Kent Kuran (2L)
At the second last Faculty Council meeting of the year, members’ attention was drawn to the Faculty’s employment results and the recent scandal surrounding a new funding campaign for unpaid internships.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
Emily Orchard, Director of the Career Development Office (CDO), explained that the CDO has significantly expanded its offerings during her tenure. The office runs approximately 40 workshops and holds 1,700 appointments per year, up from 650 in 2010. “We have shifted our focus to meet the needs of students to the greatest extent possible,” explained Orchard. “We focus on anything students are interested in.”
During the previous year, students pursued a wide variety of career paths, with about 90 students joining Big Law firms in Toronto, 17 going to New York, five clerking at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and five others going to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“About six percent of 3Ls are still looking for articling positions,” reported Orchard, with the employment rate “usually landing in the 95-97% range.” As for 2Ls, 70% reported securing a summer position, though details were not provided. Additionally, many students, such as those involved in the Faculty Unified Hiring Process, were still in the recruitment process at the time of Faculty Council.
Orchard also told Faculty Council about U of T Law’s involvement with a new national survey initiative from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), “the purpose of which is to gather feedback that we can take it back to employers,” designed to supplement the anecdotal information they receive from students who have undergone the on-campus interview process.
When asked if the school knew students’ salaries after graduating, Orchard explained that while most articling salaries were publicly available and clear, “usually once students leave our office, we don’t keep that information.”
Orchard also told Faculty Council about the Students’ Law Society (SLS)/CDO initiative to educate students about managing finances and debt in particular. Born from a request from the SLS, two financial literacy seminars were held to provide “financial counseling to students.”
“Some students are closing off some career paths because they do not think the salary is enough to service their debt. On some cases that is true, but in others it is not.”
Unpaid jobs
At the same time, SLS was in retreat after its introduction of a new fundraising campaign for unpaid internships caused outrage among students and made national news after being picked up by The Toronto Star. SLS President Natalie Lum-Tai explained that the “Spring Pledge drive” initiative, as it was called, was “a student led program designed to fund grants for fellow 1L and 2L students.”
“The idea was to have students who were doing paid work support their peers, which would hopefully be matched by alumni,” explained Lum-Tai.
She stated that the SLS had received two main concerns. First, students wondered whether the program was condoning unpaid internships. It was not; rather, it was meant to work in a similar way to Donner fellowships, explained Lum-Tai. Second, students felt that the program was unfair, which was contrary to the program’s fundamental objectives.
In the end, the SLS decided to halt the program given the concerns that were brought up. “We want to make sure students are comfortable with the program as our desire was to create a community environment.”
