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Staff Openings  |  Articling and Summer Student Programs  |  [Adobe PDF Version]

LEGAL SECRETARIES

Experienced Legal Assistant

We are accepting applications for an experienced Legal Assistant. You will provide secretarial and administrative support to a senior partner with a corporate/commercial and tax law practice. Some experience with tax law would be an asset but is not required.

You have strong organizational skills with excellent grammatical, spelling and keyboard skills. You possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills and a mature and professional attitude. You have demonstrated the ability to set priorities and meet varied deadlines and your strong attention to detail and high degree of accuracy is matched by your ability to work effectively and efficiently in a fast paced environment, at times on your own initiative.

PARALEGALS

There are no positions open at this time.

We offer an attractive benefit package, a competitive salary and the opportunity to work in a stimulating and professional environment.

Qualified candidates may submit a resume, in confidence to:

PITBLADO LLP
2500 - 360 Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 4H6
Attention: Elaine Ferguson
Fax: 957-0227
E-mail: ferguson@pitblado.com


ARTICLING AND SUMMER STUDENT PROGRAMS

A Business Law Firm
Based in Winnipeg, Pitblado handles significant and demanding legal work for a highly diverse group of clients throughout Canada, the United States and internationally.

Our firm conducts a full service business practice with roughly half of our members engaged in each of transactional law and litigation. The practices of our solicitors cover a broad span, including corporate finance, technology transfers, intellectual property, commercial negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, agricultural, natural resource and mining law, franchise law, securities law, banking law and secured lending transactions, income (and other) tax matters, real estate matters (including acquisitions, dispositions, subdivisions, property development, leases and condominiumization), municipal law, transportation, aboriginal law and wills, estates administration and estate planning.

Areas of Civil litigation include commercial disputes, taxation disputes, labour and employment law, bankruptcy and insolvency matters, insurance matters, professional liability litigation and administrative actions, product liability disputes, personal injury claims, construction law, builder's liens matters, landlord and tenant matters and administrative law. We work in both traditional and alternate dispute resolution venues. Many of our lawyers have mediation and other ADR training and experience.

We also offer Personal Services covering domestic and family law, human rights issues, administrative and criminal matters and estate planning and administration.

Members of The Firm
The firm numbers over sixty practicing lawyers and paralegals. Many of our lawyers are regarded as the "go-to" practitioners in their fields. They are involved in and introduce our students and junior lawyers to the files that create the law and the latest legal and business techniques. We maintain strong ties to the legal education community. Jack London, former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba practices with the firm and Dr. Bryan Schwartz, a professor at the University of Manitoba is Counsel to the firm and acts as our Director of Research. In addition, many of our lawyers are course instructors and lecturers at the Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba and at a variety of Manitoba Bar Association, Law Society and Professional Continuing Legal Education Programs, including the Bar Admissions Course.

We all practice as friends and colleagues, regardless of seniority.

We are proud to employ Jonathan Barg, Melanie Bueckert, Ronan Reinart, and Kaely Zettel as our articling students during the 2003-2004 articling year.

Articling at Pitblado
We view the articling year and the education of our students as a serious responsibility. Accordingly, all our lawyers are available, approachable and willing to assist and guide students with their professional development.

We also recognize the important contribution that articling students make to our firm and as such, students are immediately treated as a member of the "team" and not as a "mere" student.

We take it for granted that everyone works hard at our office. We rely on personal discipline and common sense, not long lists of rules, to govern our relationships. We are flexible and accommodating.

Each year, we hire up to four articling students.

Our Articling Program is designed to allow students to gain experience in a broad range of practice areas.

Each student is assigned to a Principal (a senior practitioner in the firm) whose area of practice most closely matches the interests of the student. In addition, each student will be assigned to three other senior practitioners selected from different practice areas in the firm. We believe that this approach ensures that every student has the opportunity to gain experience in a wide variety of practice areas.

While students are assigned to a "team" of lawyers, students can also expect to receive work from other members of the firm. Students are also encouraged to seek out work from practice areas that are of interest to them. To this end, we allow students every opportunity to explore and indulge in finding an area of law that interests them the most.

