I applied online. I interviewed at Legal Aid Ontario (Toronto, ON) in Aug 2018
Interview
Apply through their website, upload cover letter, resume etc. Their online system freezes easily.
Very swift invitation for interview.
Friendly people at the front desk who will encourage you to talk to others waiting.
Multicultural.
LGBT positive and knowledgeable.
Lots of women.
Some dress like for a big firm, others dress cool. Everyone very neat looking.
They made sure to tell you had the full hour even though they started late.
Interesting questions: make sure you reflect on prior work situations and how you do research and why you do it that way (not necessarily right/wrong answer).
Easy questions for people who have truly done work, activism or internships with social justice as your drive.
Think about what kind of people you will be working with and how those folks need to be supported and how they learn/are able to understand most easily what will be happening in the legal process.
Interview: two people who write down your answers! Very friendly, easy going.
I thought they would phone at exactly 5pm. They don’t :) you have 24 hours to accept through email or telephone call.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
See above.
Also: what kinds of social justice work/activism have you done.
Talk about some situation that may have pushed you to become active in social justice work.
These are easy questions if your true aim is social justice and if you actually really want to support low-income people.
Another question tries to have you explain how you treat clients. Give an example of when it was difficult to support a client. And how you tried to make it work.
If your motivation in life is social justice you will already have supported BLM and Idle No More: write down what your aims and activities were and what you know of the struggles.
Show how you have supported marginalized persons.
Know about history and politics and what Legal Aid is doing to change the legal landscape.
How many types of Canadian communities are you connected to? That was what they are looking for too. Also what languages do you speak.
Bi-lingual has preference.
Check to see what are the communities they serve other than English and French and learn a third language. Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic or an indigenous language of Ontario. You are doing this for your clients and to be the best possible Legal Aid lawyer that you could be. Learning languages is easier for privileged people so don’t worry if you are from a minority group because you will have cultural knowledge that is as important. If you have time take a language class in university and go to the Toronto Library for amazing language study tapes, books, cds. There are conversation groups too.
Virtual interview with three interviewers. Each interviewer asked a question, with an opportunity for the interviewee to ask questions after. The interview was approximately 1 hour long. Overall, the atmosphere was positive and felt as though they genuinely cared.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell us about your experience working with a difficult client or file and how you handled it.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Legal Aid Ontario (Toronto, ON) in Jul 2015
Interview
The interview had two people asking questions. It was very formal with a process that awarded points for your answers. They asked numerous questions about my experience with marginalized people as well as how I would handle situations such as a client that was charged with sexual assault of a child
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What kind of experience do you have working with marginalized groups?