The Legal Excellence Program — Edmonton

Articling Opportunities Across Canada

Articling Opportunities Across Canada

Prairie Region — Edmonton Office

The Prairie Region is one of six regional bases of operation in the Department of Justice Canada. Within our region, the Department of Justice (Justice Canada) maintains offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.

In Edmonton, lawyers represent the federal government in a wide variety of matters affecting departments and agencies of the Government of Canada. Our counsel regularly appear before the federal courts, including the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and Tax Court of Canada; the provincial superior courts and appellate courts such as the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta and the Alberta Court of Appeal; and administrative tribunals, including the Specific Claims Tribunal, Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Canada Energy Regulator, and the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. Justice Canada counsel are also involved in challenging and interesting solicitors’ work.

A career in the Prairie Region, Edmonton office of Justice Canada, means working alongside experienced lawyers doing groundbreaking, important work on a variety of interesting files. Some examples include:

Students in the Edmonton office can expect to work on files within all practice areas, and may be involved in civil litigation, tax trials, negotiations, judicial reviews, motions, examinations for discovery, legal research, and drafting commercial agreements/leases. Our students are involved in all aspects of our work and are highly valued members of our legal team.

General Articling Information

The Edmonton office takes its commitment to its articling students seriously by providing an exceptional articling experience, which promotes legal excellence.

Articling students in Edmonton are governed by the Law Society of Alberta. Students must successfully complete 52 weeks of full-time articles, as well as the Alberta CPLED (Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education) program. Further information on the Alberta articling process is available on the Law Society of Alberta website.

The Prairie Region, Edmonton Office, is proud to offer the Legal Excellence Program (LEP) to our articling students, which is a program designed to provide students and junior lawyers with experience, skills, training and knowledge essential for the successful practice of law, fostered by providing students with a varied articling experience.

Students receive feedback on assignments from counsel throughout each practice area rotation. As well, a supervising lawyer is assigned for each rotation to monitor the students’ work and provide a written evaluation at the end of the rotation.

Professional Development

Articling students attend mandatory training such as the Orientation to the Public Service Course, Orientation to the Prairie Region, and an Articling Student Orientation. As part of the Law Society of Alberta requirements for admission to the bar as lawyers, students actively participate in the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED) programming by attending classes, completing assignments, and meeting with professional advisors during their articling year.  As a learning organization, Justice Canada supports students in many other learning opportunities throughout the year within and outside the department.

Salary and benefits

Articling students with Justice Canada in Edmonton are entitled to:

The Application Process

We are observing the Law Society of Alberta’s Articling Student Recruitment Guidelines:

This posting is open to Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents residing in Canada and abroad. Preference will be given to veterans first and then to Canadian Citizens and permanent residents.

Applications must include the following documents:

Applications that do not contain all of the above-mentioned documents will be considered incomplete. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

All applications and supporting documentation (including cover letter, résumé, law school transcripts and anticipated upper year courses) should be submitted by the following method:

Applicants will be assessed against the Statement of Merit Criteria.

Justice Canada believes that to be able to effectively serve the public, its workforce needs to reflect the diversity of the Canadian population. Diversity is a great source of strength in driving Canada’s Legal Team in ensuring that Canada’s justice system is as fair, accessible and efficient as possible. Justice Canada is committed to a representative workforce that represents the Canadian public we serve. If you are an Indigenous person, a woman, a person with a disability, a member of a racialized group* or a member of the 2SLGBTQI+**/Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) community we encourage you to self-declare in this staffing process.

* Please note that this group is currently designated as members of visible minorities in the Employment Equity Act and the self-declaration form.

** 2SLGBTQI+: Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and people who identify as being part of sexual and gender diverse communities.

Law students who wish to have their employment equity status considered at the time of articling interviews should self-identify in their articling position applications.

Areas of Legal Practice

The Prairie Region Edmonton Office has approximately 200 employees, including about 100 lawyers, and enjoys the close-knit atmosphere of a smaller office, while simultaneously working with Justice Canada lawyers and client departments located across the country. Our lawyers practice in the following areas of law:

Tax Law

Counsel in the tax practice area provide litigation and advisory services to the Minister of National Revenue (MNR); represent the Crown in tax-related civil proceedings; and act for Employment and Social Development Canada in Old Age Security hearings before the Tax Court throughout western Canada. Our Region is recognized for its in-depth expertise in resource taxation matters, and much of the oil and gas work in the country is handled by the Calgary office.

Litigation accounts for 80% of our work. Counsel deal with disputes concerning the assessments and reassessments of taxes by the Canada Revenue Agency under the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act (GST) and the Employment Insurance Act, and appear before the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Counsel also provide legal services with respect to the collection of debts owing to the MNR and represent the federal Crown’s interest in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings in the superior courts of the provinces.

Students can expect to assist with pleadings, motions, trial preparation and collection issues. They will also have the opportunity to handle or participate in out-of-court settlement negotiations. In addition, students will obtain practical courtroom experience and may have the opportunity to conduct an informal procedure hearing before the Tax Court of Canada.

Regulatory and Public Safety Law

These practice areas involve litigation services to a wide range of federal government departments and agencies including:

Indigenous Litigation and Resolution

Counsel in this practice area provide legal resolution and litigation services to Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and Indigenous Services Canada. They work on complex and highly significant litigation files involving Aboriginal rights and title, constitutional law, administrative law, property law and public law in courts, tribunals and dispute resolution processes. This area of work frequently involves novel questions of law, both on substantive and procedural issues, and sensitive issues that involve multiple government departments.

Files include substantive issues arising from Aboriginal rights and title, modern and historic treaties, the reserve creation process, the Crown’s fiduciary obligations, the Crown’s duty to consult, federal/provincial division of powers, taxation exemptions and administrative, fisheries, immigration, and oil and gas issues.

Advisory Law

The advisory practice includes areas of property and commercial law, contract, torts, environmental law, estates law, constitutional law, employment law and information and privacy law. It also includes facilitating economic development initiatives of Indigenous groups such as on-reserve economic development for gas stations, casinos, office buildings, resource extraction and more. Our advisory lawyers also work on initiatives that bring selected Treaty Land Entitlement land into reserve, create urban reserves and support First Nations’ self-governance initiatives.

Our counsel provide legal advisory services to federal departments including Indigenous Services Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, National Defence, Parks Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada, Transport Canada and Prairies Canada, among others. The scope of the work is broad and challenging.

Contact Information

For more information about student work in the Prairie Region, Edmonton Office, please contact:

Kanchana Fernando
Regional Director and General Counsel
Chair, Edmonton Articling Committee
Telephone: 780-224-5135
Email address: articlingstudentsubmissions.edmonton@justice.gc.ca
10423 — 101 Street NW — EPCOR Tower
Edmonton, AB T5H 0E7
National Litigation Sector
Pronouns: she/her - Pronoms: Elle