Almost every year our firm hires articling students. In 2008, our firm hired 2 new articling students, and in 2009, we hired one articling student.
In Manitoba, articling students are assigned to a principal lawyer who has the primary responsibility of monitoring the student throughout the articling year. However, we attempt to provide our articling students with a very wide range of exposure to various areas of law.
Depending upon the comfort level of the articling student, our articling students have assisted in court for various matters, conducted meetings on real estate matters, drafted documents for various types of matters including agreements, pleadings, Wills and Powers of Attorney, and many other types of documents. Articling students are also usually invited to inform our firm as to recent developments in the law which they may in fact be the first ones exposed to.
Our lawyers meet once each month to discuss various matters, and to assist each other with any problem matters any of us may be having, and our articling students are part of those meetings.
We believe our salaries for articling students (and associate lawyers) to be competitive when compared with Winnipeg firms. We also believe that we offer many other benefits that other Winnipeg firms cannot offer which go with a rural practice such as staff assistance, a private office fully equipped with computer, phone and dictation machine, and of course, free parking! Smith Neufeld Jodoin LLP pays call to the bar fees for articling students remaining with us, and it is our goal to mentor and retain all articling students should they wish to continue to practice with us.
We believe that our firm is an exciting and rewarding place to article, and would encourage you to ask any of our lawyers or articling students about articling with us. Or, for more information, please contact us at hr@snj.ca.
Whether you are a first year law student or completing your articles, please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.