Fears of a brain drain of whipsmart Canadian lawyers to top U.S. law firms are long gone.
As the American economy continues to sputter, Canadian-educated lawyers who aspire to practice for white-shoe law firms in Manhattan may have to put their dreams on hold — at least until the U.S. economy recovers.
'Big law firms in New York are not hiring. If anything they’re still culling their ranks,' cautions Adam Lepofsky, president of The Rainmaker Group, an international legal recruitment agency.
Canadian law grads also face stiffer competition for the fewer associate positions available. 'AM100 law firms are not going to hire a Canadian law grad over a Harvard, Yale or Stanford (University) law grad in this market and they are not even hiring them,' Lepofsky says. He adds that this is his twelfth year in international recruitment and the '[U.S.] markets are still really hurting… If anything Canadian lawyers are looking to return to Canada.'
Canadian-educated lawyers who want to work in the U.S. generally either write the New York or Massachusetts States’ Bar admission exams. New York and Massachusetts are the only two states which permit foreign-trained lawyers who attended law schools in common law jurisdictions to apply to write their Bar exams without additional residency or course requirements.
Foreign-educated lawyers who write the New York Bar Exam have a much harder hurdle passing the exams than lawyers educated at American law schools. According to the the New York State Board of Law Examiners 11,532 candidates took the exams on July 28-29, 2009. The passing rate for all candidates, including U. S. domestic-educated candidates and foreign-educated candidates, first time and repeat takers, was 72 percent. The passing rate for candidates who took the bar examination for the first-time was 80 percent. More than a quarter of all candidates who sat the exam were foreign educated, 2,955 (25.6 percent) out of 11,532 candidates. The passing rate for all foreign educated candidates who took the examination was a dismal 38.5 percent.
California is another popular destination for Canadian-educated lawyers. The State Bar of California stipulates that foreign-educated lawyers who want to write the Bar exam in California without completing further course work at an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school must first pass the Bar in another state. As a result, the majority of Canadian-educated lawyers who want to practice in California will first write the bar exams in either New York or Massachusetts.
Canadian-educated lawyers who want to expand their options south of the border beyond New York, Massachusetts and California might consider attending a law school with a combined JD/LL.B. program.
The JD/LL.B. program at the University of Windsor and the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) was the first combined JD/LL.B program in Canada. Law school graduates with an ABA approved JD are entitled to write the Bar admission exams in any of America’s 50 states.
Other law schools which offer joint Canadian/American law degree programs include the University of Ottawa in partnership with the Michigan State University College of Law or American University Washington College of Law; Osgoode Hall Law School in partnership with New York University School of Law; and the University of Alberta, which recently announced a joint degree partnership with the University of Colorado’s law school.
Jennifer Henderson is the director of the joint JD/LL.B. program at Windsor and Detroit. She says the universities saw an opportunity and forged a partnership allowing students to enrol in both the JD and LL.B. program in 1982. However, in the late 1990s the American Bar Association changed the rules with respect to accreditation, forcing the program to be put on hiatus for a few years. In the autumn of 2001, the program was formally re-launched.
Currently, the combined JD/LL.B. program boasts 132 students. Two-thirds of the students are Canadian while the remainder are American and international students. Students enrolled in the combined JD/LL.B program pay tuition at both law schools, take classes at both campuses and earn two separate degrees, a Canadian LL.B and an ABA-approved JD.
The program takes only three years and is less expensive than simply earning a JD from UDM since it is subsidized, according to Henderson. In 2009-2010 students in the JD/LL.B. program paid CDN$11,559, plus US$18,343 in annual tuition. In contrast, students enrolled only at UDM paid just over US$32,000 in annual tuition to obtain just a JD.
Students enrolled in the combined program attend classes at the law schools of both the University of Windsor, Ont., and the University of Detroit, which are only about 10 minutes apart and can be reached either by the tunnel under the Detroit River or by the Ambassador Bridge.
Students who graduate from the combined JD/LL.B, program have the option of practising law in either Canada or the U.S.
The Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) has amended the rules for articling to allow candidates to fulfill their entire articling term internationally in any common-law jurisdiction. Candidates registered in the 2009 Licensing Process may complete the ten-month articling term in a national or international articling placement, subject to completion of the National/International Application and approval by LSUC.
'About 10 percent of the entire alumni pool work in the U.S. or abroad, while the rest work in Canada,' Henderson says. 'To some extent, that may be a function of the structure of the previous program. If you look at the grads from 2004-2008, placement in the US basically doubles to just shy of 20 percent. I have a feeling, just from what we are seeing with Bar exams, that the 2009 class will have strong US placements as well.'
From Osgoode Grad to Big Apple corporate lawyer
The Big Apple hasn’t lost its sheen for Laurie Duke a corporate law associate at the white-shoe firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP’s office in Manhattan.
'Beyond the experience of working in New York City, working for a top law firm means getting to work on huge deals with some of the biggest players in the world,' Duke says. The class of 2004 Osgoode Hall Law School of York University grad says that she was recruited by Milbank during her second year of law school during 'On Campus Interview' week.
After summering at Milbank, the firm made Duke an offer for a first-year associate position. Lawyers and select other professionals are covered under NAFTA, so Duke did not face any immigration or green card issues in accepting a position in New York.
'The firm paid for and processed all the paperwork,' Duke says. 'I literally just had to cross the border and get my paperwork stamped.'
New York State is one of two states in the U.S. that permit anyone with a common-law degree from a certified law school to apply to write their Bar admission exams. Duke says she enrolled in a two-month prep course for the exam, which 'spoon-fed' her all the material required to pass the two-day, 16 hour, closed book exams.
'As long as you’re diligent, anyone can pass,' Duke says, although she adds that there were sections on the exam, such as U.S. constitutional law, with which most Canadians are not as familiar as American law grads.
For Canadian law students eager to work in New York, the employment prospects are not nearly as good as when Duke was recruited seven years ago. Duke is cautiously optimistic, though.
'Things have started to pick up. Not to the point where we are hiring new associates. But we’re definitely still accepting resumes.'
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