All students hired have STEM backgrounds
The Ottawa intellectual property (IP) recruit concluded on Thursday, October 27, 2022, with at least 21 students hired. Seven firms participated, recruiting both 1L and 2L students. Six of those firms shared their results with Ultra Vires (UV).
As in previous years, the Ottawa IP recruit focused on hiring 1L students, hiring 14 students from 1L and seven students from 2L.
Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP hired the most students this year, with six in total. Smart & Biggar LLP followed closely behind with five students hired, a drop from last year’s eight hires. This year, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP resumed hiring for 2L students, hiring one lucky 2L.
In terms of school rankings, U of T once again had the most students hired from the Ottawa IP recruit. Surprisingly, there were zero students hired from the University of Ottawa (uOttawa), whereas uOttawa students tended to secure nearly half the available positions in previous years.
Starting last year, UV asked firms to share the total number of students hired with a graduate degree and the total number of students hired with a background in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM). There is a common belief that these qualifications can help students enter into the IP law sphere. Although the sample size is too small to draw significant conclusions, of the 21 students hired, all 21 had STEM backgrounds, and nearly half of the students hired had graduate degrees. This is consistent with last year’s recruit when of the 19 students hired, 17 had STEM backgrounds and nine had graduate degrees.
Editor’s Note: We will update our online spreadsheet at ultravires.ca to reflect any further information provided from employers after the time of publication.
