Davies is a business law firm.   We focus on areas where our firm excels and our lawyers are the leaders in their field.  We use a multi-disciplinary approach to transactions and cases, building a team based on the needs of our clients and the file.  Our student program is thus very "hands on". There is no significant difference between our summer and stagiaire programs in terms of the type of work or exposure students receive.

That said, we recognize that our incoming students have different training and development needs from those of our stagiaires and we tailor our program accordingly. Our summer program runs for 10-13 weeks (May – August). In some cases we have been able to place returning students at our clients for a portion of the summer or at one of our other offices.

Our stage is an intensive 6 month program, usually beginning in either January or May after the successful completion of your bar admission exams.  You will also have the opportunity to work at the firm during the previous summers or pursue other interests and passions.  Our program is designed for stagiaires with a deep desire to succeed, insatiable curiosity and strong all-round abilities.  You will work hard, immediately joining our practice area teams and contributing to the success of client transactions and cases.  You will work in a collegial environment, where colleagues will become friends and mentors.  You will have a high level of responsibility and an unparalleled working experience. You will learn about the law, how to manage your workload and have a number of opportunities to meet and interact with clients.

Unlike most other law firms, we offer an early partnership structure.  For example, our associates are considered for partnership as early as four years after joining the firm. Our firm structure is non-hierarchical and promotes teamwork and the sharing of work throughout the firm.  We believe that clients belong to the firm, not a particular lawyer.  We also believe that targets for billable hours are not in the best interests of our clients or our lawyers and so we do not set targets for our lawyers, stagiaires or students.  Together, these beliefs foster an environment and philosophy whereby the work is given to the team that can best execute the transaction or handle the case and results in increased opportunities for you to get involved at an early stage.

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The professional development philosophy at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is simple.  Our students, stagiaires and lawyers will learn the most by practising law, by talking to other lawyers, by interacting with clients, by reading in an effort to keep current and by attending a strategic mix of continuing legal education programs.

Professional Development is a high priority at our firm and starts the day you begin your career as a student or stagiaire.  Each year, the Student Committee develops a curriculum that includes seminars and workshops on ethics and professionalism, law practice management, professional practice and skills development.  This curriculum follows an intensive one to two week orientation program for those students and stagiaires who are new to the firm.
 
In addition to the student and stagiaire curriculum, stagiaires and students are encouraged to attend a number of our scheduled practice group meetings which focus on current legal issues.  The student and stagiaire seminar and conference series provides an open forum to discuss the different areas of practice in our firm, along with related practice-specific legal and practical issues.  This format affords the student and stagiaire the opportunity to engage in a discussion and to ask questions about specific areas of practice in an informal setting.

The goal of our comprehensive and well-rounded training program is to produce lawyers with superior professional and business skills.  As we consistently strive to provide the best student and stagiaire training possible, you are considered an integral part of the curriculum design process.  Each summer, we solicit your feedback on all orientation and ongoing in-house continuing legal education programs.  This also offers an opportunity to ask Student Committee members questions about or to provide comments on your student or stagiaire experience.  More importantly, your input is heard and can help redefine the format for ongoing training programs.

For more information you are encouraged to contact Chantelle-Courtney, Director, Professional Development or Nanci Ship, Director, Development Programs and Student Affairs.

The following programs were recently offered during the summer term:

• Due Diligence
• Ethics
• Have You Hugged a Client Today?
• Insight on Commercial Practice
• International Deals & Dealmaking
• International Taxation
• Introduction to Bankruptcy
• Introduction to Environmental Law
• Introduction to Labour Law
• Introduction to Leasing & Real Estate
• Introduction to Litigation
• Introduction to Securities Law
• Introduction to Tax
• Tax & Administrative Litigation
• The Art of Negotiating
• The First Steps in the Practice of Law at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
• Young Lawyers at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
• How to write an excellent legal memo
• Introduction to Intellectual Property

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The best way to learn about being a lawyer is to practice.  During your stage, you will work as a member of our team, alongside our most senior lawyers.  We have an open door policy at Davies and you are able to accept and request work from any lawyer in the firm.  This approach lets you manage your own workload in the same way our lawyers do.  It also gives you access to a wide variety of talented lawyers to work out problems, discuss ideas and learn from their experiences.

