Calgary

Achieve more than you ever expected. From business law, litigation services, tax, labour and employment law to real property law, our diverse clients count on us to deliver industry insight and innovative solutions – in Calgary, across Canada and around the world.

Here in Canada’s energy capital, our Energy Group advises on complex domestic and international transactions for a range of public and private energy clients, including regulatory matters, major projects, development and project finance. Beyond Calgary’s leading industry, we advise a wide range of emerging, mid-market and institutional clients across sectors. From corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions to dispute resolution and labour and employment solutions, we help clients achieve the legal and business results that matter most to their success.

The Calgary office is highly integrated with our offices across Canada and our London, U.K. and New York offices, providing seamless service and strategic counsel to global companies with complex international projects and transactions.  Students will get very good exposure on larger files as we work in client-service teams made up of different lawyers from our different offices and practice groups.

Summer Program

Our summer program is designed to introduce students to the practice of law and to the firm's variety of practice areas.

Our summer students have the opportunity to work with Canada's leading lawyers in business law, tax, litigation, real property and planning, and labour and employment law.

Our summer program begins with orientation and training to introduce our students to the firm, research and writing techniques and to provide our students with tips and strategies to help them maximize their summer experience at the firm. As part of the summer student orientation training, students receive a two day exercise based research training workshop from members of the Firm’s Research Group.

Additionally, we offer extensive legal education and professional development programs covering topics such as “The Student’s Role in Closings”, “The Student’s Role in the Litigation Process” and “The Student’s Role in Due Diligence”. Our lawyers are frequently invited to speak to the students about their area of practice or topical cases or transactions.

Summer students are given a broad range of responsibilities, including attending meetings, hearings and other litigation processes, researching and drafting legal memos, preparing research support to our trial teams, preparing draft advocacy and transactional documents, due diligence and work relating to the closing of transactions, participating in the drafting of conference materials, articles for publication, and case summaries. It is important that our students have a well-rounded experience.

As a strong supporter of pro bono initiatives and as the sole firm sponsor of Pro Bono Students Canada, our lawyers provide pro bono services to the community in areas as diverse as civil liberties, human rights, financial, business, labour and employment law. We also think it is important to involve our students on pro bono matters through a variety of different pro bono projects. To offer our students the opportunity to work on student directed pro bono initiatives, the Firm offers through its Pro Bono Committee a wealth of opportunities for students to get involved and make a meaningful contribution. Under the supervision of our lawyers, our students get hands-on experience working with clients and solving real world problems with all of the benefits of the Firm's resources and experience.

In Calgary, we don't have a formal rotation program for summer students, this provides students with exposure to the areas of law that are of most interest to them. We believe that you should have direct contact with lawyers at all levels of the firm, so lawyers allocate work directly to students. Summer students are assigned two mentors from different practice areas.

Articling Program

The articling program is designed to maximize student exposure to all aspects of the practice of law and our law firm.

It will provide you with the opportunity to experience our practice first-hand by attending client meetings, strategy sessions, hearings and trials. You will be encouraged to work independently on some matters, all the while having support and guidance.

Our informal approach enables you to work with many lawyers in each area of practice. At McCarthy Tétrault, there is a spirit of co-operation and mutual respect that promotes teamwork and encourages us to work together and develop important working relationships, within the Calgary office and within the firm. The Director, Professional Resources, and the mentors work closely with our students to monitor workload and to ensure that students are getting a wide variety of work experience in each of their rotations.

In Calgary, our rotation program is designed to provide you with the widest possible range of experience. Rotations include time spent in each of the following general practice areas: business law (including financial services), litigation (including labour and employment), and a combined rotation in energy, real property and tax. While working in these areas, students are encouraged to approach and work with lawyers who practice in more specialized practice areas. In each rotation, you will work on a wide variety of files and projects, and get exposure to a diverse range of expertise and styles.

Members of our Student Committee act as mentors in each rotation. They are experienced lawyers who will provide assistance, support and guidance throughout the articling period. They are responsible for assisting students in managing their workload, and for ensuring that students receive interesting and challenging work, as well as a balanced articling experience. Each student is also assigned a principal lawyer to oversee their progress and to provide assistance with their professional responsibility and practice obligations.

