Introduction
Why Specialize in Labour and Employment Law?
Why Management-Side Rather Than Union Side?
Our Commitment to Students
Our Student Program
Meet Our Students
How to Apply

Where you begin your legal career is an important decision. There are many choices to be made including: area of practice, private or public, full service or boutique, big or small, downtown or uptown, and so on.

We have written this Handbook to assist you getting to know our firm and the practice of management-side labour, employment and administrative law.

If after reading our Handbook you still have questions for us, don't hesitate to give us a call.

We believe there are two principal reasons to specialize in labour and employment law: advocacy and business. Labour and employment law combine these exciting areas of practice in ways no others can or do.

If you are fascinated and excited with the prospect of being an advocate - as many law students are - labour, employment and administrative law offer opportunities to get "on your feet" and argue cases earlier and more consistently than almost any other practice area including traditional civil litigation.

Employment and labour lawyers are often in hearings several days a month, cross-examining witnesses, leading evidence and making legal argument. There are also fewer procedural requirements in labour law allowing cases to unfold much more quickly than in civil litigation.

All of our lawyers are advocates with experience preparing for and arguing cases before a wide range of courts and administrative tribunals, including:

The Ontario Labour Relations Board
The Canada Industrial Relations Board
Human Rights Tribunals
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Appeals Tribunal
Ontario Courts
Federal Courts

We work hard to ensure that all lawyers regardless of their year of Call regularly receive hearings of their own, a feature seldom found in other law firms.

Business is an essential component of our labour and employment law practice. Whether and how to structure a merger, sale or acquisition; employment contracts; tax implications; pensions; benefits; the terms of a collective agreement; the cost - direct and indirect - of specific workplace policies and practices (such as employment equity, workplace safety, duty to accommodate, etc); immigration; and human rights, to name a few - each of these issues has a profound effect on and requires a sophisticated understanding of how each of our clients does business.

So you see, there is much more to labour and employment law than you might originally have thought!

For many, the choice to practice management-side or union-side is personal based on individual, closely held views.

For others, there are practical advantages to a management-side practice.

Employers have greater opportunities than employees to be proactive designing the workplace environment, policies, direction and strategy. While there are always exceptions to the rule, generally management makes these important workplace decisions whereas employees tend to react. As management-advisers we are often asked to participate in making important, proactive workplace decisions.

The second advantage is that management lawyers are more likely to be asked by clients to represent them at hearings and in collective bargaining negotiations. Generally it is rare for union-side lawyers to take on negotiation responsibilities because often the union itself will send its own representative.

Each of us at Sherrard Kuzz is dedicated to and enjoys the process of providing to law students and young lawyers opportunities to learn and develop.

Many of our lawyers regularly teach or guest lecture at law schools and the Ontario Bar Admission Course, and we are proud to have established at a number of Canada's law schools the Sherrard Kuzz LLP Prize in labour, employment and administrative law.

We consider our students to be a vital part of our continuing growth and success. Accordingly, we routinely hire law students in each of the first, second and articling years and have made this an integral component of our firm culture.

Whether at law school, the Bar Admission Course or as a member of our professional team, our goal is to help students develop the disciplined analytical, technical and practical skills they will need to be successful lawyers.

We consider this our responsibility.

The articling and summer student program at Sherrard Kuzz is intense but fulfilling. Students participate in a dynamic firm in which outstanding work, client service and a rewarding collegial environment are paramount.

While researching and writing is fundamental to the learning process, our students do not spend all of their time in the library. Instead, our students get out with our lawyers regularly so they can learn how to assist clients with real issues. We make a point of introducing our students to all aspects of the practice of law and inviting them to join us at client meetings, hearings, negotiations, lectures, continuing legal education seminars, networking dinners and regular firm management meetings.

We also offer our students the opportunity to write articles for our newsletter, Management Counsel, and to help prepare and attend the numerous seminars we present to clients.

In our experience, this approach accelerates the learning process, builds professional skills, industry experience and confidence, and helps students to develop their own blend of legal skills and professional style.

Sherrard Kuzz places a premium on the training and guidance of all members of the firm. To help identify strengths and improve skills, students receive on-going informal reviews of professional development. We also conduct in-house seminars to ensure that our students are up to speed on important and topical issues related to our broad practice of law.

During the first few days at Sherrard Kuzz students are assisted through an orientation program designed to introduce them to our resources and support services and the practical skills required to be a successful student and lawyer. This orientation includes tips on the transition from law school to practice, training in research, writing skills and time management, and the basics of employment and labour law, litigation and administrative law. The program also includes computer training, library and Internet training, and instruction in practice management techniques.

Each year, the Ontario Labour Relations Board (“OLRB”) offers to select articling students the unique opportunity to be seconded to the OLRB for a period of six or eight weeks during the articling period. Historically, the OLRB has offered this experience to only five students per year.

At Sherrard Kuzz LLP we think this opportunity is invaluable. It is, for a student aspiring to practice employment and labour law, akin to a clerkship at the Court of Appeal. As such, we have made it a commitment to our students to seek to secure an OLRB secondment every year.

Fortunately, we have had great success in this regard. Since 2003, every articling student at our firm has been granted a secondment.

We believe that our participation in this important program is just another way in which we demonstrate our unparalleled commitment to our students and their learning process.

We have an 'open-door' policy that is augmented by regular firm meetings to discuss matters of current interest.

Sherrard Kuzz is committed to providing the highest level of professional support to our students - articling and summer - and lawyers.

We are committed to being ahead of the pack in terms of ensuring that our team and our clients know about and appreciate new and evolving developments in the law.

We regularly conduct workshops and seminars on a wide variety of topics, for employers, management and supervisory personnel. Topics have included in-depth analysis of the various pieces of employment-related legislation, achieving and maintaining positive employee relations, progressive discipline, attendance management, privacy, occupational health and safety, human rights and a variety of topics which can or do effect the employment relationships.

We also publish a newsletter entitled "Management Counsel" to inform clients and members of the community about important and topical issues which may affect their workplaces.

Our students are encouraged to write for our newsletter and where appropriate participate in presenting seminars.

Articling student compensation is competitive with that at other leading employment and labour law firms in Toronto. In addition to salary, compensation includes Bar Admission Course tuition, an extended health care plan, a dental plan and life insurance.

The experience of Sherrard Kuzz summer students is no different than that of our articling students although limited to the short summer season.

Each student office is equipped with a Pentium-class computer with access to the Internet and on-line services such as Quicklaw, WestlawE-Carswell, Canadian Labour Law Library and numerous CD Rom research databases.

In addition, each articling student receives their own laptop computer and Blackberry in recognition of the mobility of our practice.

Computer training is part of the student orientation.

Given the size of our firm and focused nature of our practice, the members of our team work together every day. However, we also like get together outside business hours, so we organize several firm-wide events throughout the year almost always including our entire staff and their partners.

Our current and incoming students are:

*   Returning from previous summer(s)

We hope this Handbook has helped you to decide whether Sherrard Kuzz is the firm with which you might like to begin your legal career.

If so, your application, including:

• a cover letter
• a resume
• post-secondary transcripts
• a list of upper year courses you intend to take (where applicable)
• references (recommended)

should be directed to:

Rhonda Cohen LL.B.
Managing Director
Sherrard Kuzz LLP
Employment and Labour Lawyers
155 University Avenue
Suite 1500
Toronto, Ontario M5H 3B7

416.603.0700 Main
416.603.6243 Direct
rcohen@sherrardkuzz.com

 
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