The Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) specializes in almost every area of substantive law and students are able to work closely with experienced counsel on a range of legal matters. You will be exposed to a challenging and rewarding legal career while being involved in important and meaningful work that serves the interest of the public.

There are many more benefits to choosing MAG and the Ontario Public Service (OPS) for your articling or summer law student experience, including:

• Files assigned to you, with the support of experienced counsel
• Involvement in high-profiles cases and work that shapes law and policy
• Extensive and immediate court time, where applicable
• Competitive salary package
• Access to mentoring and professional support
• Significant competitive advantage over applicants outside the government when applying for entry-level counsel positions
• Being part of an inclusive and respectful organization that was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, one of the Greater Toronto Area’s Top 75 Employers, and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2009

No. To be eligible for the Ministry of the Attorney General Summer Law positions, the student must have completed their first or second year of law school at the time the summer law position commences.

If you are studying law abroad and are able to demonstrate that your studies are comparable to the Canadian Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree, you would be eligible to apply to the summer law program.  Also, you must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident of Canada or authorized in writing to work in Canada under the federal Immigration Act to be eligible to apply.

For more information, please visit the Law Society of Upper Canada website or the Career Map for Internationally Trained Lawyers.

If you have completed your law degree outside of Canada, you must be registered with the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) and be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident of Canada or authorized in writing to work in Canada under the federal Immigration Act to be eligible for articling positions at the Ministry of the Attorney General.

For more information about the NCA process, please visit the Federation of Law Societies of Canada website or the Career Map for Internationally Trained Lawyers.

MAG regularly attends career fairs at the Ontario and McGill University Law Schools and participates in the Public Interest Day organized by Osgoode Hall Law School and University of Toronto. In addition, MAG lawyers will often attend speaking events at the various law schools throughout Canada.

No.

MAG offices hire in accordance with the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) recruitment procedures, posted on the LSUC website (www.lsuc.on.ca). Generally, articling student application deadlines are in May for positions outside of Toronto and July for positions in Toronto.

For summer law student positions, application deadlines are generally in October and January.

Occasionally, some of our offices will hire students after the LSUC timelines, so please be sure to review the Job Postings on our website on a regular basis and apply accordingly.  

Articling and summer law student opportunities will be advertised in the Job Postings section of our website. MAG does not have a centralized hiring process for the articling and summer law student positions. Instead, you are required to submit an application directly to each hiring office for the positions that you are interested in applying for.

If you have general program questions, please contact Christina Mottola at (416) 326-4549 or MAG.HR.LawStudents@ontario.ca.

If you have office-specific questions, please contact either the individuals listed within each Office Profile or in the Job Postings. If you wish to speak to a current articling or summer law student, please contact the individual offices and ask to speak to a student.

While grades are important and considered by offices, they are only one of a number of factors used to evaluate applicants. Our offices look for well-rounded individuals, who have a demonstrated interest in public law, qualifications that reflect an interest in the particular area of law practiced by the office/branch, strong oral and written communications skills, extracurricular work and activities, and strong interpersonal skills.

MAG does not pay for the bar admission tuition, nor will a salary be paid to articling students during bar exams. However, as an articling student, you would receive a non-taxable $4,500 educational stipend as part of your compensation package.

MAG does not have a formal rotation program for articling students. However, if you are interested in working in more than one MAG office during your articles or doing a joint article with another organization, please contact either the Strategic Legal Recruitment Consultant at MAG.HR.LawStudents@ontario.ca or the office(s) that you are interested in to discuss the possibility of doing so.