Work at Barbarian Law
Barbarian Law is hiring an Executive Legal Assistant on a permanent basis, and is opening a student cohort beginning September 2026 at its office in Aurora, Ontario. Both roles work directly with the firm's founder across real estate, corporate and commercial, wills and estates, and sports and hospitality files.
Let's be accurate about what this is. A firm this size is not handing anyone a twenty-year career track, and it would be dishonest to advertise one. What it offers is the harder thing to find: a way in. Real files in your first week, because there is nobody else to hand them to. No rotation through a department you did not pick, no partner you will never meet, and no year spent proofreading someone else's work before anyone lets you draft.
Most people who start here will go on to somewhere larger. That is the point, and it is not held against you.
Apply now What to sendCurrent openings
Executive Legal Assistant
The role acts as the left hand of the firm's Founder and Managing Partner. It is deliberately broad: front office, document preparation, client communication, and whatever the week actually requires. It suits someone who would rather own a wide brief than a narrow one.
Full descriptionStudent Cohort
A small intake starting together in September and working across the firm's full range of files. Open to anyone who has finished high school and is serious — law students, law clerk students, undergraduates, and recent high school graduates.
Full descriptionExecutive Legal Assistant
Barbarian Law is a boutique transactional firm in Aurora, Ontario, practising real estate, corporate and commercial law, and wills and estate planning across the Greater Toronto Area. Fees are published in advance, engagements are scoped to a specific matter, and clients are invoiced after the work is delivered.
We are looking for an Executive Legal Assistant to join a small, growing team. The role is unusual in that it operates as the left hand of the Founder and Managing Partner, which means it needs someone who takes initiative and stays flexible — the brief is genuinely wide.
What you would do
- Manage the front office: screen calls and email, take messages, and respond to queries
- Provide administrative and legal support, and cover for law clerks as needed
- Draft, edit, proofread and prepare legal documents and correspondence
- Communicate with clients and opposing counsel
- Prioritise competing deadlines, move matters forward proactively, and follow through to completion
- Research and triage incoming issues, including confidential ones, and determine the course of action
- Coordinate meetings and appointments, and make sure the agenda and briefing materials are ready
- Maintain electronic and physical files, including opening and closing matters
- Act within scope of authority during the principal's absences, and route what needs routing
- Support special projects, including occasional internal and external events
- Act as follow-up manager on new contacts, commitments and initiatives
What we are looking for
- Background work experience in law
- Education in law is an asset; a willingness to learn the underlying theory is required
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Detail-oriented, working to a high standard of accuracy
- Highly organised and flexible, able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced professional environment
- Self-directed, able to complete projects with limited supervision
- Analytical, able to research and summarise
- Advanced working knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite
What we offer
- A pay-for-performance environment with competitive salary and incentive
- Real opportunities for professional growth as the firm grows
- A hybrid environment combining in-office collaboration with remote work
- Flexible weekly hours where needed
- Competitive time off — vacation requests are always granted
- A young team and a firm still small enough that what you do visibly matters
The September 2026 cohort
Most student placements at small firms are shaped by whatever happened to land that week. This one is structured: a small group starting on the same day, working across every practice area the firm runs, with the same principal supervising all of it.
The bar for applying is that you have finished high school. That is deliberate. Law students, college law clerk students, undergraduates, and recent high school graduates are all considered, and the firm cares considerably more about whether you are useful and want to be here than about how far along a credential you happen to be. Plenty of good lawyers started by answering a phone in an office like this one.
The cohort is intentionally small so that each person gets real files rather than a research queue. What you are given scales to what you can handle, not to what your enrolment letter says.
Every lane the firm runs
The point of a boutique transactional practice is breadth. A cohort member sees all of it — which is the part large-firm students spend three years waiting for.
Real estate
Residential and commercial closings, refinances, title transfers, pre-construction and assignments.
Corporate
Incorporations, minute books, shareholder agreements, share and asset transactions.
Commercial
Leasing, supply and services agreements, commercial lending, and the paperwork that runs a business.
Wills & estates
Wills, powers of attorney, multiple-will planning, and estate administration.
Fractional general counsel
Ongoing advisory work for companies without in-house counsel.
Sports & hospitality
Licensing, venue and vendor agreements, endorsement and sponsorship terms.
What you would actually do
- Draft from precedent — resolutions, by-laws, registers, subscriptions, certificates
- Prepare closing documents and sit in on the closing itself
- Assemble and reconstruct minute books
- Run searches and summarise what they mean, not just what they say
- Draft client correspondence that goes out with edits, not rewrites
- Write for the firm — explainers, checklists, and articles published under your own byline
That last one is not filler. Writing clearly about a legal problem is the fastest way to prove you understand it, and published work follows you for the rest of your career.
How to apply
Use the form on this page. It goes straight to the firm's founder — there is no applicant tracking system and no recruiter in between, and a person reads every submission.
Attach a résumé
PDF preferred, one or two pages. Use the file upload on the form rather than linking to a drive.
Say which role, and why this firm
The “why are you interested” box is the cover letter. Name the role — Executive Legal Assistant or the September cohort — and say why this firm rather than a firm.
Send anything you have made
A writing sample, a transcript, a project, something you built. Optional, and it is what separates applications. Email it if it will not fit the upload.
Go to the application form. If you would rather email, karim@barbarianlaw.ca reaches the same person — put the role in the subject line. Applications for the September cohort close 15 September 2026.
Every application gets a reply, including the unsuccessful ones. If you have not heard back within ten business days, follow up by email — it means it went to spam, not that you were ignored.
Questions
Do I need to be a law student to apply to the cohort?
No. If you have graduated high school, you can apply. Law students, college law clerk students, undergraduates, and recent high school graduates are all considered. Different backgrounds get different work — a clerk student will spend more time on conveyancing and corporate records, a law student more time on drafting and research, someone straight out of high school more time on files, records, and how an office actually runs — but everyone works on live matters, and what you are given grows with what you show you can handle.
Is the cohort paid?
Compensation is confirmed with each placement before it begins, because it depends on whether the placement forms part of an approved college or university program. Ask in your application email and you will get a straight answer before you commit to anything.
Is this an articling position?
No. The September cohort is a term placement, not an articling term under the Law Society of Ontario's licensing process. If the firm opens an articling position it will be posted separately and described as such.
Where is the office and do I need to be there in person?
The office is at 14981 Yonge Street, upstairs, in Aurora, Ontario. The Executive Legal Assistant role is hybrid. The student cohort is primarily in person, because most of what makes a placement worth doing — sitting in on a closing, watching a client call, asking the question as it occurs to you — does not survive being remote.
What are the firm's hours?
The office is open Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 15:00. Work outside those hours happens when a closing requires it, which in real estate it sometimes does.
I missed the deadline. Should I still write?
Yes. The cohort has a fixed start date, but the firm reads applications year-round and the Executive Legal Assistant role stays open until it is filled. A good application arriving late is still a good application.
Apply
A résumé, and a reason. It goes straight to the founder and it gets read.
Go to the form Email insteadBarbarian Law® is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from all qualified candidates. Accommodation is available on request at any stage of the hiring process — say so in your email and it will be arranged.
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