The UWO Labour Law Society hosted a career panel on March 31.
Speakers included:
Mr. Liberman talked about his background and love for the construction industry, where his practice is still primarily focused. His firm is the oldest boutique labour law firm in Canada, and covers a wide range of practice areas within this field. Their clients range from small businesses to multi-national corporations. He claimed that if you have an interest in advocacy, this is the area you should be in. It’s a people practice, but also an issues practice, often the issues on the front-page of newspapers.
Ms. Vicencio graduated from law three years ago after practicing as an academic in the social sciences. She had been involved in unions since her graduate work, so labour relations was something she had been doing for some time through participation. Labour law is a great area to get a broad exposure to many areas of law because of the type of work they do. She does not actually practice as a lawyer as part of the Ontario Nurses Association, and has a somewhat unique role. She eals with discrimination issues, which is an area that is often changing in law.
Robyn White is a new graduate, and spoke about the type of work young lawers do. Working in a larger firm allowed her to have exposure to many areas of labour law. Some of the work she deals with is criminal law in the labour context. A lot of the work is very fast paced, and files can close within three days.
Cathy Phan explained her work as typically when an employee of the government has an issue and files a complaint to their manager. When it doesn’t get resolved it proceeds to her office, where she defends the government. She does settle cases, and she has to, due to the high volume and a need to be reasonable.