What's the biggest difference between learning at law school and learning at Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG)?

At law school, students learn primarily through study, listening and the Socratic method. At BLG, we offer our students and associates opportunities to learn by doing and to learn from experienced professionals. We know that learning and development can be accelerated in a culture of mentoring, feedback, collaboration and challenge. We try to take advantage of each person’s individual strengths and interests, and we encourage all our professionals to take an active interest in the development of less experienced colleagues.

New associates have the opportunity to choose their mentors (subject to logistical constraints and agreement of the mentor). In the first year, mentors will work directly with associates to establish a solid working relationship and to provide hands-on coaching and training.

At the same time, we believe that an associate’s development will be accelerated by exposure to a range of work experiences, supervising lawyers, and different working styles. Part of the mentor's role is to find work opportunities that provide this range.

Over time, associates will develop several informal mentors as they work with other lawyers, but the formal mentoring relationship will endure right up to admission to partnership.

Feedback and Evaluations
Every supervising lawyer is encouraged to provide ongoing feedback to students and associates during the course of each assignment. We believe that the fastest way for students as associates to improve is through immediate feedback. Mentors also facilitate feedback by reminding supervising lawyers to provide feedback (even when they are busy) and by sitting down with associates to provide informal progress reports from time to time.

BLG also has a formal evaluation system for students and associates. It is based on clearly defined criteria and provides a structured assessment of each student’s performance and progress twice during the summer program and at the end of each rotation during the articling year.

After articles are completed, the formal evaluation system continues for all associates, and focuses on the associate’s future prospects and development goals. Our evaluation procedures for our associates are uniform across our offices.