Legal Excellence Program Evaluation, Final Report
APPENDIX C: Legal Excellence Program Survey Past and Present Articling Students
Si vous préférez répondre à ce questionnaire dans l’autre langue officielle, veuillez passer à la version française maintenant, car vous ne pourrez pas le faire une fois que vous aurez commencé à répondre aux questions.
This survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey in one session as the data will be lost if you leave the survey before submitting your answers. If you click on your browser's “back” button while completing the survey, you will need to respond again to the questions that follow the one you returned to.
All data collected in this evaluation will be kept confidential by the Evaluation Division and findings will only be presented in aggregate form for the express purpose of the evaluation.
Your participation in this survey will offer valuable information about how the Department of Justice Canada can continue to attract the articling student population.
Should you have any questions concerning this survey, please contact Yuping Manga, Evaluation Manager at 613-952-8476. If you encounter any technical problems with the survey, please contact Jo-Anne Chrétien at 613-957-9610.
Section 1
- 1. When did you begin to plan the direction that your career in law would
take?
- High school
- Undergraduate studies
- First year of law school
- Second year of law school
- Third year of law school
- Other, please specify:
- 2. Which of the following sources have you consulted
in planning for your career upon completion of law school? (Check all
that apply.)
- Family/Relatives/Friends
- Career development office at the university
- Internet searches
- Law professors
- Practising lawyers I know
- Information from potential employers
- Career fairs, law days, open houses
- Other,
please specify:
- 3. At what point did you first hear from potential employers
about career opportunities in their organizations?
- During first year of law school
- During second year of law school
- During third year of law school
- Other, please specify:
- 4. What form did the contact from potential
employers take? (Check all that apply.)
- Brochures and other written materials
- Invitations to visit the firm
- Invitations to career fairs
- Law school orientation activities
- Social events
- Other, please
specify:
- 5. How did you first become aware of the Legal Excellence Program
at the Department of Justice Canada?
- Family/Relatives/Friends
- Through the career development office at the university
- From another student
- From a law professor
- From a flyer or poster
- By searching the Internet
- From a practising lawyer
- By attending a career fair or an open house
- Other, please specify:
- 6. From which source did you learn the most
about the Legal Excellence Program at the Department of Justice Canada?
- University Career Advisor
- Department of Justice Canada Web site
- A brochure entitled “Do Your Career Justice”
- Handouts from open house, career fair, or law days
- Other, please specify:
Section 2
The next few questions concern the Web site of the Department of Justice Canada where information about articling opportunities at the Department is available.
- 7. Did you ever visit the Web site of the Legal
Excellence Program at the Department of Justice Canada to search for articling
opportunities?
- Yes (Go to Q8)
- No (Go to Q13)
- 8. Please indicate how easy it was to navigate the Web
site of the Legal Excellence Program.
- Very easy
- Fairly easy
- Not
at all easy
- 9. Please indicate how clear the description of the Legal
Excellence Program is on the Web site.
- Very clear
- Fairly clear
- Not
at all clear
- 10. Please indicate how complete the description of the
Legal Excellence Program is on the Web site.
- Complete
- Fairly complete
- Not
complete
- 11. While looking for a place to article, would you have liked
to have had a free online exchange of information, for example through
Facebook or MySpace, with Department of Justice Canada lawyers who recently
articled or students who are currently articling at the Department?
- Yes
- No, please specify:
- Don’t
know
- 12. Do you have any suggestions for improving the description of the Legal Excellence Program on the Web site of the Department of Justice Canada?
Section 3
The next few questions concern the Legal Excellence Program brochure entitled “Do Your Career Justice”.
- 13. Have you seen the brochure entitled “Do Your Career Justice”?
- Yes (Go to Q14)
- No (Go to Q18)
- 14. Where did you obtain a copy of the brochure “Do
Your Career Justice”?
- I attended a career day
- I attended an open house at the Department of Justice Canada
- Career office at the university
- Family/Relatives/Friends
- Other,
please specify:
- 15. Please indicate how clear the description of the
Legal Excellence Program is in the brochure “Do Your Career Justice”.
- Very clear
- Fairly clear
- Not at all clear
- 16. Please indicate how complete the description of
the Legal Excellence Program is in the brochure “Do Your Career
Justice”.
- Complete
- Fairly complete
- Incomplete
- 17. Do you have any suggestions for improving the brochure “Do Your Career Justice”?
Section 4
The next few questions concern any career fair, career day, law day, or open house you attended during law school.
- 18. During your first
or second year of law school, were you informed of any career fair, career
day, law day, or open house at which the Legal Excellence Program of the
Department of Justice Canada was present?
- Yes (Go to Q19)
- No (Go to Q21)
- 19. How did you learn about the career fair, career
day, law day, or open house at which the Legal Excellence Program was
present? (Check all that apply.)
- Career development office at the university I attend
- I received a flyer or poster by e-mail
- I heard about it from another law student
- I heard about it from a law professor
- I found it on the Internet
- Other, please specify:
- 20. Did you attend a career fair, career day,
law day, or open house at which the Legal Excellence Program was present?
