Articling Student Interview Questions

What does Deloitte mean to you?

Describe a recent Ministry case that went to the Supreme Court of Canada.

See above. Also: what kinds of social justice work/activism have you done. Talk about some situation that may have pushed you to become active in social justice work. These are easy questions if your true aim is social justice and if you actually really want to support low-income people. Another question tries to have you explain how you treat clients. Give an example of when it was difficult to support a client. And how you tried to make it work. If your motivation in life is social justice you will already have supported BLM and Idle No More: write down what your aims and activities were and what you know of the struggles. Show how you have supported marginalized persons. Know about history and politics and what Legal Aid is doing to change the legal landscape. How many types of Canadian communities are you connected to? That was what they are looking for too. Also what languages do you speak. Bi-lingual has preference. Check to see what are the communities they serve other than English and French and learn a third language. Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic or an indigenous language of Ontario. You are doing this for your clients and to be the best possible Legal Aid lawyer that you could be. Learning languages is easier for privileged people so don’t worry if you are from a minority group because you will have cultural knowledge that is as important. If you have time take a language class in university and go to the Toronto Library for amazing language study tapes, books, cds. There are conversation groups too.

Which city should we open an office in?

They went through my resume and asked about every single aspect/detail they were interested in. The whole interview was not really structured. They encourage you to take the initiative to share.

If you were the interviewer and had to ask 3 questions, what would they be?

Where do you see yourself in this role in 5 years?

"Why do you think we do that area of law?"