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Our practice is to hire students from the start who we think have the potential to become exceptional stagiaires, associates and, eventually, partners of the firm.  In addition, we have no hiring quotas, but make offers to all stagiaires who meet our standards.  As a result, our hire-back percentage is generally very high.  There is no B team at Davies – it is the exceptional talent of our lawyers that allows us to continue to attract leading clients and innovative and interesting work, and we believe that hiring back all stagiaires who meet our high standards is a critical component of our success.

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You will be able to choose any lawyer in the firm as your mentor a few weeks after you begin your first summer at Davies.  Your mentor will help you become integrated into the firm and will give you guidance, feedback and support throughout your summers and stage.  Mentors serve as a general resource for advice on practice management, client management and people management.  They will also deal with any questions or needs that you have regarding your workload, a file you are working on, or the firm. 

In addition to the formal mentorship program, informal mentoring is an ingrained part of firm culture at every level.  A student back for her second summer will help a new student find the right firm resource, a young lawyer will help a stagiaire draft his first motion, or a senior partner will toss around ideas with a younger lawyer as they work together to develop a solution to a unique problem – it’s all mentoring and it happens every day.

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Feedback is both a formal and informal process at Davies.  We encourage our lawyers to give informal feedback during and after each mandate.  You will also have a more formal evaluation at the end of each summer and mid-way through the stage, with a member of the stage committee and your mentor.  These assessment meetings are an open exchange of views to ensure that both you and the firm are doing everything possible to advance your development.

Feedback works both ways at Davies because we believe we can only improve if our students and stagiaires tell us where we are succeeding and where we need to improve.  We therefore have formal and informal sessions to get your views on areas like recruiting, the student program, the stage and our professional development program.

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Throughout the year, there are a number of opportunities for the students, stagiaires and lawyers to socialize at both formal and impromptu events.   We have regular informal lunches in our “lawyer’s lounge” and many of our partners host dinners for small groups of students, stagiaires and lawyers each summer.  There’s the annual firm-wide party in December, the soccer team, and in recent summers we’ve kicked off the season with a one day out of office team building activity such as accrobranche, a city wide scavenger hunt and dragon boating.  While these events are a great way to socialize and to get to know each other, attendance is optional as we also appreciate your need to spend time away from the firm and pursue your own interests.

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Our lawyers, stagiaires and students are actively involved in various community service and pro-bono efforts.  They participate in or organize events and sit on boards and committees both individually and through the firm.  We support a variety of educational, medical, cultural and community-centered causes and organizations. Every summer our students work as a group to identify a local organization or cause that is meaningful to them.  They then come up with a plan to make an impact for that organization through their actions, rather than simply by raising funds.  In the past our students have thus served meals to the homeless, animated a celebration at a nursing home, help prepare a summer camp for underprivileged children and more.  We have an active Centraide campaign, and we support a number of charities such as the Montréal Children’s Hospital through their Pedal for Kids event, Generations Foundation, Project Chances, Dans la rue, Ste-Justine Hospital.  We also support our lawyers who want to teach, write papers and speak at legal and business conferences.  These activities both enrich our personal experiences practising law and help us make a contribution to the community.

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A career at Davies will be exciting and rewarding.  We hire stagiaires anticipating that they will succeed at Davies and, within a few years, become partners.  As an associate with the firm, you will continue to learn from each new transaction or case you work on and after a few years, you will be considered for partnership.  Partnership decisions are based on the entire skill set of a lawyer and the contributions they have made to Davies, our clients, and transactions and cases.  Partnership decisions are not dependent on the number of clients you bring or the number of billable hours you log.  Throughout your career at Davies you will have the opportunity to be mentored and provide mentorship to others, whether on an official or unofficial basis.

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