Luck - Where Hard Work Meets Opportunity - Blog Post 2

Neil Kennedy, Canadian Armed Forces

The path to lawyerhood is not paved with OCIs. Many law students and recent graduates have confronted an increasingly competitive market for articling positions. They must venture down the road less travelled in order to get their foot in the door. Having ventured down that road myself, I feel it worthwhile to share my experience with those currently engaged in the struggle.

​I graduated from law school in April 2015 without having secured an articling position. I exhausted the traditional route of applying for online job postings without any success. Next, I began to work my network for leads. These meetings were unlikely to result in a direct job offer. Still, my goal was simply to let those in my network know that I was in need of an articling position.

As luck would have it, a professor who I’d worked for as a research assistant contacted me out of the blue one day.  I had informed him weeks prior that I was yet to obtain an articling position. He didn’t have one for me, but he did know a lawyer in town who was looking for someone to fill a 10 week contract to help out with a major file. I accepted with alacrity. I was tasked with performing document review for nearly every day of those 10 weeks. This was unglamorous work by any account.   I knew if I worked hard the contract position might lead to something larger, there or elsewhere.

​My efforts paid off. As my contract came to a close, the lawyer opened his network to me. He arranged meetings for me with other lawyers in town. I met with many of them. One meeting in particular led to a subsequent partner interview, which in turn led to an articling offer. My career was launched.

Looking back, my circuitous path to securing an articling position would not have been possible without persistence, a lot of hard work, and a healthy dose of luck.  In my experience, half the battle is alerting those around you to the fact that you’re searching for a position, whether as student, associate or employee. Often when employers search to fill positions, they work their private networks prior to posting a position for general applicants.

This is probably even more true with smaller firms and sole practitioners. If your network happens to overlap with an employer’s network, the likelihood of a “match” increases exponentially. If you work hard to earn the trust of those you come across in your academic and professional life, you will increase your supportive network. This will make your articling search infinitely easier.    

by Neil Kennedy, Advocacy Club Member
[Note: since posting this, in 2017 Neil has left the preactice of law to join the Canadian Forces, infantry. We wish him well and thank him for his service to our country.]