JD or LL.B.? Who cares? - National - Law Student

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J.D. or LL.B.? Who cares?
Law firm recruiters chime in on the great law degree debate.
“
W
hat’s in a name? That which we call a
rose by any other name would smell
as sweet,” William Shakespeare wrote
centuries ago. In 2001, the University
of Toronto tested that theory when it became the first
Canadian law school to change its LL.B. designation to a
J.D. (Juris Doctor).
In response to student-led initiatives, several more,
including the University of Western Ontario, UBC,
Queen’s, and Osgoode Hall, have followed suit in the
past year. The thinking behind the change is to provide
parity with other professions such as doctors (M.D.) and
to increase the recognition of the degree internationally.
Does it matter to law firms, though? “In the Vancouver
marketplace and probably in the Canadian marketplace,
it doesn’t make a difference,” says Nadia Myerthall,
director of student programs at Davis LLP in Vancouver.
“It’s exactly the same. It’s just a change in title; it’s not a
change in qualifications.
“I get résumés from J.D. candidates from the U of T,
and I compare them to other candidates from other law
schools. It’s not seen more favouably that they have a
J.D.; it’s just that they have their law degree.” She adds,
though: “I think that for students who are perhaps looking to go internationally, the J.D. is recognized more
than the LL.B.”
“Initially, I think the University of Toronto did it
because the market for their students is a lot more
focused than some other schools on the U.S. and international [opportunities],” adds Patti MacDonald, director of student and associate programs at Gowling
Lafleur Henderson LLP in Toronto. “I think maybe they
found that some of those recruiters didn’t understand
what the difference was between the designations.”
So are recruiters in the United States confused about
what it takes to get an LL.B.?
“I think that more sophisticated firms understand the
educational landscape in Canada and understand what
an LL.B. is,” says Caronline Menes, Director of Legal
Recruiting at Proskauer Rose LLP in New York.
“It is inconsequential to Proskauer Rose whether a
student has a J.D. or an LL.B. … I do not believe that any
other large firms would view a student with a J.D. more
favourably than one with an LL.B. The lawyers in our
firm work aside and opposite Canadian lawyers regularly, and recognize that their legal expertise is equal to that
of American lawyers.” …
By Alison Arnot. Read the rest of the article online in the September 2008 Law
Student Addendum (http://www.cba.org/CBA/newsletters/addendum09-08/news.aspx).
Navigating the Boomer workplace
Tips for succeeding in law firms full of Boomers and Xers.
8
work to live rather than living to work.
Millennials, by contrast, received lots of
parental support, grew up in a scheduled
environment and were constantly coached.
“[Theirs] was a very fun time to be a child,
everybody was caring for you and doting on
you. That is not [the experience of] the generation that precedes them,” says Tammy
Hughes, president of Claire Raines &
Associates, a Texas-based human resources
consulting firm. So if your manager doesn’t
N AT I O N A L
want to discuss the weekend, but wants to
get down to business, you should understand that’s not an insult, but may simply be
a reflection of the time she grew up in.
2. Learn from their experience. “That doesn’t mean you can’t express your ideas,” says
Hughes. But be prepared for criticism. “If
your idea gets shot down, that’s okay.”
Members of Generation Y are used to
receiving a lot of positive reinforcement and
Law Student 2008
ROBERT JOHANNSEN
1. Understand the older generations.
Boomers grew up in a time of great change
and entered the workforce during economic prosperity. Their childhood may have
been lacking in comfort, but they made up
for it later, becoming the generation known
for its materialism. Many Generation Xers,
on the other hand, grew up in a house
where the parents were divorced and/or
where both parents worked. They’re
autonomous and independent, and they
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We are looking for students
with diverse backgrounds,
eclectic interests and
entrepreneurial spirit to hang
their many hats with ours.
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Be a part of one of the most
dynamic legal practices in
Canada. Contact our Assistant
Director of Student Programs,
Leigh-Ann McGowan at
[email protected]
or visit our student website at
www.casselsbrock.com
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NATL07_010.indd 1
© 2008 Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. Cassels Brock
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09/08/2008 06:49:53 PM
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Page 11
• CLE on your desktop
The CBA is rapidly becoming a market leader in
online CLEs, accessible anywhere you have
Internet access and affordable on student budgets. Here are three upcoming online CLEs —
for details, visit http://www.cba.org/cba/cle/
online/about.aspx.
