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Master the transition from law student to professional with expert insights on communication, time management, and team dynamics.
Are you an articling student or licensing candidate on your path to becoming licensed as an Ontario lawyer? Join us for a three-part program to learn how to lay the best foundation for your career.
Part 1: A Partner and an In-House Counsel Tell It Like It Is - What, How and Why
Marco Falco, Partner at Torkin Manes, and Basmah Osman, Enterprise Counsel at OMERS, will provide tips on how to make yourself indispensable and will cover a variety of topics including communication, collaboration, managing expectations, work habits, and networking.
Part 2: Legal Research - The Secret to Your Success
TLA's experienced law librarians will cover the methodology of legal research and will explain how to research quickly, efficiently, and exhaustively.
Part 3: Balancing the Clock and the Mind
The early years of a legal career can feel like a sprint with no finish line in sight. In this session, Safiyya Vankalwala, Communications Counsel at LAWPRO, offers tips on how to manage your time, your workload, and your mental health. Whether you are feeling burned out, struggling to stay organized, or just trying to keep your head above water, you'll walk away with practical tools and a bit of reassurance that you are not alone.
Part 1: A Partner and an In-House Counsel Tell It Like It Is - What, How and Why
This course provides practical guidance for articling students and licensing candidates on navigating the transition from an academic environment to a professional legal practice. It covers essential workplace skills including receiving and confirming instructions, managing heavy workloads, and communicating effectively with senior lawyers and clients. The content emphasizes the importance of reliability, emotional intelligence, and proactive status updates in building a strong professional reputation. Additionally, it addresses strategies for maintaining well-being through boundary setting, handling mistakes with humility, and fostering collaborative relationships within a competitive firm environment.
Topics Covered:
Toronto Lawyers Association
For more than 135 years, the Toronto Lawyers' Association, located within the Courthouse Library, has represented the interests of lawyers practising in the City of Toronto. The association was founded to support its members in three key areas: Knowledge, Advocacy, and Community.To uphold these pillars, the association offers a year-round mix of online and in-person education programs for lawyers, hosts both free and paid events to foster in-person networking, and submits advocacy pieces on behalf of its members to the Ontario bench and bar, all levels of government, and the broader public.
Partner | Torkin Manes’ Litigation Group
A partner in Torkin Manes’ Litigation Group, Marco’s practice focuses on appellate litigation and applications for judicial review. He regularly appears on behalf of clients before both the Ontario Divisional Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal. In practice, Marco strategically counsels and advocates for his clients on a range of appellate and public law matters, including administrative, construction and commercial law. Marco invests substantial time to get to know his clients and their matters in order to gain a full understanding of their legal needs. He leverages his years of experience, judgment and legal knowledge to provide clients with opinions and practical advice on various legal issues. As a complement to his practice, Marco is a co-chair of Torkin Manes’ Diversity and Inclusion Committee. He is also actively engaged in the University of Toronto’s Alumni Mentorship programs, providing mentorship to students in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Faculty of Law. An award-winning legal author, Marco has published many articles on a host of legal issues and is Chief Editor of Torkin Manes LegalWatch. Since 2019, Marco has repeatedly won Lexology’s quarterly legal writing award as a “Legal Influencer” in the categories of Dispute Resolution (Canada) and the Future of Legal Services (Canada) for his publications on appellate and civil litigation. Marco was also recognized by Mondaq as a Thought Leader of Public (Administrative) Law in Canada. Marco was recently shortlisted as a finalist for the prestigious Canadian Online Publishing Awards for his legal writings on the use of AI in Litigation. As a testament to his prominence in the profession, Marco was recognized as a leader in his field in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, and was nominated as a contender for Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada.
Corporate Counsel at OMERS in Toronto, Ontario
Basmah Osman is Corporate Counsel at OMERS in Toronto, Ontario, a role she has held since March 2025. She is a labour, employment, and human rights lawyer. Before joining OMERS, Basmah was an Associate in Employment and Labour Law at Norton Rose Fulbright, where she worked from 2018 to 2024. She began there as a summer student and then articled with the firm. During her articles, she was seconded to the Metrolinx Office of the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Basmah earned her Juris Doctor from York University's Osgoode Hall Law School. She also took part in the school's international exchange program at Queen Mary University of London, where she enrolled in LLM-level courses in International Copyright Law, Law and Finance in Emerging Economies, Media Law, and Corporate Governance. She was licensed as a lawyer by the Law Society of Ontario in June 2020. Outside her legal practice, Basmah is the Founder, Speaker and Facilitator of Sunday Club. It is a community organization and wellness platform that provides safe digital and in-person spaces for Black women and girls to explore their mental health and overall wellness. Through workshops, corporate speaking engagements, digital wellness content, and therapy and self-care grants, Sunday Club works to destigmatize conversations around mental health and promote social impact.