We see your potential.

We get it. Choosing a firm to complete your articling at is a big decision. You need a place where you can learn at your maximum potential, grow as a lawyer and also feel like you are part of a team. With a rich history of supporting many articling students along their path to becoming lawyers, Ogilvie can help you forge your own.

Why Ogilvie?

Ogilvie is a full-service firm with a reputation built on ingenuity, leadership and client relationships. The members of our team represent a broad range of educational and professional backgrounds, giving us the ability to have specialized and knowledgeable teams in each of the areas we practice. Additionally, our commitment to investing in the community where we work is vital. Our partners and associates are active in a wide range of national, regional and local professional organizations and charity-related bodies.

Ogilvie is considered a mid-sized firm, and this size allows us to focus on our clients’ unique needs and circumstances. It also gives us the ability to really know our customer base; we are Albertans working for the people of Western Canada, and we have an intimate understanding of their needs and circumstances. By working with our diverse team, you will also have a chance to learn from many different perspectives and points of view alongside highly skilled professionals.

What Is It Like to Article at Ogilvie?

At Ogilvie, we can appreciate the challenges and stress that students face when choosing a firm to article. Perhaps the best way to get a better idea of what our firm has to offer is to talk to someone with first-hand experience of our articling program.

Please feel free to contact any of our current articling students. They would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about articling at Ogilvie Law.

Current Articling Students

Kiana F.K. Smith

Phone: 780-429-6221

Email: ksmith@ogilvielaw.com

Jack McCaskill

Phone: 780-429-6299

Email: jmccaskill@ogilvielaw.com

Articling Recruitment

The 2025/2026 Articling Student recruitment period will begin in May, 2024. Please note that all Articling positions are filled for the 2024/2025 period.

Frequently Asked Questions

We thank you for your interest in Ogilvie and look forward to speaking with you about future articling opportunities at our firm.

The Ogilvie articling program involves three rotations of approximately four months each in the following areas: Real Estate, Corporate Commercial and Wills and Estates, Litigation and Insolvency.

The balance of the articling year is consumed with an orientation week, CPLED courses and holidays. In addition to your principal, who will supervise one rotation, you will be assigned a sub-principal in each of the other rotations to supervise and work with you.

Business Law Rotation

In the Business Law rotation, you will assist in the preparation of documentation, perform various searches and familiarize yourself with checklists, closing agendas, governmental requirements, etc. You will also assist in the documentation of the purchase or sale of a business, preparation or review of commercial leases and the incorporation and organization of an Alberta Business Corporation.

Litigation and Administrative Law Rotation

In the Litigation and Administrative Law rotation, you’ll have an opportunity to do legal research, prepare pleadings, speak to trial and appeal lists, attend client interviews, examinations for discovery, hearings, and trials. You will also make appearances in provincial court and chambers. You may have the opportunity to attend and assist your supervisor at a trial or hearing. As the litigation process is lengthy, you will, if you remain with the firm and have an interest in litigation, have the opportunity to work on a file to its conclusion.

Real Estate Rotation

The Real Estate rotation allows you to have the conduct of files and meet clients more often than in the other two rotations. You will be responsible for the preparation of documents pertaining to the purchase and sale of the residential real estate as well as attending on clients to execute documents. You will also prepare wills and related documents and assist in the administration of an estate.

Ogilvie offers:

  • An annually reviewed salary that’s competitive with others in downtown Edmonton
  • A comprehensive benefit plan
  • Coverage of all costs associated with CPLED courses and Law Society memberships
  • Paid membership and section fees for the Canadian Bar Association

The short answer is a future partner. We have always hired students with the anticipation that they would be retained as associates and eventually become partners in the firm.

Generally, after six years of successful practice, associates are considered for partnership. A partner is expected to have developed a sufficient book of work to support a practice. We have associates who choose not to assume the risks and responsibilities of partnership and continue as senior associates. At Ogilvie, we pride ourselves on our flexibility to accommodate variations in the way a partner or an associate wishes to practice.

As an articling student, you are not required to bill a minimum number of hours. You will be required to record your time, both billable and non-billable. Once you become an associate, time recording is a mandatory process. Associates have a target of 1,500 billed hours and 1,300 receipted. Associates who exceed that target or develop business will be considered for a performance bonus. To be a successful lawyer in private practice, it is necessary as a student, an associate and a partner to put a substantial number of hours into all aspects of the practice.

An articling student may take vacation during the articling year or upon its conclusion. Most often, students take a week during the year and a vacation after being admitted to the Bar. Associates and partners take vacations at their discretion. Lawyers are encouraged to lead a balanced life, but we recognize that different individuals have different work habits and different holiday preferences.

Ogilvie offices occupy the 28th floor of the Stantec Tower, located in the centre of the city’s ICE District. Each student will have a fully furnished and equipped office with internet access and access to our electronic library, including Westlaw. You will have the support of the legal assistant of your principal or sub-principal during your rotation.

Ogilvie has an Associate Lawyer Maternity Leave and Parental Leave Policy that sets forth the firm’s commitment to financial benefits and the terms on which those benefits will be paid to eligible associate lawyers during maternity leave. The Policy supports the firm’s commitment to support its associate lawyers both in their decisions to become parents and in their work as lawyers.

We have a first-year summer student work program.

If you’re a first-year law student interested in gaining some work experience and exposure to a law firm during the summer, please apply within the recruitment period. The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills, well-developed interpersonal skills, a strong work ethic, and a willingness to learn with a positive and professional attitude.

Interested students may apply by sending their resume along with reference letters and transcripts (if available) to our articling committee at articling@ogilvielaw.com