By Jonathan Myers
Law Student, Osgoode Hall Law School

To those who are driven by a burning passion to spend your working lives (and your law school summers) litigating or facilitating mergers, acquisitions and other transactions for large corporate entities, this article is NOT directed at you. If you have been contemplating your employment prospects recently, please read on. I want to comment on two related issues that I have with the law school: the preoccupation with employment around here and the general fixation on "Bay Street".

The Dean's Message from Osgoode's calendar, one of the items that persuaded me to attend Osgoode, proudly asserts that the curriculum is "broadly based" and that "students are encouraged to explore the complex relationship between law and society, and to consider the role of the legal system in, and responsibility of the legal profession for, achieving social justice. The Law School seeks to . . . foster public service and social justice." I can't speak for everyone else, or even for all first years, but rather than spending my time thinking about these matters, I have spent much more of my time and effort exploring or worrying about where I'm going to work in the summer, where I'm going to article 2 ½ years from now, and how much money I will have to sacrifice to do something that actually makes me happy.

If I thought the problem was me, I would not be writing this article. The problem, it seems, is twofold: First, too much of an emphasis is put on employment at too early a stage in our legal education. While employment should certainly be a major focus in the upper years, the pressure on first years to decide on a careers path is a major distraction at a time when our priority should be on learning. A legal education, I am told, can offer much more than a ticket to Bay Street.

Speaking of Bay Street, the second problem I see is that Osgoode has allowed our learning environment to become a "Marketing Mecca" for Bay Street. In addition to every event or room being sponsored and the ads plastered everywhere (including on the pages of this fine newspaper), Bay Street mentality is even taught in the classroom. In LRW, for example, we are taught precisely in the context of what we will need to do to when we are "downtown" or on Bay Street.

While one side of the faculty's mouth speaks with an underlying expectation that we are all Bay Street-bound, out of the other side of the faculty's mouth spits the various statistics we've all heard about how few of us will actually end up working as lawyers and about the even smaller fraction that will end up with the big firms. We have also heard the suggestions that our law degrees will offer us so much more than the typical job with a big firm. With the exception of an "Alternatives to Bay Street" event or two, we are clearly not encouraged to explore these options.

But what about the money? Ahhh, the money. The money is enticing, no doubt about that. Many of us have large student debts that we are anxious to pay off. Besides, who would not want one of those highly coveted 80 hour/week, $16/hour jobs? (Do the math, that's about the going rate for articling, not busking, on Bay Street).

Is this the greatest sham ever? No wonder they have to seduce us with mugs, highlighters, CD holders and post-it notes bearing firm logos (not to mention the free food and drink at every possible opportunity). While the McMillan Binch highlighters are unbeatable and my Torys hat is the envy of those around me, it is no wonder the marketing machines on Bay Street are relentless in wooing us. When you look past it all, it doesn't look so rosy anymore: inhumane working hours, socially irrelevant work and little social or family life. Is that what we're working so hard to achieve? As a professor whom I was speaking with put it, "it is like a pie eating contest where the prize is more pie."

As an aside, I think the difference between our future billing hours of, perhaps, $200/hour and the pay rate of $16/hour shows where the firms generate the funds to bankroll all the freebies and shmoozefests they offer!

I am not one to complain and simply leave it at that. I think some changes are needed to restore and enhance the academic nature of law school. At the risk of making my argument sound circular, a less distracting first year of law school would help us all in our job searches and careers in the future. If we cannot prevent firms from hiring first years, perhaps some limitations are needed to reduce the amount of big firm marketing we are subjected to. Maybe professors could filter out some of the big firm mentality that seeps into the classroom and replace it with an heir of intellectual or academic curiosity. Finally, we need more balance when being presented with career options.

While at this point I am definitely not considering a big firm job, who knows . . . maybe I will develop an interest in this at some point in the future. The point is that I want to be given the chance to make this decision based on the right reasons, once I know enough about the law and legal profession. How can I do this and still get the free post-it notes?

Courtesy of the Obiter Dicta
March 20, 2001