Law School builds on Ryerson’s strong legal foundation
Loreen Lobo says Ryerson’s Law Practice Program prepared her to work in fast-paced environment with tight deadlines and high client expectations.
When the first Ryerson law school students arrive in the fall 2020, they'll begin a leading-edge, future-focused legal education – one that includes technology, equity, diversity and inclusion, and access to justice and social innovation.
Ryerson is well-positioned for teaching law as an evolution of the university’s legal ecosystem which features the Law Practice Program (LPP) and the Legal Innovation Zone (LIZ). Today we’re profiling two success stories to come out of these programs to showcase the strong foundations upon which the new law school is built.
Law Practice Program
Before Ryerson’s law school existed, Loreen Lobo chose to attend law school in the United States. After completing the Bar Exam in the U.S., Lobo wanted to be licensed to practice law in both countries.
“I found it challenging to find good articling positions for people who didn’t go to law school in Canada,” Lobo says.
In 2015, she received a recommendation to explore Ryerson’s Law Practice Program (LPP), an eight-month program combining online training and experiential learning with a hands-on work term, as an alternative to articling. “I liked the intensive learning aspect,” Lobo says. It also helped that the program has a successful placement rate of 100 per cent.
Lobo says she loved the simulated firm experience and appreciates that the intensive training in the LPP exposed her to working with different personalities and groups, something that would later help her with working in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines and high client expectations.
“You learn how to effectively manage relationships and work with different types of clients, which is critical in terms of understanding your client’s needs and tailoring your communication style to meet those needs, something you don’t always learn in articling,” Lobo says.
Lobo has been able to translate her hands-on experience from the LPP into an associate attorney role at EY Law LLP. Her clients range from small startups to multinational corporations. She works closely with HR business partners and executives on a daily basis to manage their business immigration program and needs.
In fact, Lobo credits the networking and relationship-building opportunities within the LPP for her current position at EY Law.
“There is a stigma that you don’t get work if you don’t article, because it’s not traditional, but everyone I know who participated in the LPP is working.”
Lobo’s experience is a sign of the times – law school is no longer traditional, and Ryerson Law sets the bar for the future.
Lucrezia Spagnolo founded Vesta Social Innovation Technologies to help survivors of sexual assault navigate the justice system.
Legal Innovation Zone
Not all journeys to law are the same. For example, Lucrezia Spagnolo studied political science and worked in financial services. After working in Rome for several years, she returned to Canada and spent her days immersing herself in technology with a plan to transition into the FinTech industry.
Then, in 2016, Spagnolo couldn’t ignore a trend she was seeing in the news: the sexual violence cases of Jian Ghomeshi and Brock Turner were making headlines.
“I thought to myself, why isn’t anyone using technology to eradicate rape culture?” Spagnolo says. Spagnolo took her interest in technology and tackled that question herself by founding Vesta Social Innovation Technologies (external link) (Vesta), a safe space for those who have experienced gender-based violence, and a resource for them to navigate the justice system.
“I was at a networking event promoting Vesta and someone said to me, ‘you have to be at Ryerson’,” Spagnolo says. She was quickly introduced to Ryerson’s Legal Innovation Zone (external link) , an incubator of ventures that aim to improve the justice system and legal services, and has spent the past two years growing her business. “This is one of the only incubators in legal innovation; it is on the pulse of what is happening.”
Spagnolo credits the Legal Innovation Zone for supporting her beyond incubating her business. She was able to sit in on trials and even inside judge’s chambers in order to better understand the legal system and provide Vesta users with the background on access to justice. “I have been given access to other innovators and the criminal justice system. The Legal Innovation Zone gave me access to invaluable information.”
If you are interested in learning more about Ryerson Law, attend the LSAC Toronto Forum (external link) on September 16th as well as the Fall Open House on October 5th at 9:30 a.m.