It is no secret that a number of large law firms organize formal recruitment campaigns at Osgoode. It is also no secret that these firms further their recruitment objectives in a number of other ways, either by running firm tours, advertising around the school, or sponsoring student initiatives in an attempt to further publicize their brand. The presence of large law firms in our school is well-established, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Most members of the Osgoode community don’t seem to have a problem with this – many students want employment with these firms, and are happy to have the opportunity to be recruited straight from school. However, what is troubling is the fact that in some cases, the very same people who will be recruiting you to work at these firms are the ones teaching you your courses.
This year, as in other years, a number of course offerings at Osgoode are being taught by adjunct professors who are formally involved in their firms’ recruitment campaigns. The roles filled by these instructor-recruiters vary from conducting in-firm interviews to actually chairing their firm student recruitment committees. In some cases, OCI interviews are conducted by the very same people teaching courses to the students they are interviewing. Just imagine: in the morning you are sitting in class, asking questions of your instructor about your course material, while in the afternoon, the very same person is interviewing you for a job.
There are a number of concerns raised by the practice of allowing lawyers involved in their firm’s formal recruitment process to teach courses at our school. Some students might have difficulty accepting that these instructors will be able to easily divide their classroom instruction tasks from their recruitment tasks. Further, if any students sitting in these classes are thinking of applying to work at the instructor’s firm, then the watchful eye of the firm recruiter is upon them not only during their OCI interview or their firm tour, but during their classroom time as well. For students concerned about jeopardizing a possible career path, this might mean changing their in-class conduct to demonstrate their value as potential student candidates rather than enjoying the open learning environment Osgoode is supposed to offer. Students might even be concerned that these instructors aren’t going to be objective graders, especially when they have personally hired a classmate. Anonymous exam numbers mitigate this concern somewhat, but reflective papers or participation grades that don’t provide a shield of anonymity are entirely in the discretion of the recruiter.
This may not be such a big deal. Students looking for a job might make the effort to get to class early, or even stop checking their emails during lectures in an attempt to impress their instructor-recruiter, but that has no effect on the quality of the instruction or the material being taught. Besides, students who want a job at these firms will probably appreciate having a firm recruiter in the classroom – it may even give them an edge come recruitment season. And, just because an individual teaches you in the morning and interviews you in the afternoon doesn’t mean he or she isn’t capable of separating those two roles. The mere potential for a conflict doesn’t mean it will ever come into being.
But even if this is all true, a classroom is an entirely different setting from a professional law firm. The classroom is where new ideas should be brought out and tested, where all manner of questions should be asked, and where students should feel capable of expressing themselves openly and freely. If you are overly concerned about presenting yourself as a “team player,” you might not want to ask your controversial question, or make a strong point. After all, there may very well be a job on the line, and you won’t want to screw up by possibly making yourself appear unemployable.
The presence of these instructor-recruiters at Osgoode detracts from the academic setting that a post-secondary institution is supposed to foster and encourage. If our law school puts a single student in a position where he/she is too uncomfortable or unwilling to openly express a viewpoint on any particular issue, then it has failed in its commitment to building a more engaged learning community.
Many of these instructors are experts in their field, and Osgoode students benefit from learning from them. However, they should not be the same people filling formal recruitment roles at their law firms, and they should certainly not be the ones who sit down and interview Osgoode candidates come OCI season.