Application Process

Learn more about the programs we offer at our Calgary Office and see if it’s right for you.

At McCarthy Tétrault, we look for students who are genuinely interested in our practice and our clients, who can work in a team-based environment, who have a strong desire to learn, who are highly motivated, and who demonstrate initiative and judgment.

We have learned, however, that the skills and character traits needed to practice law at a high level do not come in uniform packages and our students and lawyers have diverse backgrounds, personalities and interests.

We pride ourselves on our professionalism, client focus, innovation and ability to work as a team. If you think you might enjoy working with us, please send us your application.

Learn more about applying for a position in Calgary.

Applications

Your application should include a cover letter, a complete résumé, and copies of all official transcripts of law school, undergraduate and graduate grades, as well as a list of anticipated upper year courses. Writing samples and reference letters are not required.

Please submit your completed application through the viLawPortal. Attention: Charlotte Belliveau, Director, Professional Resources. Our recruitment procedures are carried out in accordance with the LSA guidelines. For dates, please see the LSA website.

Please note that the Calgary office hires its Articling Student complement from its Summer Student class, as a result, does not typically participate in the Articling Student recruitment process. Should you have any questions about the Articling Student recruitment process, please reach out to Charlotte Belliveau, Director, Professional Resources.

Important dates for applicants:

2L 2026 Summer Positions

We will be participating in the 2L 2026 summer student recruitment process for our Calgary office.  The recruitment period and deadlines are as follows:

vilawPortal Opens: TBD

Application Deadline: TBD

Interview Week: TBD

Offer Date: TBD

Recruitment Process

You may be wondering how the recruitment process works at McCarthy Tétrault. When we receive your application, we will acknowledge receipt of your application by e-mail. Then the process will occur as follows:

On-Campus Interviews

If you are a second-year student and selected to participate in an On-Campus Interview (OCI), you will be notified by your law school. After the OCIs have been completed, we will select students to attend in-firm interviews and will notify all students by email of the outcome of their OCI.

Post OCIs

Candidates will be selected. Selected applicants will be contacted to schedule an in-firm interview (unless otherwise specified by your law school). You will receive an e-mail to confirm interview details.

Interviews at our firm

Students will meet with at least four lawyers during the course of their in-firm visit. Your visit will begin with your interview. Our interview process is a series of meetings with various team members, the details of which we will communicate to each candidate closer to the time. During the interview process, students will also have the opportunity to meet with our articling students to ask candid questions about their experience at McCarthy Tétrault.

Hints and Tips

We appreciate that the recruitment process can be a stressful time for students. To make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible, here a few tips:

Application process

• Preparation is key to a successful recruitment experience, so take time to reflect about who you are and what you want.
• A cover letter should be concise (no more than one page) and indicate briefly why you are applying to McCarthy Tétrault.
• Use examples in your cover letter to demonstrate your key skills. Specific examples are often most compelling!
• Your cover letter should leave the reader thinking, "I want to learn more about this person."
• Gaps in a candidate's personal history may be puzzling and should be explained in your cover letter.
• Your résumé should allow its reader to determine what you have done and should highlight your education, extracurricular activities, leadership, work and community service.
• Don't forget to proofread! Lawyers and clients are very detail-conscious.

Interview process

• When interviewing you, we want to learn more about your skills and interests, and, most importantly, about who you are.
• During the interview, you should be prepared to answer questions about anything in your cover letter and résumé, about yourself and your career ambitions. We want to learn about your interests, motivations, passions, strengths and developmental goals.
• Listen carefully to the questions, and don't be afraid to ask for clarification.
• Practice answering questions with a family member or a friend or participate in mock interviews.
• Try to be on top of everything that is in your control in order to help ease the stress of interviews.
• Get to the interview with a few minutes to spare and be prepared with questions for your interviewers.
• Breathe, relax, smile: and, most importantly, be yourself.

Contact Us

We look forward to hearing from you!

Suite 4000, 421 7th Avenue SW
Calgary AB  T2P 4K9

Tel: +1 403-260-3500
Fax: +1 403-260-3501
Toll-Free: +1 877-244-771