This summer, 24 inner-city kids got a taste of the high life as they worked at some of the most prestigious law firms in Toronto. It’s part of an innovative year-long program that aspires to motivate and educate inner-city kids by giving them a chance to explore a career in law.
24 inner-city Grade 10s intern at top law firms
Barriers broken as students explore legal field
Sep. 7, 2006. 01:00 AM
Toronto Star
THULASI SRIKANTHAN
They come from the toughest neighbourhoods in the city, determined to follow their dreams.
“I could have never gotten this chance anywhere else,” said Stephanie Silva, a student at Harbord Collegiate Institute.
The initiative, known as LAWS (Law in Action Within Schools), is run by the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.
The program, which started last September, is being currently tested at two high schools: Central Technical School and Harbord Collegiate Institute.
It’s open to primarily Grade 10 students, who are placed at 19 workplaces across the city.
Most of these kids typically don’t go beyond high school because they lack finances, motivation and positive role models, said lawyer David Chong.
Typically, he said, they don’t realize how many opportunities exist beyond the educational realm, said Chong, who is also a graduate of Central Tech and has been a lawyer for nearly 25 years.
As a supervisor of a student from the area, he felt it was necessary to provide positive reinforcement to someone who was determined to succeed.
“I saw this as a means of helping someone who was determined to complete his education,” he said.
The program is part administrative work and part job-shadowing, program organizers say. Students work at a variety of firms, including McCarthy Tétrault, Blake, Cassels & Graydon and Fraser Milner Casgrain.
Students improve their client interviewing, oral advocacy and negotiation skills, organizers say.
They also learn legal principles and how courts and tribunals operate.
“It allows them to see what a lawyer does and how a lawyer’s office operates,” Chong said. “Even if they don’t decide to be lawyers, they can see there are further opportunities they can pursue.”
To get into the program, students go through a typical job application process, submitting resumes and cover letters and being formally interviewed.
Many of these opportunities also extend through the school year, organizers say.
Students participate in legal workshops administered by law professors and alumni, tutorial programs and field trips to workplaces and visit post-secondary campuses and career fairs to meet other professionals in the field.
Harbord student Silva sees her placement at the Parkdale Community Legal Services as a jumping off point to her career in law.
“I am doing intakes, submissions, a whole bunch of things I never thought I could.”
That is part of the biggest benefit of the program for struggling students, she said.
“You see you can do this if you smarten up — you realize if you work, you can do this.”
The department, she said, has really opened her eyes to the challenges people from low-income households face and she wants to dedicate her life to helping those who come from low-income families who struggle with the legal system.
“Now I am here, I see everything, I want to help them fight for it.”
For Central Tech student Laxman Gnanendren, the program has brought him out of his shell.
“I am kind of a shy person,” he said.
“Now I am able to talk to other people and socialize more.”