LAW539
Courts Clerkship
(Judges)
Prerequisite courses: Recommended only: Civil Procedure, Evidence, Criminal Trial Procedure; some or all of these courses could also usefully be taken concurrently with the clerkship.
Prerequisite for:
Instructor(s): Judges of the Provincial Court of Alberta and the Court of Appeal of Alberta
Course credit: 3/term (6 total)
Term: Fall & Winter
METHOD OF EVALUATION
Pass/Fail, based on performance of Clerkship duties.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A maximum of 11 Clerkships will be available: 9 for the Provincial Court and 2 for the Court of Appeal. Clerks will serve as a research assistant for one or more Judges of the Courts and shall have the opportunity to gain experience in litigation from a judicial perspective. Duties will be assigned by the Judge coordinating the program for each court.
Clerks will perform research, prepare memoranda, and meet regularly with their supervising Judge or Judges. The Clerkships are conducted at the Law Courts in Edmonton. No class time is scheduled. Instead, Clerks and supervising Judges work out suitable hours, in accordance with their schedules. Clerks should expect to spend 6 - 8 hours per week at the Law Courts. About half of these hours will be spent observing or “job shadowing” supervising judges; the remainder of these hours will be spent doing legal research for supervising judges at the Law Courts.
NOTE: The hours negotiated for clerkships should be approximately equivalent to the sum of instructional hours plus preparation hours for other 3-credit courses. The clerkship is not to impose a time burden on students beyond those for other 3-credit courses and is not to require work beyond the hours spent at the Law Courts.
SPECIAL COMMENTS
These courses are closed to Web registration. Clerkships are awarded and registration is available only to students selected by the Vice Dean. To apply for a Clerkship, a student must submit the following to the Vice Dean (vicedeanoflaw@ualberta.ca) by 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12, 2021: letter of interest, curriculum vitae, (unofficial) transcript. Students may provide reference letters: while reference letters will be considered, they are not necessary. There is no interview process. The letter of interest should indicate the Court in which an applicant would like to work. Successful applicants, however, may be appointed to a Court other than a preferred Court. Selection is made based on grades, life experience, and litigation-related experience. Preference may be given to students who have completed the equivalent of four terms in the J.D. program. Students will be advised (by email) of the disposition of their applications in June 2021.
Students granted Clerkships must commit to completing two terms with the Courts and must waive their rights to drop the course at the beginning of Fall and Winter Terms. In exceptional circumstances, a student may be relieved of this obligation by the Vice Dean, who must consult with the student’s supervising judge or judges.
Successful applicants must take an oath to maintain the confidentiality of information acquired as Clerks and must submit to a Criminal Records check. Conflicts of interest issues may preclude students from working with both Student Legal Services and Clerking with the Provincial Court (because some SLS project members appear before the Provincial Court).
Any student who wishes to participate in this program should be available to attend the Court of Appeal for a full morning every Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of the school year. Tuesday mornings would be ideal. This is because the Court sits every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but typically sits only one Monday and Friday each month. To get the full benefit of the program the student should be available to meet with a panel member at 9 or 9:30 and then again after the morning is finished at 11:30 or so on the morning he/she attends.
REQUIRED TEXTS (IF ANY):
N/A