Canadian law professors invade the blogosphere.
nspired by the success of Floridabased PrawfsBlawg.com, which has
racked up more than two million visits since its launch in 2006, a number of
Canadian professors have staked out
their own corners of the internet. Among
this growing crowd are The Court
(www.thecourt.ca), Osgoode Hall’s
foray into all things Supreme Court, and
the University of Alberta’s Law Faculty
Blog (http://ualbertalaw.typepad.com),
which has covered everything from
securities regulators to Paris Hilton.
I
Complying with Privacy Laws Nationally
– A Cross-Country Update: September 18, 2008
(http://www.cba.org/cba/cle/online/ONSEP1808.aspx)
The Business of Being a Lawyer: October 7, 2008
(http://www.cba.org/CBA/CLE/online/ONOCT08.aspx)
Going Electronic – Integrating Technology into
Your Practice (French): November 6, 2008
(http://www.cba.org/cba/cle/online/ONNOV08.aspx)
If you miss one, no worries — webcasts are
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org/cba/cle/online/past.aspx.
• Looking for more?
National magazine has been publishing Law
Student Editions for five straight years. To
access previous issues and other law studentspecific content, visit the magazine’s Student
Page at www.cba.org/students.
It all started with Simon Fodden. A
professor emeritus at Toronto’s Osgoode
Hall, he was among the first legal scholars
to take up blogging five years ago with
a property law blog. Retired since 2000,
Fodden set up Slaw (www.slaw.ca), a
groundbreaking cooperative blog for
legal researchers, in 2005.
Building on that success, in January
2007 he established The Court, the
first official law school blog in the
country. Run by a team of students and
edited by faculty, the site has quickly
gained a readership made up of lawyers,
professors, students and (if their sources
NATIONAL
CANADIAN BAR ASSOCIATION
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are to be believed) Supreme Court justices themselves.
“I think it bothered me that Osgoode
had such a strong IT team and such a
strong interest in the works of the court,
but was doing nothing online,” Fodden
recalls. “So I suggested to the dean that
we do something on the Supreme Court,
and he loved the idea.”
The Court, which is staffed by a team
of eight students and publishes content
by a long list of scholars, also benefits
from the Internet’s immediacy. While law
review and law journal articles must wait
up to 12 months for a case comment to
Senior Director of Communications /
Directeur principal des communications
Stephen Hanson: [email protected]
Editorial Board Chair /
Présidente du comité de rédaction
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Members / Membres
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________________________________
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Circulation / Abonnements
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get from author to print, The Court can
have them online and into the world
within hours of a decision.
Moin Yayha could not agree more.
The associate dean of graduate studies at
the University of Alberta’s Faculty of
Law in Edmonton, he started his first
blog with a friend when he was a student
at George Mason University in the U.S.
That site, which commented widely (and
at times, wildly) on law and pop culture,
was written under a pseudonym out of a
fear of reprisal from the law faculty.
Yayha praises the immediacy of the
Internet over traditional outlets. “There
are just some things that you can’t write a
Law Review piece on. In other words,
something comes up now and it warrants
comment now — not tomorrow.”...
By Brad Mackay. Read the rest of the article online in the
September 2008 Law Student Addendum (http://www.cba.
org/CBA/newsletters/addendum09-08/news.aspx).
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NATL07_012.indd 1
09/05/2008 11:30:46 AM
9/2/08
6:28 PM
Page 14
B.C. launches articling registry
Online database aims to encourage solo and small-firm articles.
I
n July, the CBA’s British Columbia
Branch, with support from the Law
Society of British Columbia, launched
an innovative online articling registry
for Canadian law students and B.C. lawyers.
The registry, the first of its kind in
Canada, enables both lawyers and students to look for articling positions by
location, timeframe, and area of practice.
