Capone wrote:

JP, you just reiterated what I said already: some lawyers take advantage of articling students.



I swear I'm not picking on you, and I personally worked for probably not much more than minimum wage when I articled (boy is that a recipe for laziness and half-assedness and the old I'm out of here at 5).

But if a lawyer can't afford (money AND time) to hire an articling student, and the student offers to "volunteer" or the Law Society asks or suggests that lawyers hire "volunteers" or at least pay a nominal wage so that students could meet the requirements to pass the Bar and actually become lawyers, are they taking advantage of the poor student? Or providing a service without which these students couldn't become lawyers. I just thought of it as kind of a hands-on 4th year of law school.

  "Written But Not Read"