Cavalluzzo is committed to providing clients with results-based practical legal services, and the articling year provides students with a substantial grounding in this objective. Immediately upon starting articles, students are involved in client meetings and all aspects of case preparation including:
- direct client contact;
- preparation of witnesses for hearings;
- attendance at hearings;
- drafting correspondence, pleadings, and legal submissions;
- performing research, frequently on novel points of law; and
- contact with opposing counsel.
Students have opportunities to work in many practice areas. As a firm, our matters primarily arise in a labour or employment context, which can involve a wide range of substantive law. Students will experience and learn about labour arbitrations, civil proceedings, human rights and other administrative proceedings, collective bargaining, Charter and constitutional litigation, professional regulation and discipline practice and much more.
At Cavalluzzo, students do not merely shadow a lawyer, but take on their own responsibilities for file work. We believe that attending hearings with lawyers provides an important learning experience and an opportunity to feel the satisfaction of obtaining positive results for a client. Occasionally, opportunities arise for students to conduct parts of, or entire, hearings.