It is both the student and Principal's responsibility to ensure that all the requirements of the articling year as prescribed by the Law Society have been completed. A Principal is also a Mentor who will guide and assist the student with every aspect of the articling experience.

The firm believes that regular feedback is an essential part of the articling year. Informal feedback will come from the student's Principal and the other lawyers with whom the student works.

Formal evaluations are performed at the end of September, December and in June, the results of which are reviewed with the student, his or her Principal and the Head of Professional Development of the firm. Students also perform self-evaluations. These self-evaluations help the firm pinpoint any concerns that the student may have with respect to their articling experience and their future at the firm.

Space permitting, we provide each student with their own office. We also provide our students with computers and secretarial support. We believe this is essential, as it allows our students to concentrate their time and effort on learning how to practice law.

We have a comprehensive library which is staffed by a full time librarian. We also have many "desk top" research capabilities, which can be accessed at the computers in the student's offices or in the library.

In addition, we have a very knowledgeable Information Systems staff, who provide office systems training and who are available to students for tech support.

We are and will remain competitive with other firms of similar stature in Winnipeg. Allowances are provided to assist students to participate in Bar Association and Law Society functions and activities, both social and educational. The firm also pays membership dues for all students in the Canadian Bar Association. Bar Admission Course tuition is paid by the firm.

If a student is invited to remain with the firm at the conclusion of the articling year, the Law Society practice fees payable in connection with the Call to the Bar are paid by the firm. Parking fees are not provided (although space may be available at cost in the Winnipeg Square parking complex). An allowance is made for two weeks of paid holidays, usually towards the end of the articling term. We also provide group insurance (life, dependent life, medical, dental and disability).

We have a strong commitment to the Bar Admission course and respect the time commitments that it imposes on students. We expect our students to attend all lectures and seminars and we allow them time to do so.

The firm is flexible with respect to when students are commence their articles. As long as the time requirements set by the Law Society can be met, the firm allows the students as a group to decide when they wish their articles to commence.

Since the firm provides an intensive week-long orientation at the beginning of the articling year, the firm requires that all students commence their articles on the same date.

We recruit partners, not students.

Our expectation is that our students will be our future partners in the firm. This is why we do not hire more students than we plan to keep on. We put a great deal of time, effort and resources into our lawyers' training and development, not only in the articling year but beyond, to make sure that they will achieve our standards for partnership admission. The results speak well for our efforts.

Most of the students who have articled at the firm have been asked to become associates with the firm.

Students are encouraged to participate in the firm's continuing legal education seminars and professional practice group meetings and seminars. The firm has a number of practice groups in various fields of law that meet on a regular basis. The firm also runs "lawyer training and development seminars" on matters of general interest to all lawyers, paralegals and students. These cover recent developments in the law and practice management.

The firm also encourages attendance and participation in Continuing Legal Education courses offered by the Law Society of Manitoba and the Manitoba Bar Association.

The firm conducts or hosts a number of social functions. "T.G.I.F." occurs in our lawyers' lounge on Fridays throughout the year and is a great opportunity for lawyers to discuss the week's events. We sponsor an annual family picnic and annual dinner for the professional members of the firm. We also have a staff Christmas party and from time to time throughout the year we will have social "mixers" at outside locations. The firm sponsors teams in the softball, hockey and volleyball law leagues. There are also several social events regularly scheduled with firm clients, including the Client Reception that marks the official start to the Holiday Season.

The Summer Student Program
We have recently developed a summer student program which is aimed at second year law students who intend to article in Manitoba.

The summer student program in designed to provide students with practical exposure to a variety of different areas of law. Students in the program can expect to do research and drafting. They can also expect to go with senior practitioners to trials, exams for discovery and commercial closings.

We invite applications for the summer student program during the month of October. We typically extend offers to summer students during the month of November each year.

Find out for Yourself
Finally, when all is said and done, there is no better test of our firm than to have you speak with the lawyers who have recently commenced their practices here. Please feel free to contact us to take the opportunity to meet and speak with any member of our firm, particularly our newer lawyers whom we expect to tell it to you "like it is":

So, if you really are ready for the next step… we will get you there!