Firms and students can post positions
sought, résumés and available articles.
The registry is designed to promote
articling, including shared articles,
throughout B.C., with a particular focus
on solo and small-firm practices outside of
the Lower Mainland and Victoria region.
“This was an initiative that came out of
our Small Firm Task Force,” says Law
Society of B.C. President John Hunter.
“The Task Force considered it to be likely
that students who choose to article in
smaller communities would, if given the
opportunity, stay in those communities
after being called to the bar.”
Some solo and small-firm practitioners have reported that while they may
not have enough legal work to justify hiring an articling student on a full-time
basis, they would be in a position to share
a student with another firm. The task
force received strong encouragement
from solo and small-firm practitioners to
support and promote an expanded shared
articling program.
“The goal of the registry is to increase
the number of articling students with
solo and small firms, which will support
and strengthen the viability of law practices and the provision of legal services in
both the short and long term throughout
the province,” says CBA-BC President
Kenneth Walton.
Over the coming months, the CBA-BC
and the law society will be working to
encourage both lawyers and law students
to post information on the registry, which
can be found online at http://www.cba.org/
BC/bc_articling/articlings/mainlogin.aspx.
Attention à la
cyber-réputation!
Votre réputation en ligne peut prendre en
un rien de temps une ampleur considérable
et longtemps influencer votre succès ou
échec professionnel.
Par Bertrand Salvas
C
onjuguée au phénomène de persistance de l’information
qui caractérise le Web, la préservation de sa cyber-réputation devrait très tôt préoccuper tout internaute,
surtout celui qui aspire à se lancer un jour dans une profession
dite “libérale”.
Effectivement, les internautes semblent encore portés à dévoiler sans retenue de nombreux aspects de leur vie privée, sans
se douter des conséquences à long terme de ces indiscrétions.
La plupart des participants aux premiers forums et groupes
de discussion ont initialement cru à l’illusion de la sécurité que
leur procurait leur petit univers juste à eux. Ils ignoraient que
leurs échanges étaient stockés et que ceux-ci se retrouveraient
intégralement sur l’Internet moderne. Combien de professionnels, hommes d’affaires ou politiciens ont vu les récits de leurs
soirées bien arrosées ou leurs opinions politiques sur des sujets
délicats refaire inopinément surface et revenir les hanter ?
La survenance de tels événements a amené la naissance de
théories réclamant l’instauration d’un « droit à l’oubli » qui
viendrait forcer la destruction de telles données après un certain nombre d’années.
Au contraire, on a plutôt favorisé la mise en ligne a posteriori d’archives de discussions que tout le monde croyait disparues. C’est normal, les sites de réseautage ont pour but
avoué de recueillir de l’information et de l’utiliser à des fins de
publicité ou de revente.
14
Vincent Gautrais, titulaire de la Chaire de l’Université de
Montréal en droit de la sécurité et des affaires électroniques, a
examiné les politiques d’utilisation de Facebook, et a constaté
que toute l’information stockée sur les serveurs du site de
réseautage devient ipso facto sa propriété. Les textes, photos
et vidéos sur ce site peuvent être réutilisées, revendues ou republiées à l’infini, sans grand contrôle de la part des personnes concernées. « Le problème principal ici est lié au droit à
l’image » soutient Me Gautrais.
Selon Cynthia Chassigneux, du Centre de recherche en
droit public, peu d’étudiants connaissent les risques liés au
dévoilement de certains côtés de leur intimité sur Internet.
« Il faut être conscient des lacunes de ces systèmes dès le
départ, et être prêt à vivre avec les conséquences de ses actes.
Il n’y a donc plus d’excuses pour ne pas apprendre à se protéger. Il importe de bien lire les mises en garde, et d’assortir sa
page des limites et restrictions d’accès qui correspondent à
notre seuil de tolérance. »
Vous êtes maintenant avertis ! Alors prenez vos précautions, et naviguez en paix !
Bertrand Salvas est notaire, consultant et chroniqueur en droit des technologies de
l’information. Il collabore régulièrement au National.
N AT I O N A L
Law Student 2008
STEEPHEN MACEACHERN
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