The Legal Excellence Program - Montreal

Articling Opportunities Across Canada

Quebec Regional Office (Montreal - Ottawa)

In a nutshell, we are

• A firm of 240 lawyers and notaries with approximately 475 employees;
• A Montreal-based group of legal professionals since 1965, the majority of whom work in Montreal, with also two teams in Ottawa and Quebec;
• A solid team of counsel involved in an impressive variety of cases concerning extremely varied areas of interest;
• The designated representatives from the various federal departments and agencies before the federal and provincial courts;
• A collective that focuses on mutual assistance and whose values are integrity, respect, commitment, equity, trust and openness;
• Legal professionals who have the public interest at heart;
• Passionate advocates for the law who aim for a fine balance between their professional activities and their private life;
• A workplace that respects the principle of employment equity and that strongly encourages Aboriginal persons, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities and women to come and join our ranks.

General articling information

Why article with us?

• To gain an articling experience involving litigation practice that provides an important degree of responsibility along with a unique advocacy experience;
• To assert your independence and sense of initiative;
• To be entrusted with a variety of mandates;
• To evolve in a stimulating and friendly environment;
• To share in our philosophy, which will allow you to concentrate on your main interest: the law;
• To have access to the support of lawyers with expertise in many areas of the law at the national level;
• To have the support of a registered principal and mentors who are present on a daily basis, who are available and support your professional development;
• To benefit from our regional and national professional development program;
• To plan a career in the Public Service

Come visit us!

A team of lawyers from the Department of Justice of Canada and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), Quebec Regional Office (QRO) is present at career days, which are held each year in January.

Career days

• Université de Sherbrooke: January 9, 2013
• Université du Québec à Montréal: January 15, 2013
• McGill University: January 16, 2013
• Université de Montréal: January 17, 2013
• University of Ottawa: January 22, 2013
• Université Laval: January 24, 2013

Open house days

We also invite you to come visit us during our open house days. These visits represent an ideal opportunity to meet lawyers in partnership with our various legal teams and to draw on their student, articling and counsel experience within our office. During this event, our counsel-coordinator for the articling programs will explain to you in detail the recruitment process. Registration has to be made through your university.

• Open house at our Montreal office for students from the:
  • Université du Québec à Montréal: November 28, 2012
  • Université de Montréal: January 14, 2013
  • Universités de Sherbrooke, Laval and Ottawa: January 18, 2013
  • McGill University: January 21, 2013
• Open house at our Ottawa office: For University of Ottawa students: November 21, 2012

Our articling offers and student employment:

• Positions to be filled for 2015 at the QRO of the Department of Justice:
  • At our Montreal office:
    • 1 articling position with the commercial law team.
    • 1 articling position with the regulatory law team.
    • 1 articling position with the immigration law team.
    • 1 articling position with the tax law team.
  • At our Ottawa office: In all, 1 multidisciplinary articling position: the student works with the commercial, Aboriginal, tax law and regulatory law teams.
• Positions to be filled for 2015 at the QRO of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC): 2 articling positions.

* Please note that for articling terms that will take place in 2013 and 2014 at the Department of Justice and the PPSC, QRO, recruitment is now complete.

Our student employment offers:

Law student positions, when available, will be offered to our future articling students, specifically summer employment during the year before their articling or earlier, when possible.

For more information on other student employment programs within the federal public service, please consult the following site: Federal Student Work Experience Program.

Professional development

• We attach great importance to professional development as soon as articling students are hired;
• During the first years following their admission to the bar, our legal counsels participate in a complete professional development program aimed at fostering greater versatility through a common profile of skills and knowledge;
• Summer students and articling students actively participating in law practice group meetings and conferences;
• Our mentoring program also allows for the opportunity to learn and share across professional and personal lines. The program ensures the transfer of DOJ knowledge and provides employees with career and leadership development opportunities.

Salary and benefits

We offer a competitive salary and numerous benefits upon entry in the public service.

• Salary
• Dental and health care plans
• Pension plan

How to apply

Articling terms for 2015

NEW THIS YEAR

There are two steps in the application process:

1. You must apply online through the Public Service Resourcing System, at www.jobs.gc.ca, at the latest on January 29th, 2013, 11:59 PM. Select the Quebec region, then search the articling student poster:
   • For JUSTICE, the position title is "Articling student Justice QRO", and the selection process number is 2013-JUS-COLL-BRQ-EA-0001.
     And/or
   • For PPSC, the position title is "Articling student PPSC QRO", and the selection process number is 2013-SPPC-MTL-EA-0001,
2. You must also send your last official transcript available, of your grades achieved in law studies by email at: stagebrq@justice.gc.ca, at the latest on January 29th, 2013, 11:59 PM.

If you wish to apply for Justice and PPSC, you must apply twice, once per selection process, but you can send your transcript only once.

Please note that applications that are NOT registered in the Public Service Resourcing System (www.jobs.gc.ca) will be rejected.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

When you apply online, you have to provide us with your Resume and a presentation letter. Please note that you will not be able to join these documents to your application. You will need instead to "copy-paste" the text of your documents in the fields provided for this purpose.

There will be no acknowledgement of receipt. Only candidates who will be screened in will be contacted.

The following qualifications will be used to evaluate the candidates:

• For the Department of Justice
• For the PPSC

Our areas of practice

Aboriginal Law Directorate

This directorate is responsible for civil legal proceedings instituted in Quebec and involving questions of aboriginal law. It handles litigation arising under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, aboriginal and title claims, and applications under the Indian Act. It also defends the interests of the federal government in connection with residential schools in Quebec.

