Tag: cover letter

Sample Cover Letter: International Law Firm

I am a second-year law student at Osgoode Hall Law School and I am writing to express my interest in a summer position at [●]. My desire to join [●] is driven by the opportunity to join a passionate team at a leading, global law firm. I am immediately drawn to [●]’s dedication to fostering the growth of its employees through mentorship and professional development programs. With an academic curiosity in business law, I am interested in the cross-border, interdisciplinary nature of the firm’s mergers and acquisitions and transactional practice groups. I am especially drawn to the flexible structure of [●]’s summer programs, which will allow me to explore these areas further, while simultaneously exploring other practices.

I believe my ability adapt to changing environments, my attention to detail, and my comfort with solving problems under pressure will be an asset to [●]. During my graduate studies, I worked closely with faculty, authors, and peers to development new research projects in philosophy, and this resulted in my thesis focusing on ethics. I was further given the opportunity to be a Teaching Assistant for a pilot program that taught the fundamentals of ethics to business students. I enjoyed guiding students through dense philosophical texts and learned how to breakdown abstruse ideas into more manageable pieces. In my capacity as a Senior Associate at the Ontario Medical Association, I developed a technical expertise in business intelligence tools, especially in database management and data visualization through reports, summaries, and dashboards. I was entrusted to oversee the nominations and election procedures for over 40,000 medical professionals across the province. This role involved interdepartmental collaboration with respect to reviewing governance documents to ensure their compliance with governing statutes, stakeholder satisfaction, and risk management. From this experience, I learned how much dedication and scrutiny is required to produce high-quality work under strict time constraints and advancing corporate strategy.

During my time at Osgoode Hall Law School, I have started to build practical legal skills through my extracurriculars. As the Business Manager of the school newspaper, Obiter Dicta, I was tasked with auditing and consolidating their finances to ensure that student fees are used effectively and ethically. It was crucial to negotiate with the rest of the staff how an agreeable way to spend funds can be achieved. Such communication skills were also key for my Head of Sponsorship role in the National First Generation Network, particularly in securing funding and curating new partnerships with firms for all school chapters across Canada. As an Associate Editor of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, I developed strong legal research, drafting, and editing skills. In order to diversify competency, I additionally took on editorial role for the Intellectual Property Journal and the Transnational Legal Theory Journal. Moreover, during my summer, I had the opportunity to work with four Professors to assist with each of their research projects. I enjoyed the challenge of undertaking increasingly complex tasks and juggling multiple projects. I intend to expand on my skills through participation in the Advanced Business Law Workshops in Corporate Finance and Mergers and Acquisitions, and I hope to further grow under the mentorship of [●].

Thank you for your consideration. I believe I can make a valuable contribution to the team at [●], and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sample Cover Letter: Supreme Court of Canada

I am pleased to submit this letter as a part of my application for a clerkship position with the Supreme Court of Canada. My chief contribution is my experience in research and writing. Prior to law school, I completed my Master of Arts degree in Philosophy, and my thesis primarily focused on ethics. This experience provided the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship, particularly in areas of law, psychology, and sociology. I learned new ways to approach classical problems and, as a Teaching Assistant, this allowed me to analyze complex ideas into more manageable components for undergraduate students. During my first-year summer, I had the opportunity to assist four Professors with their research projects. Here, I further developed my legal research skills and enjoyed comparing nuanced lines of argumentation by judges, lawyers, and scholars. For example, Professor Jennifer Nadler’s work on contract law theory focused on the theory underlying the doctrine of expectation damages, while Professor Carissima Mathen’s work on Section 7 of the Charter focused on the theory underlying the principle of arbitrariness. These narrow issues gave me the opportunity to explore caselaw, commentary, and textbooks.

I continue to sharpen my research and writing skills through my law school extracurriculars. As an Associate Editor on the Osgoode Law Hall Journal, I reviewed and analyzed articles for publication. I also completed substantive checks of citations to ensure that they conformed to the McGill Guide. To expand the legal scholarship I engaged with, I took on an editorial role for the Intellectual Property Journal and the Transnational Legal Theory Journal. In these roles, I provided substantive feedback on preliminary drafts and copyedited final versions for publication. My exposure to diverse scholarship has renewed my passion for the importance of advocacy, the complexity of social justice issues, and the varied nature of policy reform.

Studying both philosophy and law has led me to consider how questions of ethical, political, and economic theory have a role in illuminating judicial decision-making. Currently, I am interested in tracking normative moral claims in the law, especially in contract law theory, theories of criminal punishment, and Section 7 of the Charter. I am confident that my research skills and enthusiasm for legal analysis would be a valuable asset for the clerkship program.