What To Expect in a Virtual Summer

Upper-years talk about their virtual summer experience

The pandemic has profoundly reshaped our lives. As the vaccine rolls out, there is hope that life may finally get back to normal later this year, but we are not there just yet — the law library is closed, classes are fully online, and it seems likely that many students will spend their 2021 summers working from home. Ultra Vires reached out to some upper-years who worked virtually last summer to find out what it was like. 

Editor’s note: Alexa Cheung is the senior news editor at Ultra Vires.

The Transition to the Online Workspace

Last year, the unexpected shift to a virtual workplace forced employers to make many adjustments in workplace technologies. Despite the unprecedented situation, the students we talked to were overall satisfied with the transition. 

Anna Zhang (2L), who summered at McCarthy Tétrault’s Calgary office last year, commented that the transition was “seamless and extremely well done” and the firm provided comprehensive technical training and assistance, including tips on how to build relationships virtually. Alexa Cheung (2L) was a caseworker at Downtown Legal Services. She said that the DLS staff were very aware of “Zoom fatigue” and made sure to give breaks during long periods of virtual training.

Some students reported that their programs encountered technical difficulties, but problems were resolved in a timely manner. For example, Bryan Hsu (2L), an instructor for U of T Law’s Youth Summer Program (YSP) last year, had to learn how to optimize breakout room movement on Zoom in his first week. But soon afterwards, the virtual classrooms ran smoothly, and he had a fun and rewarding time teaching law to high school students. 

Emails, phone calls, video conferences, and Microsoft Teams made up the online workspace. For the most part, they were good substitutes for an office environment, but some students pointed out that they were missing opportunities for informal learning, such as observing other lawyers working and having informal chats in the hallway. Asking small questions in writing can be intimidating for students as replies take up more of their supervisors’ time when compared to having a quick word at the office.

A Typical Workday From Home

For research and writing-focused jobs, the substantive work and the workload stayed the same. However, some areas of law were impacted more due to their in-person nature. According to Kristy Wong (3L), a virtual summer in criminal law was different last year because there were fewer opportunities in observing trials in court and attending client meetings. Rebecca Xie (2L) did the Debwewin Summer Law Program, and while it ordinarily involves relocating to an Indigenous community, this was rendered impossible during the pandemic.

In terms of working hours, students mostly worked from 9 to 5, around 7.5 to 8 hours per day. Working at home offers a flexibility advantage, as students could make the most of their time on days with lighter workloads. However, Kristy mentioned the potential blur between work and life and the difficulty to stop working at home, as there is always more to be done.

Despite a lack of physical presence, collaborating via Zoom can still offer a sense of collegiality. Ema Ibrakovic (2L) stayed connected with other Blakes summer students through group chats and video calls. Even though students were far apart, Ema noted, “it still felt like we were part of something together.” Steffi Tran (3L) worked at an intellectual property boutique and commented that seeing faces on the weekly video meeting made her feel like she was a part of the firm.

Flexibility and comfort aside, it was still important to work simultaneously alongside your colleagues for effective collaboration. For Vernon Lin (3L), who worked for a New York full-service firm while physically in Taiwan, this meant starting his workday at 9 p.m. local time. Fortunately, the firm tried its best to account for the 12-hour time difference and scheduled meetings at a reasonable time for him. Once off the calls, Vernon could work at his own pace for the rest of the night, as long as he handed in assignments on time. He still had a great experience despite it being “pretty surreal.”

Making Connections

“Social distancing” is often criticised for being an inappropriate phrase to instruct people to physically distance from each other, but the quality of social life is indeed negatively affected during the pandemic. Our conversations with students show that employers tried to amend this situation with virtual social events, workplace collaborations, and frequent check-ins.

Ema mentioned the fun virtual social events she attended, such as virtual happy hours (bring your own drinks, of course) and virtual cook-alongs. According to Anna, McCarthy’s encouraged students to form meaningful connections and offered opportunities for students to work alongside each other, albeit virtually. Bryan made great friendships with the other YSP instructors while designing and delivering the program together. Kristy said that the lawyers she worked with made efforts to know her better and really cared about her well-being. For students of the Debwewin program like Rebecca, they connected with each other via a forum set up by program organizers, where they made weekly posts on how their placements were going and what projects they were working on. Besides these efforts, students in the same location could organize their own physically distanced meetups to build rapport.

Overall Comments and Thoughts on Working From Home

Although missing in-person elements is a common sentiment, students we talked to generally had a fulfilling experience last summer. An in-person experience is doubtlessly better, but a virtual summer still offers many learning opportunities, especially for work focusing on research and writing. 

Steffi noted that her work was mostly doable at home and that it would be nice to have the option to work from home once in a while after the pandemic. Anna would love to work in-person with the option of being able to work virtually whenever needed, referring to the perks of saving commute time and not being restricted by location. Still, the experience varied depending on the areas of law students worked in. Kristy thinks that the in-person elements are important for criminal law, but having saved a lot of commute time in her virtual summer, she was also able to put the time saved from commuting into researching for a big case. Her supervisors knew that researching alone could be difficult, and their support made a big difference for her.

Some students who saw significant changes to their summer experience would still recommend the programs they participated in. Although Rebecca missed out on the opportunities to connect directly with Indigenous communities herself, she would highly encourage students who are interested in Indigenous law and Indigenous self-government issues to apply for the Debwewin Summer Law program. Similarly, Bryan would recommend the YSP program to those who would like to have a fun summer teaching and working with students. 

After all, making meaningful connections has always been an essential part of a fruitful summer experience, and it’s achievable even through a computer screen.