Regulatory Law Directorate

The Regulatory Law Directorate assumes the conduct of litigation involving twenty federal departments and agencies present in Quebec. Although we are by definition generalists, we specialize in the areas of civil liability, class actions, employment insurance, customs and excise duties, extradition and labor law. From our Montreal and Ottawa offices, we represent the client departments and agencies in superior and federal courts, and other tribunals.

Our legal counsels represent the Crown in many cases that mark our society. We represented the Crown in the secondhand smoke in prisons matter as well as in the litigation that followed the Commission of Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, and the Reference on the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. We currently represent the Crown in several key areas including the class action on tobacco, the Charbonneau Commission, the arms registry, and the most recent issue of the Employment Insurance fund surplus.

Our articling students plead employment insurance cases, prepare and plead some motions and assist senior lawyers in the preparation of litigation files. We are looking for people that are motivated and passionate about litigation.

Immigration Directorate

This Directorate, which has about 55 lawyers, represents the government in litigation concerning the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Citizenship Act and regulations, as well as in any other area in which Immigration and Citizenship Canada and Canada Border Services Agency may have an interest. Employees are all located in Montreal.

Counsel at the Directorate deal with a variety of issues such as: exclusion from Canada for crimes against humanity, medical or criminal inadmissibility, national security, habeas corpus, claims for refugee status and applications for stays of removal orders. For example, it was a team from the Immigration Directorate who led proceedings in such high-profile cases as Mugesera, Charkaoui, Jazziri, and Dany Villanueva. Our counsel represent the interests of the Crown before Federal Courts and, on occasion, before the Superior Court.

Articling students at the Immigration Law Directorate can expect to have carriage of their own judicial review files - under the supervision of a mentor - from drafting to pleading before the Court. Articling students will also have the opportunity to assist more experienced counsel in complex files. Extensive training is provided in this fascinating area of the law that is at the forefront of developments in Canadian Administrative Law. Articling students become involved in the Directorate's professional activities upon their arrival.

Tax Litigation Directorate

The Tax Litigation Directorate’s main client is the Canada Revenue Agency. This Directorate is responsible for litigation involving income tax (except GST) and employment insurance matters before the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Equally, this Directorate handles tax collection proceedings under the Income Tax Act before the Federal Court and the Superior Court. As such, Directorate counsel provide legal opinions regarding the Income Tax Act, the Quebec Civil Code, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and other relevant federal and provincial legislation. The practice of its counsel calls for the application of principles of statutory interpretation, of the rules of procedure and evidence, and raises several civil law issues. The Directorate operates both from its Ottawa and Montreal offices.

Articling students will plead and have conduct of their own files in the areas of employment insurance and taxation before the Tax Court of Canada (Informal Procedure), and will assist counsel in drafting procedures, in carrying out legal research and in other matters (motions, out-of-court examinations and trials). Articling students will also have the opportunity to handle or to participate in out-of-court settlement negotiations.

Commercial Law Directorate

The Commercial Law Directorate provides litigation and advisory services to a variety of client departments whose mandates have a commercial component. Both legal professions, approximately forty lawyers and notaries, are represented within the Commercial Law Directorate. The Directorate operates both from the Ottawa and Montreal offices.

Its lawyers handle civil litigation cases before all courts. The jurists work in close collaboration with the clients, in various areas of practice and expertise such as construction law, crown liability, contracts, administrative law, constitutional law and bankruptcy.

Twenty notaries work within the Notarial Group and are responsible for the handling of all files related to commercial and real property transactions involving federal departments, corporations and agencies of the government of Canada. As such, they are responsible for files of various nature including acquisitions for additions to Indian reserves, dispositions (ports, airports, seized assets, etc.), servitudes and superficies, leases, securities for debts due to Her Majesty and inter-government transfers. The notaries also provide counsel and legal opinions in many areas of law (aboriginal, commercial, environmental, etc.).

For information regarding recruting of articling student in notarial law, please contact Marie-Andrée Soucis, coordinator for the notarial law articling program, at the following address: marie-andree.soucis@justice.gc.ca.

Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC)

The PPSC was created on December 12, 2006. Its creation stems from the federal government's decision to make transparent the principle of independence of the prosecutor’s to be free from undue influence. The mandate of the PPSC as an independent department aims to provide prosecutorial advice to law enforcement agencies and to act as prosecutor in matters prosecuted by the Attorney General of Canada on behalf of the Crown. The department has a regional office in Montreal, composed of 61 prosecutors and more than 38 employees assigned to administrative tasks.

Articling students actively participate in the conduct of litigation. Specifically, they may:

• Appear before tribunals and assist the lawyer in charge of the file by preparing and presenting the case before these bodies;
• Assist the lawyer in charge of a case or a prosecution by preparing documents and pleadings and presenting the case in court; and
• Conduct research and participate in writing opinions on legal questions for other government departments or agencies.

For more details regarding the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, please click on the link.

Contacts

Contact for articling positions in civil law

Christine Bernard
Counsel-Coordinator, Law Group Succession Management
Telephone: 514-283-3389
Fax: 514-283-9690
Address: 200 René-Lévesque Blvd West
East Tower, 9th floor
Montreal, Quebec H2Z 1X4
E-mail: stageBRQ@justice.gc.ca

Contact for articling positions in notarial law

Marie-Andrée Soucis
Senior Notary
Telephone: 613-957-4659
Fax: 613-952-6006
Address: 284 Wellington Street,
SAT – Room: 6008
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
E-mail: marie-andree.soucis@justice.gc.ca