Our innovative articling program was designed to give you maximum exposure to our many clients and various practice areas. Our aim is to give you the best possible articling experience in the nation’s’ capital by combining a structured rotation with our informal and collegial approach to working together.
The program begins with an orientation to acquaint you with our office, management and methodologies. From there you will be assigned work on real files and given numerous opportunities to draft documents, meet with clients, conduct legal research, assist in major corporate transactions and more.
During your ten months with us, you will receive experience in four rotations of 11-12 weeks each. Your file work and assignments will be supplemented by informative seminars conducted by Dentons’ associates and partners.
Our rotations
-
Banking Finance, Real Estate (FSG)
-
Corporate
-
Litigation / Employment / IP
-
Regulatory / Privacy
Our articling program is structured to give each of our students exposure to all of our departments. As an articling student, you will be the dedicated articling student for the rotation group. This will provide you with the maximum exposure possible to the lawyers that work in each group, without having to compete with other students for work.
Training and development
As an articling student, you are encouraged and expected to attend as many educational courses and seminars as possible. The Ottawa office and other Dentons offices host regular internal seminars. In addition to these opportunities, our students are encouraged to attend programs hosted by external providers such as the County of Carleton Law Society, the Advocates Society, the Ontario Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association and other recognized third-party providers of continuing legal education.
We place a strong emphasis on training our students to develop the high level of expertise that is required to become a competent and successful lawyer. Our training and educational programs are designed to achieve this goal.
Social events
Our Ottawa office is small relative to Dentons Canada’s other offices and we enjoy a friendly and social atmosphere. Our students are an integral part of that. We have annual events such as our summer golf tournament and our holiday party. In addition, we enjoy informal social gatherings after work that give students and lawyers a chance to get to know each other better.
Our hireback policy
When we hire an articling student, we are doing so with a long-term view in mind. The ultimate goal of our student program is to recruit top talent that will become part of the Dentons team. To that end, we put a lot of resources into our recruitment and selection process, allowing us to recruit the very best students each year.
Compensation and benefits
Our compensation and benefits packages are at the top of the market. We are continually reviewing our policies to ensure that this so.
Evaluations
Evaluations are a key component or our articling program. They are best viewed as creative opportunities to address your performance and ensure that you are on track for retention by the firm. During your articles, you will receive two formal evaluations. You can also expect to receive feedback and informal evaluation from the lawyers you will be working with.