Summer Student Program

In the Vancouver office, our summer student program offers what we believe to be a unique opportunity to students in that our Vancouver office is a mid-sized firm and yet we have an extremely sophisticated practice. In addition, our relative youth and the characteristics that we look for in our students and lawyers make our office a friendly and exciting place to practice law.

Due to the shortened time period that summer students work at Blakes (May to August), each summer student will work either in a corporate or litigation rotation exclusively to ensure that he or she is provided with a broad exposure to all aspects of one of our practice groups. A student doing a corporate rotation may receive exposure to the following areas of law: general corporate, securities, financial services, taxation and real estate. Students doing a litigation rotation will be exposed to corporate-commercial litigation, labour and employment, environmental, administrative and First Nations law. Summer students generally perform the same work and are given the same responsibilities as articling students.

Each summer student is assigned a mentor. The mentor’s role is to ensure that students are receiving interesting and varied assignments and are enjoying their time at Blakes. Students will work both with their mentor as well as with other lawyers in their practice group.

Upon arriving in early May, summer students attend an orientation session which introduces them to our office and its resources. In addition, throughout the summer our students attend regularly scheduled "lunch and learn" seminars, each of which focus on a specific area or issue of law. Of course, students are also invited to any firm-wide professional development seminars or meetings.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, summer students are invited to several social events over the course of the summer to ensure that they get to know one another and the lawyers at the firm. Recent student social events have included dinners, kayaking, pitch and putt golf and concerts. In addition, summer students are invited to firm-wide events, including firm dinners, baseball games and the annual golf tournament and barbeque.

Salaries and Benefits

Our summer students receive the same salary ($45,000 per year) and paid vacation as our articling students. In addition, summer students receive the equivalent of third year tuition to a maximum of $5000 and a book allowance of $400.

Vancouver Student Committee

There are 13 lawyers on our Student Committee. The primary responsibility of the Committee is to administer the student program, which consists of hiring the summer and articling students and monitoring and reviewing student performance and the program's effectiveness. The Committee also selects the articling students who will be asked to join Blakes as associates. If you would like to find out more about Blakes student programs, please feel free to call any of the people listed below, each of whom is a member of our Student Committee. They would be pleased to provide you with any information about the student program in Vancouver.

The Application Process

We usually hire for summer positions in October of the preceding year.

Thank you very much for your 2009 summer applications.

Congratulations to Tara Amiri-khaledi, Nate Kim, Kyle Misewich, Keyvan Monsef, Khaled Shariff, Megan Tweedie, Tom Vodnak and Hila Wesa for joining our team!

Please send your articling application to Joe McArthur, the Student Committee Chair, at the address below and enclose a cover letter, resume, law school and undergraduate transcripts. Should your second year marks not be available when sending in your application, kindly submit them at your earliest convenience when received. Email or telephone inquiries may be made to Joe McArthur at joe.mcarthur@blakes.comor (604) 631-3383.

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Suite 2600, Three Bentall Centre
595 Burrard Street, P.O. Box 49314
Vancouver, British Columbia V7X 1L3

Telephone: 604.631.3300
Fax: 604.631.3309