Over the past few months we’ve had two incredible law summer students working here at LESA! Allison Boutillier and Kristine Gu joined us back at the beginning of May, and we wanted to share what they learned while working at LESA and why they enjoyed spending the summer here.
What did you do here at LESA this summer and what did you most enjoy about your job?
Kristine and Allison both emphasized the researching, writing, and editing experience they gained – especially while working on the new wills & estates practice manuals that LESA is preparing. They also helped work on some of LESA’s online courses and the new LESA Library, in addition to writing several blogs. Want to see some of their work? Read their practice profile blogs with Marla Miller QC and Donna Tingley.
The rest of the LESA staff also had the opportunity to benefit from their knowledge during two LESA coffee talks: Allison spoke about intestacy and Kristine discussed copyright issues. Both of these presentations were interesting, informative, and greatly appreciated by the LESA staff!
I really enjoyed making that PowerPoint presentation [for the LESA coffee talk on intestacy]. I expanded into features of PowerPoint that I have never used before, [and it] is surprisingly fun to make everything on the screen move. Using the polling technology [the audience response units we use at LESA seminars] was really interesting to me. … [My presentation] was really based around user interaction and having the constant audience feedback – that was the driving force. … The talk was a bit of an opportunity to explore, especially in an area where we’ve worked … all summer, and then I could take it and do what I wanted to do with it.” Allison
The blog was one of the most interesting parts, especially the practice profile series … because it was interactive and it was interesting for us too – we got to talk to the lawyers in the community. …I also really enjoyed the [LESA Library]. It was something different – it wasn’t something you would really do in a law office. It was interesting browsing all the content, because it gave me a little bit of insight about what the website will look like. It was interesting watching the transition between [hardcopy] manuals and wiki, especially trying to match up the chapters. I think it’s good to be part of … LESA growing in the online world – to be able to be a part of that change. … I like how LESA’s moving that way, with the blog and Twitter and Facebook. It’s very rare to see organizations actually integrate so many platforms in the right way. I think a lot of organizations kind of separate their social media and aren’t able to align it, so for your blog you have Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all together – so that’s good. I enjoy technology stuff.” Kristine
What is one thing you learned about LESA that you think other people
should know?
The CPLED Program (pre-call training for Alberta lawyers) comprises a large part of what LESA does. Neither Kristine nor Allison worked on any CPLED materials while doing their editing, researching, and writing this summer, but CPLED will be a part of their not-so-distant future, so it’s not surprising that they were interested in how the program works and in the faces behind it – those people who keep the CPLED Program running smoothly.
For both of them, one of the biggest things they learned was how much support LESA offers to CPLED students.
LESA’s not out to get people. … Everyone is so supportive. They take each student very seriously, and it’s not as if a student is just a number … If there’s an issue, they’ll try to work with you.” Kristine
I don’t know if you guys appreciate how much it’s sort of like looking behind the curtain. … [Those] students who are trying to get through CPLED don’t get to see that you call Ashley, who is so kind and will actually care. That’s what people should know – the person who does a great deal of the work on CPLED is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet, and I think that would help students to know that they can call Ashley.” Allison
Kristine was also impressed by the work that LESA is doing to reach out to students who are still in law school. “Another thing I learned about LESA … [is that they’re] really trying to interact with students … [by] increasing their presence with more student-oriented blogs and things like that.”
Thinking down the road to your future as a lawyer, how do you think that working at LESA helped build the skills that you will need to do that job well?
I think at LESA we were lucky because we were able to do some legal research related things – things that a law student would have done at a law firm. But like I said at the beginning of the summer – and I think it showed itself through the people – we were able to develop those skills in a very friendly and welcoming environment. Karen was very supportive. … We did some things that we weren’t sure if we were qualified to do, and I think that was a really big learning experience filling that gap by myself. But then Karen was very supportive. She never made us feel bad about what we weren’t doing properly. She walked us through it. In terms of skills, I think it gave me the confidence to take some risks. In terms of researching things I wasn’t familiar with – I’ve never taken a wills and estates class before – I walked in I was like, “Oh man, I’m not sure if I’m able to do this.” But I came to realize that you can start from nothing and work from there. School isn’t the only place you can learn. So being resourceful [is important]: being able to walk away with something and work on in it for a bit – even if you’re not right, just putting the effort in and learning about it – and then being able to confidently ask for feedback.” Kristine
We did a lot of work on the practice manuals, … and it was an opportunity to go through some of the materials that are more practical. What we do in class is comparatively theoretical, and here we’re going through a manual that’s targeted at lawyers for development purposes that focuses on which form to fill out and things that aren’t going to get covered in a theoretical course. So personally, and very selfishly, I’ve had the opportunity to just learn things, because going through and editing the manuals means reading them. Or … looking through some of the manuals to see what would work well as an online course meant I literally sat down and read some of the binders. … So I just got to sit there and read it and learn things that are very practical. I think that exposure helps a lot. I have a little toe in the door of all the things that we’re going to see right away outside of law school but that we’re not getting as much exposure to in law school.” Allison
We’re so glad that Kristine and Allison learned a lot from working here at LESA, and we’re grateful for all the help they gave us this summer. We hope they’ll be able to share more of their insights with all us during this upcoming year as guest bloggers, so stay tuned to hear more from them throughout the year. If you want, you can even follow the blog by entering your email at the top, right hand side of this page – that way you’ll be sure to see their blogs when they are posted.
