Reminder: The Articling Student Application Deadline is this Friday

 

published 05/11/2015

This is a reminder that the application deadline for Articling Students is Friday, May 15th at 12:00 p.m. We are looking to hire up to 5 students for our Winnipeg office.

General Information

Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP has its offices at 201 Portage Avenue at the corner of Portage & Main. Our approximately 88 lawyers are assisted by a staff of 100, including paralegals, legal assistants, accounting staff, title searchers, systems operations, a marketing department, a librarian and personnel administrators.

Our firm maintains three full-time offices, including one located in Brandon and one in Portage la Prairie. We also have four satellite offices in smaller communities around the province. Our students will have the opportunity to work in a variety of locations and learn about the unique business and legal challenges faced by clients outside of Winnipeg.

Our Objective

Our objective in hiring students is to identify individuals who will join the firm, initially as associates and, ultimately becoming our partners. We hire students with the intention of developing them into excellent lawyers. The offers extended to students to stay on with the firm as associates have historically reflected the firm’s objective to retain students who will carry on the firm’s tradition of excellence. Our Marketing Department helps lawyers to build their practice by offering a wide range of marketing and professional development support.

Areas of Practice

We serve a variety of small and large, local, national and international clients. The practice of law at TDS is diverse, challenging and personally rewarding. Most of our lawyers restrict their practices to specific areas, while several carry on very broad practices. Further information on our 20+ areas of practice can be obtained from the Practice section of our website.

The Articling Year

We provide our students with extensive practical experience and regular exposure to clients and to other lawyers so that their legal and personal skills can be appropriately developed and assessed. The student is given the opportunity to work with lawyers in a variety of different practice areas while, at the same time, the firm has the opportunity to assist the student in developing the skills that are necessary in becoming a good lawyer and a valuable addition to the firm. Each articling student is assigned to a small group of lawyers for the year who act as "principals" and we aim to provide each student with principals who practice in different fields. We believe that this is superior to a “rotation” system, as it allows articling students more opportunity to maintain continuity with files and their mentors and fosters a collegial atmosphere among students. Mentorship is a key value during the articling year and beyond. We give students an appropriate level of responsibility, and we ensure that they have the necessary assistance and support that is required in order to properly complete the work that they have been assigned. Regular meetings are held among our students and the firm’s Articling Committee to provide continual feedback with respect to performance, in addition to the ongoing feedback received directly from principals. Our practice of open-door access to lawyers, which continues long after the Call to the Bar, is just one feature of the firm’s collegial approach to the practice of law.

Students commence their articles in mid-June. We pay our articling students a salary which is competitive with other large downtown Winnipeg firms. The fees for the CPLED program are paid by the firm, and the firm pays Law Society practising fees and Call to the Bar fees for those students who are retained as associates. Our articling students are entitled to participate in the firm’s group insurance benefits package, which includes health, dental and disability insurance coverage.

TDS provides lawyers and students with access to a wide variety of research tools including our multi-floor library and research area, online research tools such as Quicklaw, Carswell and others. TDS uses sophisticated document management software and Client Relationship Management (CRM) software to provide quick and easy access to client and research information.

For more information, and to apply, please click here.


DISCLAIMER: This article is presented for informational purposes only. The content does not constitute legal advice or solicitation and does not create a solicitor client relationship. The views expressed are solely the authors’ and should not be attributed to any other party, including Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP (TDS), its affiliate companies or its clients. The authors make no guarantees regarding the accuracy or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to via this article. The authors are not able to provide free legal advice. If you are seeking advice on specific matters, please contact Keith LaBossiere, CEO & Managing Partner at kdl@tdslaw.com, or 204.934.2587. Please be aware that any unsolicited information sent to the author(s) cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

While care is taken to ensure the accuracy for the purposes stated, before relying upon these articles, you should seek and be guided by legal advice based on your specific circumstances. We would be pleased to provide you with our assistance on any of the issues raised in these articles.