Law Times

Law Times • July 27, 2015 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com Law students concerned as firm posts articling job covering a transit pass By Tali Folkins Law Times ith one law firm offering an un- paid articling job that covers the student's transit pass, Ontario law students are growing increasingly concerned about an apparent trend toward unpaid positions, the head of a student group says. "Anecdotally, we have seen the number of unpaid articling posi- tions on the rise," says Ryan Rob- ski, president of the Law Students' Society of Ontario. Statistics are hard to come by, he notes, because the Law Society of Upper Canada doesn't require firms to report whether or not they're offering paid articling positions. Because the career development offices at law schools refuse to post unpaid positions, the problem may also be more widespread than many students realize, he adds. The Durham Community Le- gal Clinic attracted some contro- versy in late 2014 after advertising for an unpaid articling position. More recently, an ad for an arti- cling position in Toronto posted on the Law Job Exchange Group web site noted the unpaid job would cover the cost of the stu- dent's transit pass. Many students suspect em- ployers are simply trying to take advantage of their desperation to get their licences, says Robski. "Articling is the final hurdle. Employers know that graduates are anxious to get licensed and that when faced with the choice of unpaid articles and the uncertain- ty of the [Law Practice Program], some students may be forced to work for free." Government and private loans enter repayment soon after stu- dents graduate, he says. In addi- tion, licensing candidates pay fees to the law society that have nearly doubled in the last few years. Renatta Austin, a sole practi- tioner who ran in the law society recent bencher elections partly on a platform to place student issues higher on the agenda, says On- tario and Canada generally have a "huge problem" with respect to unpaid student work. When run- ning for bencher and talking to students, she says, she got the im- pression that expecting students to article for free was becoming more and more common. "When I was going out and talking to people, this was one of the issues that was raised quite a lot," she says. Austin blames the problem on current laws and regulations. "If you have rules that permit this type of predatory behaviour, you're going to get it," she says. The province needs to reform the Employment Standards Act to include articling students and the law society needs to create rules specifying that firms must compensate articling students if they're profiting from them, ac- cording to Austin. Austin says she found the recent ad "particularly upsetting" because of its "bold and upfront" statement about not paying the student. Even assuming a 40-hour workweek, she says, reimbursing the cost of a transit pass in Toron- to every month would work out to less than 90 cents per hour. "I just really struggle to under- stand how a firm that is presum- ably billing work for an articling student's time is not able to offer them anything other than a Me- tropass," she says. "It might be legal, but, in my opinion, it's unethical." But Shelley Levine, founding partner at the firm offering the unpaid position, Levine Associ- ates, says economics don't allow the firm to pay articling students. The firm deals mostly with refu- gee work with many of its services paid through legal aid, he says. "When you run that kind of a practice, you simply don't have the luxury of the economics working for you that would allow you to hire students," he says. "We simply continue not to have the financial means to hire students." The firm first began to take on articling students on an unpaid basis four or five years ago, he says, in response to requests from the students themselves. "We were getting unsolicited applications from students who had been unable to find paid posi- tions, and often they were coming to us after they had been unable to find articles for a few months after they should have begun," he says. "Initially, I was a little bit reluc- tant to get involved, but I was cer- tainly persuaded by a few of the people that I spoke with . . . that it would be mutually beneficial, that they were in a hard spot," he adds. About two years ago, the firm decided to advertise unpaid posi- tions and has done so about three or four times, he notes. Levine says he also has the im- pression unpaid articling posi- tions are becoming increasingly common in Ontario. Either law schools are creating too many graduates or firms are less will- ing to take on articling students, leading to a situation where there are more people on the mar- ket than it can support, he says. Whatever the cause, the scarcity of paid positions in Ontario is a problem that the profession needs to address, he suggests. Levine strongly suspects his own firm differs from many oth- ers in that it clearly states up front in its ad that it's offering an unpaid position. In many situations, he says, students probably find out only at the interview stage that they'd be working for free. Since compensation for arti- cling is a matter between the firm and the candidate, the law soci- ety doesn't keep statistics on paid or unpaid positions, says LSUC spokeswoman Denise McCourt- ie. But, according to McCourtie, "the vast majority of articling placements are paid and the law society strongly encourages firms to pay candidates. "The law society's primary ob- jective is to establish high-quality positions that provide appropriate training for candidates." The law society does, how- ever, track the percentage of paid placements in the Law Practice Program, a number that's about 70 per cent, says McCourtie. LT NEWS SKIMMING THE SURFACE IS FINE UNTIL A DEEPER DIVE IS REQUIRED. Start with Practical Law Canada. Whether you need a surface view or a deeper understanding of a legal issue, Practical Law Canada offers up-to-date, straightforward how-to guides, annotated standard documents, checklists, and more. For more information visit www.practicallaw.ca W 'I just really struggle to understand how a firm that is presumably billing work for an articling student's time is not able to offer them anything other than a Metropass,' says Renatta Austin.

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