Hi everyone!
I've been a lurker on GG and here for ages and am generally content to hang out and enjoy the entertainment, but I'm in the legal industry in Canada and think I can help clarify a few things here.
- In Canada, a law degree is either an LLB or a JD. Both are exactly the same. LLBs were previously the standard but many law schools have now switched to calling their degrees JDs because that makes their grads more marketable in the US.
- Usually, a Canadian student will only go to the UK (or sometimes Australia) for a law degree if they could not get into a law school in Canada, because going to a foreign school makes it a lot harder to actually become a lawyer here afterwards. Some people do go to the UK for a degree simply because they want to, but that is not the norm. When law firms look at resumes of students who went to a UK or Australian law school, they generally assume (unless proven otherwise) that the student couldn't get in to a Canadian school.
- If you do a foreign law degree, one method of upgrading your degree so that you can actually qualify in Canada is to do an LLM. But that's all it is, most of the time. It's not necessarily a research degree, nor does it show any real area of specialization. It's typically a one-year degree.
- As another reader said, getting an articling position at McCarthy's is like winning the jackpot for most law students. If you article at a place like that and are kept on at the end, it can set you up for your entire career. But they don't keep on everyone. If you are offered a position at a place like that at the end of your articles, you take it, even if just for a year or two. To me, it's as clear as daylight that our friend Elle was likely not kept on. She just doesn't want to say so, which is fair enough because a lot of people never admit that they weren't kept on after their articles (well, that is, until they are secure enough in their careers to not care anymore). In law we are pretty much all Type As who don't like to admit failure. It may be true that she also just didn't like the experience and that working in the MFDA turned out to be a good route for her. But I am willing to bet that her hand was forced by the fact that she was not kept on.
- The UK internship was very likely a 2-week job shadowing stint that involved very little work. I've worked in the UK and seen lots of law students come through for internships like that.
I'm also familiar with the area where Elle's mom had her house. It's not affected in any material way by Vancouver housing prices as it's in a completely different city. That said, parking lot view aside, the house is in a fantastic and highly desirable location (right next to the beach!). In fact, that city as a whole is a great place to live. If she didn't want to work in a big law firm, I can't figure out why Elle never just decided to go live in her home city. It would have been a perfectly reasonable thing to do. There are lots of perfectly good jobs there (both law firms and in government) and the lifestyle is much more laid-back.
I've been a lurker on GG and here for ages and am generally content to hang out and enjoy the entertainment, but I'm in the legal industry in Canada and think I can help clarify a few things here.
- In Canada, a law degree is either an LLB or a JD. Both are exactly the same. LLBs were previously the standard but many law schools have now switched to calling their degrees JDs because that makes their grads more marketable in the US.
- Usually, a Canadian student will only go to the UK (or sometimes Australia) for a law degree if they could not get into a law school in Canada, because going to a foreign school makes it a lot harder to actually become a lawyer here afterwards. Some people do go to the UK for a degree simply because they want to, but that is not the norm. When law firms look at resumes of students who went to a UK or Australian law school, they generally assume (unless proven otherwise) that the student couldn't get in to a Canadian school.
- If you do a foreign law degree, one method of upgrading your degree so that you can actually qualify in Canada is to do an LLM. But that's all it is, most of the time. It's not necessarily a research degree, nor does it show any real area of specialization. It's typically a one-year degree.
- As another reader said, getting an articling position at McCarthy's is like winning the jackpot for most law students. If you article at a place like that and are kept on at the end, it can set you up for your entire career. But they don't keep on everyone. If you are offered a position at a place like that at the end of your articles, you take it, even if just for a year or two. To me, it's as clear as daylight that our friend Elle was likely not kept on. She just doesn't want to say so, which is fair enough because a lot of people never admit that they weren't kept on after their articles (well, that is, until they are secure enough in their careers to not care anymore). In law we are pretty much all Type As who don't like to admit failure. It may be true that she also just didn't like the experience and that working in the MFDA turned out to be a good route for her. But I am willing to bet that her hand was forced by the fact that she was not kept on.
- The UK internship was very likely a 2-week job shadowing stint that involved very little work. I've worked in the UK and seen lots of law students come through for internships like that.
I'm also familiar with the area where Elle's mom had her house. It's not affected in any material way by Vancouver housing prices as it's in a completely different city. That said, parking lot view aside, the house is in a fantastic and highly desirable location (right next to the beach!). In fact, that city as a whole is a great place to live. If she didn't want to work in a big law firm, I can't figure out why Elle never just decided to go live in her home city. It would have been a perfectly reasonable thing to do. There are lots of perfectly good jobs there (both law firms and in government) and the lifestyle is much more laid-back.
) at opposite corners ripping tectonic plates apart. Get back together so that you, Elle, can sync your shimmying to Rick’s head-bobbing and effectively cancel your seismic phases out.
