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The Legal Excellence Program - Quebec Region

Articling Opportunities Across Canada - Regions

Quebec Regional Office (Montreal - Ottawa)

In a nutshell, we are

A firm of 251 lawyers and notaries with approximately 456 employees;
A Montréal-based group of legal professionals since 1965, the majority of whom work in Montréal, with also two teams in Ottawa and Québec;
A solid team of counsel involved in an impressive variety of cases concerning extremely varied areas of interest;
The designated representatives from the various federal departments and agencies before the federal and provincial courts;
A collective that focuses on mutual assistance and whose values are integrity, respect, commitment, equity, trust and openness;
Legal professionals who have the public interest at heart;
Passionate advocates for the law who aim for a fine balance between their professional activities and their private life;
A workplace that respects the principle of employment equity and that strongly encourages Aboriginal persons, members of visible minorities, persons with disabilities and women to come and join our ranks.

General articling information

Why article with us?

To gain an articling experience involving litigation practice that provides an important degree of responsibility along with a unique advocacy experience;
To assert your independence and sense of initiative;
To be entrusted with a variety of mandates;
To evolve in a stimulating and friendly environment;
To share in our philosophy, which will allow you to concentrate on your main interest: the law;
To have access to the support of lawyers with expertise in many areas of the law at the national level;
To have the support of a registered principal and mentors who are present on a daily basis, who are available and support your professional development;
To benefit from our regional and national professional development program;
To plan a career with the Department of Justice Canada: in the past ten years, our re-employment rate after articling has been above 90%.

Come visit us!

A team of lawyers from the Department of Justice of Canada Quebec Regional Office (QRO) and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) is present at career days, which are held each year in January.

Career days

Université Sherbrooke: January 10, 2012
Université du Québec à Montréal: January 17, 2012
McGill University: January 18, 2012
Université de Montréal: January 19, 2012
University of Ottawa: January 23, 2012
Université Laval: January 26, 2012

Open house days

We also invite you to come visit us during our open house days. These visits represent an ideal opportunity to meet lawyers in partnership with our various legal teams and to draw on their student, articling and counsel experience within our office. During this event, our legal counsel and coordinator for the articling programs will explain to you in detail the recruitment process. Registration is via your university.

Open house at our Montréal office for students from:
- The Université du Québec à Montréal: October 12, 2011
- McGill University: January 12, 2012
- The Université de Montréal: January 16, 2012
- The Universities of Sherbrooke, Laval and Ottawa: January 27, 2012
Open house at our Ottawa office: For University of Ottawa students: November 9, 2011

Our articling offers and student employment:

Positions to be filled for 2014 at the Department of Justice Quebec Regional Office:
- At our Montréal office:
  - 1 articling position with the commercial law team.
  - 1 articling position with the regulatory law team.
  - 1 articling position with the immigration law team.
- In all, 2 articling positions within the tax law team.
- At our Ottawa office: In all, 1 multidisciplinary articling position: the student works with the commercial, Aboriginal, tax law and regulatory law teams.
Positions to be filled at the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), Quebec Regional Office in 2014: In all, 2 positions.
Law student positions

* Please note that for articling terms that will take place in 2012 and 2013 at the Department of Justice QRO and the PPSC’s Quebec Regional Office, recruitment is now complete.

We offer law student positions to our future articling students, specifically summer employment during the summer preceding their articling or earlier, when possible.

For more information on other student employment programs within the federal public service, please consult the following site: Federal Student Work Experience Program.

Professional development

We attach great importance to professional development as soon as articling students are hired;
During the first years following their admission to the bar, our legal counsels participate in a complete professional development program aimed at fostering greater versatility through a common profile of skills and knowledge;
Summer students and articling students actively participating in law practice group meetings and conferences;
Our mentoring program also allows for the opportunity to learn and share across professional and personal lines. The program ensures the transfer of DOJ knowledge and provides employees with career and leadership development opportunities.

Salary and benefits

We offer a competitive salary and numerous benefits upon entry in the public service.

How to apply

Articling terms for 2014

You must apply by January 31, 2012, for an articling position with the Department of Justice and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada - Quebec Regional Office.
You must clearly indicate on your application whether you are applying for an articling position with DOJ or the PPSC or BOTH.

Your applications must include the following three documents:

A cover letter;
A resumé;
An official transcript of grades achieved in law studies.

Incomplete or late applications will not be considered.

You must demonstrate, in your application, that you meet the following qualifications:

Your applications must be sent via e-mail to the attention of Christine Bernard at the following address: stageBRQ@justice.gc.ca; or via the following site: https://law.myfuture.mcgill.ca (for McGill University students only).

Our areas of practice

Aboriginal Law Directorate

This directorate is responsible for civil legal proceedings instituted in Quebec and involving questions of aboriginal law. It handles litigation arising under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, aboriginal and title claims, and applications under the Indian Act. It also defends the interests of the federal government in connection with residential schools in Quebec.

Regulatory Law Directorate

The Regulatory Law Directorate assumes the conduct of litigation involving twenty federal departments and agencies present in Quebec. We specialize in the areas of civil liability, class actions, employment insurance, customs and excise duties, extradition and labor law. Counsel represent the client departments and agencies in superior and federal courts, and other tribunals.

