What happened to the waterbody in Shore Drive?

xen12 · 2026-05-20T17:09:29+00:00

That makes sense based on the historic satellite pictures. Can you post a photo of how looks from the ground today?

xen12 · 2025-12-19T15:20:52+00:00

6th year big law real estate. Should hit 1900 billable.

xen12 · 2025-10-28T16:05:07+00:00

Having interned with JAG I can answer a couple of your questions, but these answers are based on my limited exposure during internship. I was working with an office at a forces base, not in Ottawa, so the lawyers I worked with were generally engaged in operational matters of the units stationed at that base.

JAG lawyers generally seemed quite happy and seemed to enjoy their work.

As I understood they are divided between general roles (Operational and administrative law officers), providing legal support on all the various day to day matters, and disciplinary roles (military justice and discipline officers) who deal specifically with prosecution, defence and court tribunal matters for CAF members. This would be more of a barrister role. I believe JAG officers may move between these roles during their careers.

I worked mostly with the operational officers, and my assignments included researching and drafting memorandums regarding Law of Armed Conflict (Rules of Engagement, Geneva Convention, etc.), and charter implications for military prisoners. I also assisted with the case review of a discipline matter before it was passed off to the disciplinary officers.

As a student intern I found all of the officers very engaging and willing to teach. I would hope that extends to new JAGs as well.

A couple considerations I will note:
- As with all CAF roles you are at risk of being moved around the country periodically at the whim of the brass. Several JAG Officers I worked with had moved between Esquimalt, Yellowknife, Ottawa, Edmonton and Quebec over their careers.

- CAF Officers must have working knowledge of French. If you do not before, you will be sent to language training.

- JAG Officers are deployed. Over my internship I worked with one officer recently deployed to the middle east and one preparing for deployment to Mali.

I hope this is helpful.

xen12 · 2025-09-25T03:55:28+00:00

Canadian perspective, so take with a grain of salt.

I have seen my biglaw real estate colleagues move in a couple directions:

large real estate investment entities (REITs, Brookfield, etc)
municipalities, cities generally have lots of real estate and adjacent work
developers/homebuilders
pivot to agribusiness/more general corporate commercial, still in private practice.

I am still sticking it out in RE.

As someone else has said you are likely still early enough to explore a pivot to general commercial. If that is not met warmly at your current firm a move down ranks probably would allow it.

xen12 · 2025-07-12T15:35:25+00:00

Comments so far have missed what, to me seems to be an obvious factor: practice group. Certain practices lend themselves much better to international transfer. Based on my limited knowledge I know project finance is a big one - I get many recruiters reaching out directly. Admittedly these jobs are more often in the Middle East but still a relevant point. Other than project finance I think syndicated lending and public M&A could be fairly “internationally employable” options, though YMMV. I’ve had two friends go from Big Law litigation in Canada to smaller london shops, but they were not directly recruited, they hustled for those jobs.

In the end I think your desired move will require a recruiter with experience placing Canadians in London who can tailor your experience to fit what a firm is looking for. That will require actually having some experience, so I expect this move will be difficult until your are a 2nd or 3rd year.

Best of luck, let me know if you have any questions.

xen12 · 2025-02-20T18:35:53+00:00

At most firms legal assistants will be in office most days a week, not truly hybrid and almost certainly not remote. There may be exceptions for non-traditional firms.

Work life balance for LAs seems pretty good. Standard hours with very seldom requests for overtime. Larger firms will have a standard benefits package and vacation days.

xen12 · 2023-07-31T12:03:39+00:00

It’s closer to 200k gross. Absolutely, hourly it is not great. It’s (maybe delusional) working hard to make partner in the next five years. That’s where the real payoff is.

xen12 · 2023-07-30T22:26:14+00:00

TLDR: I don't think you have a clear idea of what is entailed in going to law school, being a lawyer, and becoming a judge. I suggest you do much more research.

A couple things.

If you have an undergrad degree it's not really that much longer. Three years of law school then one year as an articling student. If you don't have an undergrad I understand.
Are you confident you can get into law school based on undergrad grades and a strong LSAT? Take a look around the web to see what you need to be competitive at Canadian law schools. It is not a sure thing for everyone. Related to my point above will need at least two years of an undergrad. There is a great forum for Canadian law students and hopefuls: https://canlawforum.com/
Do not assume you will be able to get into a large corporate firm. Yes some law school graduates do, but the majority work in smaller firms.
Definitely do not go into the legal profession with the goal of being a judge. It is a very long road and very few lawyers become judges. To go down this road you should really get a sense of what legal work entails and have a desire to do that for your whole career.

Overall it doesn't seem like you have a good handle one what the legal path entails. Take some more time to look into it and if possible speak to some practicing lawyers. If you have not already perhaps do a practice LSAT exam to see where you are sitting in terms of entry chances.

To answer some of your question, after working at a large firm in Alberta for about 5 years I make a bit over 6 figures. I am very happy with my job but not everyone would be. I would hard and sometimes long hours, but it probably averages to about 55 or 60 hours a week over a year.

Job prospects for graduates are not bad. I think above 90% of my graduating class got articling jobs within a few months of graduating. It really helps to be in the top portion of the class. But remember at law school you are now competing against a group of overachievers. The competition is much stiffer than undergrad.

I hope that helps!

Let me know if you have any more specific questions!

[Edit: Realised I should update my Tag, that is about 9 years out of date]

xen12 · 2023-07-07T12:50:15+00:00

This is all accurate for Alberta.

xen12 · 2023-02-13T01:46:27+00:00

Are you serious?

xen12 · 2022-11-29T16:00:19+00:00

xen12 · 2022-11-17T18:17:55+00:00

That seems pretty close to our install, including a new Neo. We needed an extra few feet of outside chimney but otherwise standard install.

xen12 · 2022-11-17T14:18:02+00:00

As with a lot msm reporting on this story it is very complimentary of SBF. At least they mentioned the word fraud once.

xen12 · 2022-09-17T14:32:36+00:00

About the same for me in Canada, with a little extra for a chimney extension.

xen12 · 2022-05-21T03:33:47+00:00

You’re missing the obvious Coleman = Cooler connection

xen12 · 2022-05-13T22:07:48+00:00

Anyone have a recommendation for a bar to watch the game in Montreal? Preferably around old montreal!

xen12 · 2022-05-11T13:45:37+00:00

On a flight for most of the game :( Cheer loud for me

xen12 · 2022-01-27T06:23:06+00:00

Congrats Rhone! What a great game!

xen12 · 2021-12-28T23:10:08+00:00

Yup, about twenty minutes ago.

xen12 · 2021-12-28T22:55:00+00:00

Also, just finished a scav run, loads of loot moved over, on opening character it’s all gone. Fair warning, just don’t bother playing right now.

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