Articling
Overview
At Lindsay Kenney LLP we understand that choosing the right firm to commence your legal career is both exciting and daunting. In order to provide you with the information necessary to make an informed decision, we have prepared the following overview of our articling program and our organization. We hope that this information will aid you in your choice, and we encourage you to apply to start your career with us.
About Us
Established in 1980, Lindsay Kenney LLP is a full service west coast law firm, providing legal services to local, regional, national and international clients from our offices in downtown Vancouver and Langley. Lindsay Kenney LLP is a member of Mackrell International, an international network of independent medium size law firms. We are a progressive, innovative organization that strives for excellence. Composed of 58 lawyers, Lindsay Kenney LLP ranks as the fifteenth largest law firm partnership in British Columbia. We take great pride in the abilities of our lawyers and their capacity to provide our clients with consistent, high quality, and solution-oriented service.
Our Practice Areas include:
- Banking, Secured Lending, Realizations
- Commercial Litigation
- Construction and Engineering Litigation
- Corporate and Transactional
- Fire Litigation
- Fraud Litigation
- Insurance Litigation
- Matrimonial and Family Relations
- Labour and Employment
- Personal Injury Litigation
- Real Property
- Tax, Wealth Preservation, Estates
- Technology and Intellectual Property
Our Student Program
Your articling experience will be demanding, but rewarding. We hire students that are ambitious, motivated, work well in a team setting and possess a genuine interest in becoming future partners of our firm. We welcome applications from students with a variety of backgrounds and interests.
We want to see you grow and succeed as a lawyer and we have designed our articling program with this objective in mind. Some features of our Student Program are:
- comprehensive orientation
- practice group rotation
- professional development opportunities
- mentoring
- ongoing evaluation
- future opportunities
Orientation
Starting a new career can be stressful. To ease your transition we offer a comprehensive orientation to ensure that you start on the right foot. Your orientation includes:
- meeting the firm’s senior management
- introduction to the firm’s resources including our library and computer and web-based resources
- training on the firm’s technology from our IT professionals
- training on firm practices for time management, file management and time recording
- education on practice and professional development issues, including legal research and memo writing.
Practice Group Rotation
We understand you are entering articling with a variety of interests and goals. Our flexible rotation system ensures you will be able to work on files you are personally interested in, and you will also have a well-rounded articling experience.
Our students are expected to work primarily from our Vancouver offices. Nevertheless, opportunities exist to also work with the lawyers in our Langley offices.
Generally, each of our students will complete three rotations of equal length, working on various files with different lawyers. The three rotations are:
- Solicitors Practice: Corporate Commercial; Real Estate; Banking and Intellectual Property
- Insurance Litigation: Defence and Subrogated claims; Tort and Contract law claims
- General Litigation: Commercial Litigation; Fraud Litigation; Matrimonial; Employment.
During the solicitors rotation, students are involved in all aspects of corporate transactions including:
- mergers and acquisitions
- share and asset purchase transactions
- contract drafting
- corporate resolutions
- real estate transactions
- shareholders agreements
- drafting wills and estate planning
During the litigation rotations, students are exposed to files at various stages of an action from commencement to resolution. This may include:
- drafting pleadings
- preparing memoranda of law
- preparing chambers applications
- attending chambers applications
- speaking to motions
- assisting lawyers at discoveries, mediations and trials
- conduct of Small Claims matters including trials.
Professional Development
We understand that in order to provide the best service to our clients, education on current legal issues must be ongoing.
We are committed to the ongoing professional development of our students and lawyers. While on-the-job training is extremely important, we also guide and enhance your professional development with continuing legal education. For example, we host monthly litigation lunches where presentations are given on a variety of topics and subject matters. Also on a periodic basis we host corporate commercial lunch meetings that include seminars on practice matters. All of our lawyers are encouraged and supported in attending CLE courses. We also provide a variety of web-based resources to continue your development and training.
Mentoring
Mentoring is a cornerstone to success in legal practice. Our mentorship program ensures you have access to new and experienced professionals who are available to offer assistance, answer questions, or discuss general concerns.
Each student is assigned a mentor. Mentors ensure each student receives a balanced and rewarding learning experience. We choose mentors based on their ability to communicate effectively with both students and lawyers and for their commitment to the student program. Frequent, informal contact is the most important part of the mentor-student relationship.
In addition, a lawyer is appointed as the student supervisor for each practice group. This ensures someone is watching over the student’s work allocation and balance during each practice rotation. We want to ensure you receive a good variety of work in each practice area.
Feedback
We offer detailed evaluations because we understand that students often are concerned with “how they’re doing.”
It is important during your articling experience that you get feedback and performance evaluations. This is done both formally and informally. We encourage lawyers to provide direction and feedback with each assignment. We try to identify any gaps in your experience or areas for improvement so the necessary steps can be taken to ensure you receive a well rounded articling experience. In addition, your mentor and your principal will conduct an annual performance review with you. This evaluation will provide both constructive information to help you learn and general impressions of your work product and legal skills.
Your Future with Lindsay Kenney LLP
We hire articling students with the aim to develop talented and successful future partners for our organization. A successful articling experience brings benefit for the student and the firm.
We are committed to our student program as the primary source for recruiting and developing new talent for our firm, which in turn allows us to attract important clients and interesting work. We invest in the people we hire. When we hire a student, we are looking at the long term.
Applications
If you are interested in applying, please submit a cover letter, resume and copies of your law school and undergraduate transcripts to the following address before the end of June of each year:
Applications should be delivered to:
Lindsay Kenney LLP
Barristers & Solicitors
1800 – 401 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5A1
Fax: 604.687.2347
Attention: Timothy Delaney
Interviews of the chosen applicants will take place during the Vancouver Bar Association designated interview week, typically the third week of August.
While we appreciate all applications, only those considered for an interview will be contacted.
