Toronto

Our diversity in practice is unrivalled on Bay Street. Our office's work ranges from representing start-ups on their most important legal matters to supporting large, high-profile corporate and commercial transactions and litigation files for multi-national organizations. Clients turn to us to help with their complex, bet-the-company matters.

The Toronto office's Business Law Group has advised on the biggest and highest-profile deals on Bay Street and has an extensive global practice in advising clients on transactions throughout the world, including the United States, Latin America, Asia and Europe. The Toronto office's Litigation Group is a stand-alone group that doesn't serve simply as an adjunct to the firm's business law activities.

Summer Program

The summer student experience is a formative stage in your legal career. We recognize the importance of this foundational experience and, as a result, we invest heavily in nurturing our student talent to ensure each student develops and grows to their potential. Through thoughtful mentoring, transparent feedback, high quality work assignments, meaningful pro bono and charitable opportunities as well as social and community building events, we support each student as they explore and discover their areas of interest and make strong team relationships with their peers and our lawyers.

Our summer student program is designed to introduce students to the practice of law and to the firm's variety of practice areas.

Our summer students have the opportunity to work with Canada's leading lawyers in business law, tax, litigation, real property and planning law, and labour and employment law.

Our summer program begins with orientation and training to introduce our students to the firm, research and writing techniques and to provide our students with tips and strategies to help them maximize their summer experience at the firm. As part of the summer student orientation training, students receive a 2 day exercise based research training workshop from members of the Firm's Research Group. Additionally, we offer extensive legal education and professional development programs covering topics such as “The Student's Role in Closings”, “The Student’s Role in the Litigation Process” and “The Student’s Role in Due Diligence”, Our lawyers are frequently invited to speak to the students about their area of practice or topical cases or transactions.

Summer students are given a broad range of responsibilities, including attending meetings, hearings and other litigation processes, researching and drafting legal memos, providing research support to our trial teams, preparing draft advocacy and transactional documents, due diligence and work relating to the closing of transactions, participating in the drafting of conference materials, articles for publication, and case summaries. It is important that our students have a well-rounded experience.

As a strong supporter of pro bono initiatives and as the sole firm sponsor of Pro Bono Students Canada, our lawyers provide pro bono services to the community in areas as diverse as civil liberties, human rights, financial, business, labour and employment law. We also think it is important to involve our students on pro bono matters through a variety of different pro bono projects. To offer our students the opportunity to work on student directed pro bono initiatives, the Firm offers through its Pro Bono Committee a wealth of opportunities for students to get involved and make a meaningful contribution. Under the supervision of our lawyers, our students get hands-on experience working with clients and solving real world problems with all of the benefits of the Firm's resources and experience.

In Toronto, each student chooses two practice areas and spends the summer assisting both practice groups simultaneously. Summer students are assigned a different mentor in each practice area chosen. Our student mentors are responsible for introducing our students to our firm, ensuring that students receive interesting and stimulating work, providing ongoing performance feedback and providing ongoing professional guidance and support. Students are encouraged to observe our lawyers in action, for example, by attending client meetings or accompanying them to court whenever possible.

Articling Program

The articling program is designed to maximize your exposure to all aspects of the practice of law and our law firm. It will provide you with the opportunity to experience our practice first-hand by working on transactional and advocacy documents, conducting research, attending client meetings, strategy sessions, hearings and trials. You will be encouraged to work independently on some matters, all the while having support and guidance.

Our informal approach enables you to work with many lawyers in each area of practice. At McCarthy Tétrault, there is a spirit of co-operation and mutual respect that promotes teamwork and encourages us to work together and develop important working relationships, within the Toronto office and within the firm. The Director, Professional Resources and the mentors work closely with our students to monitor workload and to ensure that students are getting a wide variety of work experience in each of their rotations.

In Toronto, our rotation system is designed to be flexible and offers a variety of choices. Each student typically rotates through Business Law and Litigation and has the option to choose one to two additional areas of practice as rotations. Students are also given the opportunity to participate in external rotations with significant clients. In each rotation, you will work on a wide variety of files and projects, and get exposure to a diverse range of expertise and styles.

All students will be assigned at least one mentor in each rotation. Our mentors are experienced lawyers who will provide general assistance, support and guidance throughout the articling period. They are responsible for assisting students in managing their workload, and for ensuring that students receive interesting and challenging work, as well as a balanced articling experience. Each student is also assigned a principal lawyer to oversee their progress and to provide assistance with their professional responsibility and practice obligations.

Feedback and Evaluations

In Toronto, our students work closely with lawyers and feedback is shared informally on a regular basis and formally, once during the summer term and twice during the articling term. Students are encouraged to discuss any aspect of their summer experience or articles with their mentor and other lawyers in the firm, to seek constructive feedback on their professional development, and to tell us whether the firm is providing them with work and experience consistent with their expectations. Student workloads and the variety of each student's assignments are reviewed regularly by the Professional Resources Team.

