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Originally Posted by blankall
Depends on the economy really. I was in Vancouver the year of the financial meltdown. Calgary is a different situation in that they need lots of warm bodies. They'll actually actively headhunt young people and pursue people they want for the long term.
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It has far less to do with the economy than the bar culture here. There's an entirely different recruiting strategy that involves hiring fewer people to begin with and keeping a greater percentage of them. I.e. we'll hire 12 students and hire back 11 rather than hiring 20 and hiring back 10. We hire back about 90% of our articling students (that's actually a conservative estimate). Consequently, new recruits are treated as if they're full fledged members of the firm as soon as they're hired as summer students (basically interns) rather than when they get their legs under them as associates - the assumption is that if you're summering here you're probably going to be here in 5 years as a junior. At least until you go in house, or whatever.
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I do know lots of people in Calgary who were hired because of who their parents were. I know of two women who's firms found them new positions at other firms after their affairs with their managing partners were exposed. One ended up keeping the child. I'm sure there are lots more I don't know about.
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That's just good business though. If your pop is in a position to ship legal work to the firm that's worth $1,000,000 per year, paying you $100,000 is a no-brainer. As for the other thing, in Calgary biglaw, people don't really get fired, people... ahem... find new opportunities. It just looks better on the firm when it appears that an associate voluntarily left rather than was fired. "We don't employ people who aren't competent or trustworthy lawyers" is the message. So yeah, damn right the firm will find them somewhere to land.