Writing Samples and Portfolios: What to Include

When I first applied for legal work in Canada, I sent a writing sample I was proud of and heard nothing back. Months later a lawyer who eventually hired me told me, kindly, that my sample had been fifteen pages of dense analysis with three typos on the first page. She had stopped reading at the second typo. The analysis, she said, was probably excellent. She never found out.

That stung, and it taught me something. A hiring lawyer is not reading your sample to admire your prose. They are trying to answer one quiet question: if I hand this person a file, will the work come back clean, clear, and correct? Everything below is about helping them answer yes.

Why the sample matters more than you think

A résumé tells someone where you have been. A cover letter tells them how you present yourself. A writing sample shows them what it is actually like to receive work from you. For articling and early-career roles, that last thing is the whole job.

This matters even more if your file is a little unconventional. If you are an internationally trained lawyer, a mature student, or someone coming into law from another field, the writing sample is where you get to prove, on the page, that you can do the work here. A strong sample can quietly answer doubts that a reviewer would never say out loud.

So treat it as a deliverable, not a formality. The care you put into it is itself part of the message.

Choosing the right piece

Most people default to whatever they scored highest on. That is a mistake. The best grade is not the same as the best sample. Choose using these criteria instead, roughly in order:

• Relevance to the work. A litigation firm wants to see analysis and argument. A solicitor's practice wants to see clear, careful drafting. Match the sample to the seat when you can.
• It shows your reasoning. You want a piece where the reader can watch you take a messy problem, find the issues, and work them through. That is the skill they are buying.
• It is genuinely yours. Group work, heavily edited pieces, and anything a supervisor substantially rewrote are risky. If they ask "what part did you write?", you need a clean answer.
• It is a reasonable length. More on this below, but shorter and sharp beats long and impressive nearly every time.
• You can defend every line. Assume they will ask you about a choice you made on page three. If you cannot explain it, do not send it.

A memo, a factum, or a section of a research paper usually works well. A well-drafted contract clause or a clear opinion letter can work beautifully for solicitor roles, and almost nobody sends those, so it stands out.

The best sample I ever reviewed was four pages. It answered a hard question, admitted where the law was unsettled, and stopped. I offered the student an interview before I finished my coffee.

What to avoid

Skip anything emotionally or politically charged unless the role specifically invites it. Skip your law school's flashiest seminar paper if it is really an academic essay in disguise; practising lawyers write for a busy reader, not a thesis committee. And never, ever send something that still has a professor's tracked comments or another firm's name buried in the footer. It happens more than you would believe.

Cleaning it up before it goes out

Once you have chosen the piece, it needs a proper edit. Not a glance. A real one.

Read it out loud. Your ear catches what your eye skims: the sentence that runs on forever, the clause that says nothing, the "notwithstanding the foregoing" that could just be "but." Cut ruthlessly. A tighter sample reads as a sharper mind.

Then hunt for the small things that quietly cost you the job:

1. Typos and spacing. Run a spell check, then read backwards line by line so the meaning stops carrying you past errors.
2. Citations. Make them consistent and correct in form. You do not need a perfect Canadian guide to citation memorized, but sloppy citations read as sloppy lawyering.
3. Canadian spelling. If your training was elsewhere, watch for colour, favour, licence as a noun, and defence. Reviewers notice, fairly or not.
4. Names and confidentiality. Redact real client names, real parties, and anything privileged. Replace them with "the Plaintiff" or "ABC Corp." This is not optional, and getting it right also signals you understand your duties.

That last point deserves emphasis. If your sample comes from a real file, even a summer placement, you must not disclose confidential information. When in doubt, anonymize more, not less, and it never hurts to check the guidance from your provincial law society or the Federation of Law Societies of Canada on your professional obligations.

Framing it with a short cover note

A sample sent with no context makes the reader do work. A sample sent with two sentences of framing feels like a gift. At the top of the document, or in the email body, add a brief note:

"This is a research memo I wrote during my second year on whether a limitation period had expired in a contract dispute. Client details have been changed. It is my own work, lightly edited for length."

That does three things at once. It tells them what they are about to read, it confirms authorship, and it explains any trimming. It also shows you think about your reader before you write, which is most of what good legal writing is.

Do you actually need a portfolio?

For most articling and junior roles, a single strong writing sample is enough, and sometimes it is all they ask for. A full portfolio matters more in specific situations: when you are moving practice areas, when your experience is scattered across countries or careers, or when you want to show range that one memo cannot.

If you do build one, keep it small and curated. Three or four pieces, each doing a different job:

• One analytical piece (a memo or factum) that shows reasoning.
• One drafting piece (a clause, an agreement excerpt, a letter) that shows precision.
• Optionally, one piece that reflects a genuine interest, such as a published article or a clinic submission, that hints at where you want to go.

Curated beats comprehensive. Nobody wants to open a folder of eleven documents. A tight set says you have judgment, which is exactly the quality they are hiring for. For newcomers building a Canadian track record, this is also a way to show local work product early, and it pairs well with the broader strategy in our guide to building a legal career as a newcomer to Canada.

Where portfolio pieces come from when you are just starting

If you feel you have nothing to show, you have more than you think. Clinic files, moot facta, seminar research, a research assistantship, pro bono work, even a strong assignment you would not mind reworking. The point is not that the piece was for a real client. The point is that it demonstrates the skill. A well-built moot factum has persuaded many a hiring lawyer.

Match the sample to the seat

The same person can lead with different samples depending on the role. Applying to a Bay Street litigation group and a small family practice in the same week? Those should not receive the identical document. Tailoring here works the same way it does on your cover letter, and it is worth reading what makes a cover letter get read alongside this, because the two documents should tell one coherent story about you.

When a posting does not specify what they want, a five-to-eight page analytical memo is a safe, strong default. When they do specify (a factum, a maximum page count, a particular subject), follow it exactly. Following instructions precisely is, quietly, one of the things they are testing.

The mindset that ties it together

A writing sample is a small promise. It says: this is the standard of work you can expect from me. So send work you would be comfortable seeing land on a partner's desk with your name on it, because that is essentially what is happening.

Choose the piece that shows your thinking. Edit it until it is clean enough to be boring in the best way, meaning nothing distracts from the substance. Frame it kindly for the reader. Then let it do its job while you get on with the rest of the search over on the jobs board, or keep sharpening your approach with more from the job search archive.

The lawyer who told me she stopped reading at my second typo did me a favour. My next sample was four pages shorter, error-free, and it got me the interview. Yours can too.