Social Activities and Community Involvement

In addition to the professional aspects of the summer and articling program, a variety of social events are planned throughout the year to round out your experience as a McCarthy Tétrault student. Regular social events are organized to provide an opportunity to meet and get to know other students and lawyers on an informal basis.

The training and practical experience of our lawyers enables them to make valuable contributions to the community. We regularly participate in conferences, as well as teach law school and continuing legal education courses. McCarthy Tétrault also sponsors academic prizes, competitive moots, business law internships, pro bono initiatives and student conferences.

Compensation and Benefits

As a student at McCarthy Tétrault, you will receive a compensation package that is competitive with other large national law firms.

Articling students will receive medical and dental benefits, two weeks' paid vacation (during the 10-month articling term). Articling and summer students also receive a Wellness benefit subsidy.

Application Process

Learn more about the programs we offer at our Toronto Office and see if it’s right for you.

At McCarthy Tétrault, we look for students who are genuinely interested in our practice and our clients, who can work in a team-based environment, who have a strong desire to learn, who are highly motivated, and who demonstrate initiative and judgment.

We have learned, however, that the skills and character traits needed to practice law at a high level do not come in uniform packages and our students and lawyers have diverse backgrounds, personalities and interests.

We pride ourselves on our professionalism, client focus, innovation and ability to work as a team. If you think you might enjoy working with us, please send us your application.

Learn more about applying for a position in Toronto.

Applications

For both 1L and 2L summer programs, please submit your completed application through the viLawPortal and address your application to Kait Olidis, Manager, Student Programs. Your application should include a cover letter, a complete résumé, and copies of all official transcripts of law school, undergraduate and graduate grades, as well as a list of anticipated second year or upper year courses. Please note that writing samples and reference letters are not required.

All of our recruitment procedures are carried out in accordance with LSO guidelines. For dates, please see the LSO website.

Please note that the Toronto office hires its Articling Student complement from its Summer Student class, as a result, does not typically participate in the articling student recruitment process.

Recruitment Process

You may be wondering how the recruitment process works at McCarthy Tétrault. When we receive your application, we will acknowledge receipt of your application by e-mail. Then the process will occur as follows:

1. On-Campus Interviews

If you are a second-year student and selected to participate in an On-Campus Interview (OCI), you will be notified by your law school. After the OCIs have been completed, we will select students to attend in-firm interviews in November and will notify all students by email of the outcome of their OCI.

2. Call Day

For those students who have been selected to attend in-firm interviews, we will send you an e-mail in advance of Call Day to inform you to expect our call. On Call Day, applicants will be contacted to schedule an in-firm interview. You will receive an e-mail to confirm interview details.

3. Interviews at our firm

Students will meet with at least four of our lawyers and one student during the course of the interview. Our interviews are generally ninety minutes in length. During the interview process, students will be assigned a “host” lawyer who will be the student's main contact. Each candidate will have an opportunity to meet with our articling students to ask candid questions about their experiences at McCarthy Tétrault.

If you have any questions about our recruitment process, the student program or the firm in general, please do not hesitate to contact Kait Olidis Manager, Student Programs at kolidis@mccarthy.ca or 416-601-7631.

Hints and Tips

We appreciate that the recruitment process can be a stressful time for students. To make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible, here are a few tips:

Application process

• Preparation is key to a successful recruitment experience, so take time to reflect about who you are and what you want.
• A cover letter should be concise (no more than one page) and indicate briefly - why you are applying to McCarthy Tétrault.
• Use examples in your cover letter to demonstrate your key skills. Specific examples are often most compelling!
• Your cover letter should leave the reader thinking, "I want to learn more about this person."
• Gaps in a candidate's personal history may be puzzling and should be explained in your cover letter.
• Your résumé should allow its reader to determine what you have done and should highlight your education, extracurricular activities, leadership, work and community service.
• Don't forget to proofread! Lawyers and clients are very detail-conscious.

Interview process

• When interviewing you, we want to learn more about your skills and interests, and, most importantly, about who you are.
• During the interview, you should be prepared to answer questions about anything in your cover letter and résumé, about yourself and your career ambitions. We want to learn about your interests, motivations, passions, strengths and developmental goals.
• Listen carefully to the questions, and don't be afraid to ask for clarification.
• Practice answering questions with a family member or a friend or participate in mock interviews.
• Try to be on top of everything that is in your control in order to help ease the stress of interviews.
• Get to the interview with a few minutes to spare and be prepared with questions for your interviewers.
• Breathe, relax, smile: and, most importantly, be yourself.

Contact Us

We look forward to hearing from you!

Box 48, Suite 5300
TD Bank Tower
Toronto ON  M5K 1E6

Tel: +1 416-362-1812
Fax: +1 416-868-0673
Toll-Free: +1 877-244-7711