Practice areas

The Waterloo Region office is focused on two broad practice areas, each of which is comprised of a number of specialty groups:

• Advocacy
• Business Law

The articling program at Gowling WLG appeals to students looking for challenging and diverse assignments. Such students typically demonstrate superior academic achievement, initiative, leadership and self-reliance.

Gowling WLG Waterloo Region prides itself on its congenial, professional atmosphere, made possible by the relatively small group of remarkable professionals that make up our staff. Able to offer the quality of work associated with a national law firm, the Gowling WLG Waterloo Region office provides a unique opportunity to develop national experience, while working in a smaller office and in an affordable community.

We design our rotation programs to encourage student exposure to the practice areas of the Firm, provide contact with a wide cross-section of lawyers and agents, and offer the flexibility necessary to meet individual interests.

Our articling program consists of two main rotations:

1. Advocacy
2. Business law

Generally speaking, students spend approximately half of their articling year with each group. They gain exposure to all the Firm's practice areas and work with all of its lawyers.

1. Advocacy

The Waterloo Region Advocacy Group is engaged in all types of litigation and administrative law. Practice areas include commercial litigation, employment law, municipal law and insolvency.

Articling students are directly involved with clients, attending client interviews, hearings and trials, examinations for discovery, and in preparing court documents and legal research.

2. Business Law

The Business Law Group offers a broad range of experience in all aspects of corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, real estate, secured lending, tax and estate planning, public and private financing and securities.

Articling students participate in the drafting of documentation and assist in due diligence, overseeing file management from initial contact to closing and researching points of law on large and complex transactions.

A particularly vibrant and growing group within the Waterloo Region Business Law Group is the Technology Group—comprised of lawyers with a focus on corporate transactions and other commercial matters involving entrepreneurial and high-growth enterprises. Gowling WLG is the Region's pre-eminent firm in this area, with a number of its lawyers recognized in the industry for their in-depth experience in dealing with the issues faced by these types of companies and their founders and investors.

The Business Law Group is typically involved in the largest and most complex transactions in the region. Articling students participate in the drafting of documentation and assist in due diligence, overseeing file management from initial contact to closing and researching points of law.

With a broad clientele of national and global organizations, Gowling WLG Waterloo Region provides students with exposure to a wide variety of industries including Energy, Financial Services, Government Relations, Infrastructure, Mining, Manufacturing, Technology and Life Sciences.

Application process

We do not participate in a separate articling recruitment process.  At this time, we do not anticipate having any positions available in addition to those we offer to our Summer Students.  Should you wish to submit an applications, we will be glad to accept it and keep it on file in the event that positions arise in the future. We wish all articling candidates success in their search for an articling position.

Student workload

While we do not set a target number of hours for our students, they are generally expected to carry a workload similar to that of our associates. The annual budget for Gowling WLG Waterloo Region associates is 1750 docketed hours. Our students participate in weekly work allocation meetings to ensure equality of work distribution and exposure to a variety of skill sets and professionals within the Firm.

The Waterloo Region office typically hires three second-year law students each summer.

Gowling WLG Waterloo Region is an equal opportunity employer. That said, our firm is dedicated to providing equitable opportunities for employment and advancement, and to creating a more inclusive workplace for all our people, as we believe that diverse professional and administrative teams make better decisions. Applicants who are Indigenous, racialized BIPOC, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and persons with a disability are encouraged to self-identify.