Counsel represent the Crown in many cases that mark our society. We represented the Crown in the secondhand smoke in prisons matter as well as in the litigation that followed the Commission of Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, and the Reference on the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. We currently represent the Crown in several major areas including the class action on tobacco, national security matters like the Omary and Charkaoui cases, and the most recent issue of the Employment Insurance fund surplus.

Our articling students plead employment insurance cases, prepare and plead some motions and assist senior lawyers in the preparation of litigation files. We are looking for people that are motivated and passionate about litigation.

Immigration Directorate

This Directorate, which has about 55 lawyers, represents the government in litigation concerning the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Citizenship Act and regulations, as well as in any other area in which Immigration and Citizenship Canada and Canada Border Services Agency may have an interest. Employees are all located in Montréal.

As such, Directorate counsel represent their clients’ interests before the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada and occasionally, before the common law courts and the federal administrative tribunals in all kinds of procedures (e.g., judicial reviews, civil liability, appeals, etc.). They give legal opinions on immigration law and any other legal sphere where the client's departments have an interest, in particular labour law.

Students articling with the Immigration Directorate will be called upon to prepare judicial reviews that they will take to the Federal Court and lend assistance to jurists in more complex files (e.g., applications, researches and/or written or oral submissions). They are assisted by experienced counsel, who act as mentors, providing them with advice and who involve them in the professional activities of the Directorate.

Tax Litigation Directorate

The Tax Litigation Directorate’s main client is the Canada Revenue Agency. This Directorate is responsible for litigation involving income tax (except GST) and employment insurance matters before the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Equally, this Directorate handles tax collection proceedings under the Income Tax Act before the Federal Court and the Superior Court. As such, Directorate counsel provide legal opinions regarding the Income Tax Act, the Quebec Civil Code, the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and other relevant federal and provincial legislation. The practice of its counsel calls for the application of principles of statutory interpretation, of the rules of procedure and evidence, and raises several civil law issues. The Directorate operates both from its Ottawa and Montréal offices.

Articling students will plead and have conduct of their own files in the areas of employment insurance and taxation before the Tax Court of Canada (Informal Procedure), and will assist counsel in drafting procedures, in carrying out legal research and in other matters (motions, out-of-court examinations and trials). Articling students will also have the opportunity to handle or to participate in out-of-court settlement negotiations.

Commercial Law Directorate

The Commercial Law Directorate provides litigation and advisory services to a variety of client departments whose mandates have a commercial component. Both legal professions, approximately forty lawyers and notaries, are represented within the Commercial Law Directorate. The Directorate operates both from the Ottawa and Montréal offices.

Its lawyers handle civil litigation cases before all courts. The jurists work in close collaboration with the clients, in various areas of practice and expertise such as construction law, crown liability, contracts, administrative law, constitutional law and bankruptcy.

Twenty notaries work within the Notarial Group and are responsible for the handling of all files related to commercial and real property transactions involving federal departments, corporations and agencies of the government of Canada. As such, they are responsible for files of various nature including acquisitions for additions to Indian reserves, dispositions (ports, airports, seized assets, etc.), servitudes and superficies, leases, securities for debts due to Her Majesty and inter-government transfers. The notaries also provide counsel and legal opinions in many areas of law (aboriginal, commercial, environmental, etc.).

The Ottawa office of the Commercial Law Directorate will be hiring one articling student in notarial law for 2012. For information, please contact Marie-Andrée Soucis, coordinator for the notarial law articling program, at the following address: marie-andree.soucis@justice.gc.ca.

Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC)

The PPSC was created on December 12, 2006. Its creation stems from the federal government's decision to make transparent the principle of independence of the prosecutor’s to be free from undue influence. The mandate of the PPSC as an independent department aims to provide prosecutorial advice to law enforcement agencies and to act as prosecutor in matters prosecuted by the Attorney General of Canada on behalf of the Crown. The department has a regional office in Montréal, composed of 61 prosecutors and more than 38 employees assigned to administrative tasks.

Articling students actively participate in the conduct of litigation. Specifically, they may:

Appear before tribunals and assist the lawyer in charge of the file by preparing and presenting the case before these bodies;
Assist the lawyer in charge of a case or a prosecution by preparing documents and pleadings and presenting the case in court; and
Conduct research and participate in writing opinions on legal questions for other government departments or agencies.

For more details regarding the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, please click on the link.

Contacts

Contact for articling positions in civil law

Christine Bernard
Counsel
Telephone: 514-283-3389
Fax: 514-283-9690
Address: 200 René-Lévesque Blvd West
East Tower, 9th floor
Montréal, Quebec H2Z 1X4
E-mail: stageBRQ@justice.gc.ca

Contact for articling positions in notarial law

Marie-Andrée Soucis
Senior Notary
Telephone: 613-957-4659
Fax: 613-952-6006
Address: 284 Wellington Street,
SAT – Room: 6008
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8
E-mail: marie-andree.soucis@justice.gc.ca