Craig Lockwood
Sep 1, 2016
A recent article in Lexpert’s Annual Student Recruitment Special examines the significant shift in the way law firms are attracting top students. Fewer students are joining firms with the goal of becoming partner – some are looking instead to cut their teeth at a law firm and then use that experience as a stepping stone to other opportunities. As a result, firms are changing their recruitment and professional development strategies, which can include offering students the chance to work on big files early on. In the article “Attracting the best,” Osler litigation partner Craig Lockwood and associate Lauren Hulme offer insight into this new reality from the perspective of firms and students.
“It’s a different marketplace,” explains Craig, who is the Chair of the Student Committee in Osler’s Toronto office. “The era of everyone coming into Bay Street law thinking their career trajectory is to be a partner in 10 years is no longer applicable. We’re seeing a lot of students coming in, starting on Bay Street, but having no long-term vision of staying there. They have a diversity of interests.”
Craig further comments that students want to “get their hands dirty” from the get-go. “We put them on real files with [the firm’s] clients, so they can actually be contributing members from the beginning.”
Lauren confirms that this approach helps the firm attract students. “It mattered to me to try to get at a firm that had access to big Canadian and international clients and that was doing big deals,” she says.
Read the entire article “Attracting the best” in the July/August 2016 issue of Lexpert magazine.