- Yes (Go to Q20a)
- No
(Go to Q21)
- 20a. Which event did you attend? (Check all that apply.)
- Open House at the Department of Justice Canada
- Career fair or career day
- Law day
- Other, please specify:
- 20b. Please rate the presence of the Legal Excellence
Program at the career fair, career day, law day, or open house you attended
on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being not at all useful and 7 being very useful).
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Section 5
We are interested in your perception of the Department of Justice Canada as a place to article or work and in knowing what factors were important to you when making your decision.
- 21. When you chose to article at the Department of Justice Canada, how
important were the following factors to you? Please rate each of the following
factors on a scale of 1 to7 (1 being not at all important and 7 being very
important).
- a. A public service career
- b. Varied and interesting work opportunities
- c. Specific expertise/relevant field of study
- d. Prestige
- e. Salary
- f. Benefits
- g. Location
- h. Work-life balance
- i. Career advancement
- j. Positive work environment
- k. Bilingual work environment
- l. Opportunity for official language training
- m. Diverse workforce n. Employment Equity practices
- o. Mentoring program p. Formal training (seminars, conferences, etc.)
- q. Knowledge of the Department
- r. Opportunity for employment at the Department after
articling
- 1 being not at all important and 7 being very important
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
Section 6
The Legal Excellence Program offers articling students a variety of experiences, with the majority of students having two or more rotations during the articling term. We are interested in your opinion of the articling experience at the Department of Justice Canada.
- 22. Were you able to choose,
for your articling term, areas of law that were of interest to you?
- Yes
- No.
Why not?
- 23. During your articling term, overall, were you offered, or
are you being offered, work that is of interest to you?
- Yes (Go to Q24)
- No
(Go to Q23a)
- 23a. Please explain what kind of work you would have liked to have done.
- 24. Do you think that the rotation through different areas of
law during your articling term helped you, or is helping you, identify your
long-term career interests?
- Yes
- No, why not?
- 25. Please rate, on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being to a low
extent and 7 being to a great extent), the extent to which your rotations
met, or are meeting, your learning expectations.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 26. Has the articling experience at the Department of Justice Canada
met, or is it meeting, your expectations overall? Please indicate, on
a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being not at all and 7 being fully) the extent to
which each of the following aspects of your experience met, or is meeting,
your expectations.
- a. Varied and interesting work opportunities
- b. Accessibility of your immediate supervisors
- c. Access to mentoring
- d. Formal training (seminars, conferences, etc.)
- e. Knowledge of the Department of Justice Canada
- f. Positive work environment
- g. Bilingual work environment
- h. Diverse workforce
- i. Work-life balance
- j. Salary
- k. Benefits
- 1 being not at all important and 7 being fully
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 27. Would you recommend the Department of Justice Canada
to others as a place to article?
- Yes (Go to Q27a)
- No (Go to Q27b)
- 27a. Please explain why you would recommend the Department
of Justice Canada to others as a place to article. (Go to Q28)
- 27b. Please
explain why you would not recommend the Department of Justice Canada to others
as a place to article.
- 28. Do you have any suggestions for making articling or working at the Department of Justice Canada more appealing to law students and for enhancing the articling experience for those who choose the Department?
Section 7 - Demographics
This survey is completely confidential and we are not asking you to sign it; however, we would like to know a little about you. Please answer the following questions. The answers to these questions will help us in our analysis of the evaluation data.
- 29. Which law school did you attend?
- Dalhousie University
- McGill University
- Queen’s University
- University of Alberta
- University of British Columbia
- University of Calgary
- Université Laval
- University of Manitoba
- Université de Moncton
- Université de Montréal
- University of New Brunswick
- Université d’Ottawa (droit civil)
- University of Ottawa (common law)
- Université du Québec à Montréal
- University of Saskatchewan
- Université de Sherbrooke
- University of Toronto
- University of Victoria
- University of Western Ontario
- University of Windsor
- York University, Osgoode Hall Law School
- Other, please specify:
- 30. What is your current employment status at
the Department of Justice Canada?
- Articling student
- Counsel in a term position
- Counsel in an indeterminate position
- Other, please specify:
- 31. Which region of the country is your usual
place of residence?
- British Columbia
- One of the Prairie provinces
- Ontario (other than the National Capital Region)
- National Capital Region
- Quebec
- One of the Atlantic provinces
- Northern Region
- 32. What is your age category?
- 20 or under
- 21 – 25
- 26 – 30
- 31 – 35
- 36
or over
- 33. What is your gender?
- Male
- Female
- 34. What is your first language (mother tongue)?
- English
- French
- Other,
please specify:
- 35. In which official language do you prefer communicating?
- English
- French
- Bilingual
Thank you for participating in our survey.
Don't hesitate to contact us:
Yuping Manga
Evaluation Manager
Evaluation
Division
613-952-8476
- Date modified: