UCalgary Law program boosts students’ real-world counsel experience

There is more to practising law than working for a legal firm and serving several clients.  

The Corporate Counsel Externship program at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law is designed to give upper-year juris doctor (JD) students hands-on experience in the corporate legal sector. As opposed to private practice, in-house counsel involves working within a company to provide legal advice and handling their legal affairs.  

Law alum Kay Johnson, BA’11, MPP’13, JD’16, sees the value in giving students the chance to shadow in-house counsel at a company. 

“While law school provides important foundational legal knowledge, this externship shows students how to apply that knowledge in the real world to advance the goals of the business,” says Johnson, who is interim general counsel with Flair Airlines and course instructor for the program, which is now in its second cohort.  

Co-instructor Byron Tse says an externship experience will give students the chance to shadow professionals and see the different routes they can take in their career. 

“They’ll have a chance to work with these great lawyers in these great companies and get an exposure into how … these companies just simply work, but also how they, as a lawyer, can take their legal education to the next step,” says Tse, general counsel with Passion Dental Group. 

Students work side-by-side with experienced lawyers 

Students are placed at a participating company and complete ten hours a week over 11 weeks in a semester, handling responsibilities given to them by their supervisor, a lawyer on the company’s legal team, who then provides feedback to the course instructors.  

UCalgary JD student Sabiha Meghji, part of the first cohort last fall, gained new insight to the legal world. 

“Prior to the externship, my knowledge about the legal field centred around the work of lawyers in private practice,” says Meghji. “I’m grateful that the externship gave me insight into the day-to-day work of in-house counsel.” 

Tse says this experience allows students to step away from textbooks and classrooms and learn from leaders in the field. 

“There aren’t necessarily the pressures typically accustomed with, I think, a lot of the experiences of law school,” he says.    

Demand for business-specific counsel  

Johnson is pleased to see a strong demand from companies to participate in this externship.  

“It’s very energizing to have a law student come into your department, and students are expected to help their supervisors complete junior legal tasks,” she says. 

The externship offers a pathway for students to gain applicable skills in the workplace, in addition to the classroom.  

“You realize that so much of what you do in your practise of law is a confluence of business acumen, people skills, project-management skills and acting in a way that your clients are going to come to you for advice, and trust that advice,” says Johnson.  

“It’s really interdisciplinary, and, depending on the needs of the company, it can really grow and showcase a set of skills broader than what you might see in just the pure practise of law.” 

Program attracts diverse range of industries 

With approximately nine companies participating per semester, Johnson is excited for students to get the opportunity to work in some of the leading industries in Calgary; from oil and gas to health care and aviation. 

“One of the things that really strikes me about these companies who are participating in the externship is how diverse the industries are,” she says. 

Adds Meghji: “It exposed me to the diverse career paths of the lawyers I worked with.”  

When reflecting on his own law school experience at Western University, Tse says students can sometimes start their journey with preconceived ideas of what their career will look like, but externships like these can help paint a clearer picture. 

“As we all go through each of our own careers, things change,” says Tse. “It’s a really unique opportunity and one I think that’s really student-focused and presents a great chance for them to try something new.”   

Johnson says this is a program, “I wish I had access to when I was still in school. 

“If you take the initiative and care about what you want to do, that’s going to give you the most rewarding legal career experience and legal education experience.” 

The next cohort students can apply for will be during the fall 2025 semester, with around nine available spots. 

Upper-year JD students will be notified by the instructors when applications open and will need to submit a letter of intent, academic transcripts and a résumé. More information can be found on the UCalgary Law website.