THOMAS CLARIDGE TORONTO
Nearly half the Ontario lawyers
responding to a survey when they
were called to the bar last June
reported that they had not secured
“some type of employment.”
With 84 per cent of the new
calls responding to the Law
Society of Upper Canada
(LSUC) questionnaire, 42.8 per
cent said they had been hired
back by the firm where they
articled and 12. 7 per cent
reported they had found jobs
elsewhere and 55.5 per cent
said they were employed, mean-
ing 44.5 per cent were still
seeking jobs.
The figures were contained in a
report to LSUC’s October Convocation from its Professional
Development and Competence
Department (PD&C).
The same report included
results of an articling survey that
was recommended by LSUC’s
Task Force on Licensing and
Accreditation to collect informa-
tion on articling positions in the
province and assess the scope of
the articling market, with the
objective of increasing place-
ments in some regions.
“Firms who indicated an
interest in joint articles were
provided with information, and
further follow-up was conducted in selected cities across
each region in an effort to
match firms who are committed
to a joint articling placement.
The follow-up of firms in Phase
1 of the project has resulted in
only 11 (4%) of the 277 firms
contacted expressing a commitment to joint articles.”
Ont. law
society pushes
for paperless
elections
THOMAS CLARIDGE TORONTO
Although most of the Ontario
lawyers who choose to participate in next spring’s bencher
elections will likely do so electronically, they will also be able
to demand the traditional election brochures and paper ballots.
At their October Convoca-
tion, Law Society of Upper Can-
ada (LSUC) benchers almost
unanimously approved an
amendment to a motion that
the election materials “shall be
distributed to voters electronic-
ally.” The amendment proposed
by Ottawa bencher Brad Wright
added the phrase, “provided
that members who request elec-
tion materials in paper form
shall receive them in paper
form.”
The original motion was
proposed in a report by former
LSUC treasurer Derry Millar,
who had been asked by Treas-
urer Laurie Pawlitza to review
issues that had been raised con-
cerning the election with for-
mer Elections Officer Katherine
Corrick.
In the report, Millar said
about 93 per cent of the 42,000
LSUC members have already
given email addresses to the
society and it was expected the
others will have submitted
them by the end of 2010. However, during the hour-long
debate he conceded that not all
lawyers are computer-literate
and suggested paper would be
sent to those found unable to
vote electronically.
That failed to satisfy
Wright, who suggested that
since the process as described
was bound to miss some members who rely on paper, all
See Election Page 24
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