Student resources
Write a cover letter that gets read to the end
Your transcript says what you did. The letter is the only part where you get to say why you chose this firm, and what you would be like to work with.
What the letter has to do
A student recruiter reads a few hundred of these in a fortnight. Yours gets under a minute on the first pass. That minute decides whether the rest of your application is read at all, so every sentence has to do something no other document in your application can do.
Only you can supply two things: why you picked this firm out of the list, and what kind of colleague you would be. Everything else is already in your resume and your transcript, so repeating it in the letter wastes the one minute you have.
The four parts of the letter
Write them in this order, roughly a paragraph each.
- 1
Why you chose this firm
Name one specific thing: a case, a practice group, a lawyer whose work you have read, or a client type you care about. If the sentence would still be true of forty other firms, it does not belong here. - 2
What you bring to the firm
Make one or two claims, and attach the evidence to each one in the same sentence. A claim on its own is filler. A claim with a fact attached to it tells the reader about a real person. - 3
How you and the firm connect
Connect what you just said about yourself to what you said about them. This is the paragraph most letters skip, and it is the one that makes the rest of the letter convincing. - 4
What happens next
Say what is attached, and offer something specific, such as an afternoon you are free to meet. Two sentences are enough.
The same line written two ways
What most letters say
I am writing to apply for the articling position advertised on your website. I believe I would be an excellent fit for your firm.
What earns its space (1 of 3)
I am applying to article with you because of your employment misclassification work. I spent last summer doing intake at a community legal clinic on exactly that problem, and I would like to see it from the other end of the file.
The first sentence tells the reader something they already know. The second tells them why you applied to this firm.
What most letters say
I have excellent research and writing skills and strong attention to detail.
What earns its space (1 of 3)
I wrote the respondent's factum for our moot team, and the judge singled out the standard of review section. Before that I spent eight months checking citations for a casebook, which is where I learned what careless work looks like.
Three adjectives cost nothing to write, so the reader learns nothing from them. Two facts do the same job, and the next applicant cannot copy them.
What most letters say
Your firm has an outstanding reputation and is a leader in the legal industry.
What earns its space (1 of 3)
You are nine lawyers taking files most firms your size would refer out. I would rather be the student in the room for that than the twentieth student somewhere larger.
Flattery is about them in the abstract. The stronger version is about a decision you made.
What most letters say
Although my first-year grades were not what I had hoped for, I am a hard worker and a quick learner.
What earns its space (1 of 3)
My first-year grades were low. I was working thirty hours per week to stay enrolled. I cut back in second year, my average went from a C+ to a B+, and my administrative law paper was published in the student review.
Never apologise and never explain twice. State it, say what changed, and move on in three sentences.
What most letters say
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
What earns its space (1 of 3)
My transcript and a writing sample from my administrative law seminar are attached. I can come in any afternoon that suits you.
The first version asks the firm for nothing. The second one tells them when you can come in.
Lines to cut
Every one of these appears in hundreds of letters a season.
I am writing to apply for the position posted on your website.
They already know. Open with why you chose them.
Hard-working, detail-oriented team player.
Name one thing you did that shows it.
I believe I would be a great fit for your firm.
Say what the fit is, in one sentence.
Your firm has an outstanding reputation.
Name the work you actually read about.
I am passionate about the law.
Name the part of the law you keep reading about anyway.
Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Offer something concrete: a time you are free.
At your earliest convenience.
Cut it. It asks for nothing.
To Whom It May Concern.
Find the name. The student programs or recruitment contact is on the firm's site.
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What to say about the firm, and where to find it
Twenty minutes of reading gives you the specific detail the first paragraph needs.
- 1
Their own recent work
Most firms keep a news or recent matters page and almost nobody reads it. One sentence from that page, in your own words, proves you looked.
- 2
Decisions with their lawyers on them
CanLII is free, and you can search it by the name of the counsel on a case. Reading one judgment a firm argued tells you more than any ranking will.
- 3
The people page
Find the lawyer doing the work you want to do. Name that lawyer, and say which part of their work interests you.
- 4
The firm directory here
Our firm pages list which firms hire students, and link to their careers pages.
Do not use league tables, the size of the firm, or the paragraph on their About page. All three are available to everyone else applying.
How to format the letter and how to send it
- Keep it to one page, set in ten or eleven point type rather than a smaller size squeezed to fit. Aim for one page you could read aloud comfortably.
- Send a PDF unless the posting asks for something else.
- Use the same header as your resume, so the two look like one application.
- Address a person. If the posting names nobody, the student programs or recruitment contact on the firm's site is the right one.
- If you are emailing it, the email body is not a second letter. Two sentences saying what is attached are enough.
- Name the file so the reader can find it again in a download folder:
Application windows and their rules are set by each law society and they move. Check yours rather than anything you read second-hand. Bar admission by province
Check these before you send it (0 of 7)
Build your resume
Your resume holds the same facts, laid out so a reader can find them quickly.
Research the firm
See which firms hire students, and what those firms actually do.
See who is hiring
Browse articling and summer student postings from across Canada.
Join an association
See which associations and student societies you can join, and what each one costs.
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Write it once, then apply everywhere
Only the paragraphs about the firm change from one application to the next. You will reuse the rest all season.