They have wisdom that us more senior lawyers have seemingly lost.

Through “Articling Student Life”, a new LiL initiative, we’ll be tapping into this wisdom.  We’ve enlisted some of Harper Grey’s junior women associates as “LiL Allies” to answer questions that have been submitted to LiL by articling students.

If you are an articling student interested in learning about how to successfully transition to associate life – you’ve come to the right place. Do you have a burning question about life as lawyer after articling or looking for some general advice about how to succeed during this next year? We would love to hear from you. Click here to submit an articling student-specific question to our team of LiL Allies.

About the Author 

Emilie LeDuc is a Research Associate and Professional Development Coordinator with Harper Grey. She supports the firm’s senior lawyers with legal research, analysis, and drafting, and oversees the firm’s student program. Emilie is also an Adjunct Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, teaching Law 430: Advanced Legal Research.

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