As an articling or summer student, you may find yourself working long days and late nights with your sleeves rolled up alongside a variety of legal professionals. Apart from the junior partner or paralegals you may be assigned to work with on a regular basis, there is a whole ecosystem of people that help make a law firm or corporate legal department run smoothly day to day. Here’s a sampling of the people you may encounter in your days as a student.

Considering a career in the realm of legal academia? Canadian Lawyer 4Students spoke to law school deans across the country about what it’s like and the path you can take to get there.

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It should come as no surprise that law school is stressful. The same can be said for most other graduate programs, but given the unique pressures law students face, it’s even more important to recognize the needs of those with disabilities, whether they are physical or mental.

Ben Vandorpe first knew something was wrong when he, then a seven-year-old girl, was forced to have a separate bath from his male friend. “We had been playing and his mother said it was bath time and because I was a girl and he was a boy, we would be bathed separately,” says Vandorpe. “I just remember crying non-stop and for the first time, being really aware of my gender,” he says.

Part of private donor Peter Allard’s $11.86-million gift supported the construction of UBC Faculty of Law’s new building. Photo: UBC

Today’s law students are 21st-century creatures, but the same can’t always be said for the classrooms they call home for a large part of the day. Most know at least one dingy old space with fewer electrical outlets than doors, and whose iffy acoustics, stale air, and dim lighting mean it bears a closer resemblance to a dungeon than a temple of learning. “We all know what it’s like to sit in a lousy room,” says Kim Brooks, the dean at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law.

Practising in Edmonton, mining law, in Saskatchewan, mergers & acquisitions

Millie Bojic is a third-year law student at the University of British Columbia, pursuing the business law concentration. She is editor-in-chief of the UBC Faculty of Law’s entertainment law magazine, Esoteric. Recently, she completed a year-long in-house practicum at a global energy law firm. Along with her background in business administration within the energy industry, she also has a long history in visual arts as a painter and arts and culture event planner. She continues to paint commissioned work as per client request. This painting is titled Mortality of decadence, her interpretation of Dutch artist Jan Davidsz de Heem’s 17th-century painting Still-life with flowers and fruit.

Even if you’re just starting law school and picking up Canadian Lawyer 4Students for the very first time, you’ve likely already heard about how hard it is to get articling positions and find associate jobs once you’ve completed your law degree. So it might be that you’re questioning your career path and looking into the crystal ball of your future wondering if it might be your own shingle you’ll be hanging up once you’ve jumped through all the hoops required to be allowed to practise.

Articling: the difficulties of it are on the minds of everyone these days — students, law societies, law firms, and, well let’s admit it, parents, too. The Law Society of Upper Canada in December issued a 134-page consultation report looking at different options for the future of articles in the province of Ontario. It includes taking the articling portion right out and instituting a practical legal training course. There’s no talk of going the American route and simply having students go from law school to writing the bar exams. And there’s been no indication that any of the other provinces across the country are looking to change their qualification systems either. Thus it would seem for the time being, at least, articles are likely here to stay.

Like so many others, maybe you too “fell” into law. Maybe you weren’t sure what you wanted to do with your life so you decided to give it a try. Maybe you buckled under the pressure from family members to follow in their footsteps, or you just did it because your friends were doing it. Whatever the reason, you’re now in law school — and there’s no doubt it’s going to be a tough three years.