Learn here. Practise here. Own a piece of it.
Students train across the practice and watch live files move, alongside the lawyer. Staff run the systems behind more than 350 closed transactions. Lawyers join as equity partners and share in what the firm earns.
Student placements and our Executive Legal Assistant role are open now, on a rolling basis. See the tracks and apply below.
Ownership, not salary
At many firms, an associate bills hours on work somebody else owns, keeps a portion as salary and funds the partners above. Partnership, if offered, usually comes years later, on terms the existing partners set.
A flat-fee transactional practice runs on volume and systems, not hours. The lawyer doing the work has every reason to improve the system if they own part of it. So they own part of it.
What a partner gets on day one
A precedent library drafted in-house, for residential and commercial real estate, business purchases and sales, incorporations, corporate maintenance, and wills and powers of attorney.
A closing workflow used on more than 350 closed transactions, with systems that assemble closing packages, wills and corporate documents, so the lawyer's time goes to the legal work.
A dashboard and intake queue showing every inquiry and file, with its stage, deadline and outstanding items.
The Barbarian Law® mark, website, reviews and referral relationships, which bring work to the firm rather than to one lawyer.
The economics
A partner buys in and takes a share of profit. The buy-in is priced on the firm's revenue and is a real investment, because a partner with nothing at risk is an associate with a better title. It can be structured over time. The partnership agreement sets out how profit is allocated, how decisions are made and how a departing partner's interest is valued, and a serious candidate sees it early, under an NDA.
The firm is not a franchise, a referral arrangement or a fee-split. Partners practise in one firm, under one name, to one standard, on shared systems.
Who fits
Lawyers who know from experience that they're good at transactional work, would rather own than be employed, and want to practise inside a system instead of building one.
How the conversation goes
- A confidential inquiry through the form below.
- A call with Karim.
- The partnership agreement and the firm's numbers, under an NDA.
- A buy-in proposal, and a decision on both sides.
Start a confidential conversation
For lawyers considering partnership. Read by Karim.
© Karim Eshqoor Law Professional Corporation, operating as Barbarian Law®. Barbarian Law® is a registered trademark (TMA 1,359,734) of Karim Eshqoor, used under licence. Ownership of a law professional corporation in Ontario is limited to licensees of the Law Society of Ontario; all partnership interests are offered on that basis.
Students and staff
Barbarian Law is hiring an Executive Legal Assistant on a permanent basis, and runs a student program with Legal, Practice Management and Legal Marketing tracks at its office in Aurora, Ontario. Every role works directly with the firm's founder across real estate, corporate and commercial, wills and estates, and sports and hospitality files.
A firm this size can't offer a twenty-year career track, and it would be dishonest to advertise one. What it offers is a way in: training across the practice, then a close view of live files, direct work with the lawyer who runs the firm, and no rotation through departments you didn't pick.
Most people who start here go on to somewhere larger. That's the point.
We take on students when our schedules line up, and choose the ones who want to get better.
Apply now What to sendCurrent openings
Executive Legal Assistant
The left hand of the firm's founder and principal lawyer. The brief is broad: front office, document preparation, client communication and whatever the week needs.
Full descriptionLegal Track
For JD and LLB students, and university students heading to law school. File walkthroughs, closings and client meetings, research exercises and legal explainers.
Full descriptionWinter Law Student
For JD and LLB students. The Legal track over the winter term, set around your classes: file walkthroughs, closings and client meetings, and research exercises reviewed by the lawyer. An unpaid training placement, not a paid position; the terms are confirmed in writing before you start.
Full descriptionSummer Law Student
For JD and LLB students. The Legal track over the summer, with more time in the office for closings and client meetings. An unpaid training placement, not a paid summer or articling position; the terms are confirmed in writing before you start.
Full descriptionPractice Management Lab
For law clerk, paralegal, legal administration and accounting students. How a law practice runs: files, closings, trust accounting and billing, learned on practice files.
Full descriptionLegal Marketing Lab
For marketing, communications, media and business students. How law firms are allowed to market, and how to do it well, practised on fictional briefs.
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're hiring an Executive Legal Assistant to join a small, growing team as the left hand of the founder and principal lawyer. The brief is wide, so the role needs someone who takes initiative and stays flexible.
What you would do
- Manage the front office: scheduling, filing, and the correspondence the founder assigns
- Provide administrative and legal support
- 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
- $25 per hour, in a pay-for-performance environment with incentive on top
- 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
- A firm small enough that what you do visibly matters
How the student program works
One program, three tracks: Legal, Practice Management and Legal Marketing, with winter and summer terms for law students. All are unpaid training placements for current college, university and law school students, starting with the school term.
Two weeks of training
You start with a two-week probationary period of training across the firm's practice areas. Nothing is assigned until it's done.
Then guided exercises
Then you work through guided exercises built from real matters, each one reviewed by the lawyer. Students never take on files, send correspondence or publish anything themselves.
Built around your classes
One fixed cohort day a week, when every track trains together in the Aurora office, plus up to two more days set around your courses.
Every term includes
- A weekly log and a short weekly check-in with the founder
- At least one finished training piece of your own, such as an explainer or a research note, reviewed by the lawyer
- Mid-term and final evaluations
- A written reference at the end, where the work merits one
These are unpaid training placements, and the terms are confirmed in writing before you start. If your school offers placement or co-op credit, name your program in your application.
Every lane the firm runs
A small transactional practice means breadth, and every student sees all of it.
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, and multiple-will planning.
Fractional general counsel
Ongoing advisory work for companies without in-house counsel.
Sports & hospitality
Licensing, venue and vendor agreements, endorsement and sponsorship terms.
The Record Since 2021
People since 2021
Students, interns and co-op placements who have worked here, in a practice that has only ever had one lawyer.
References for one student
Written for the same former student in three different years, for three different applications.
Academic years running
Placements every year since 2021.
Where they went next
Former Barbarian Law students have gone on to open their own law firms, practise as associates at other firms, clerk at the Tax Court of Canada, study law in the United Kingdom, succeed in the Toronto second-year recruit, and take roles in the federal public sector.
Several have come back years later for a reference, and got one.
Legal Track
For JD and LLB students, and university students heading to law school. We care more about whether you want to learn and want to be here than about how far along you are in your studies.
Places are few, so each student gets real time with the lawyer, and what you're given grows with what you can handle.
Law students can join for the winter term (January to April, around classes) or the summer term (May to August, with more days in the office). Both are unpaid training placements, not paid summer or articling positions.
What you would do
- Learn how each kind of file works (a purchase, an incorporation, a lease, a will) and what has to happen in what order
- Sit in on client meetings and attend real estate closings
- Watch live files move: how documents are organised and how dates and deadlines are tracked
- Learn what the documents are for, why a clause is worded the way it is, and where deals go wrong
- Write explainers, checklists and research notes as exercises, reviewed by the lawyer
- Ask questions in the room, while it's happening
The legal work itself is done by the lawyer. What you get is a close view of a transactional practice at work and of why it's built the way it is.
Practice Management Lab
For law clerk, paralegal, legal administration and accounting students. How a law practice runs, learned on practice files: files, closings, trust accounting and billing.
Every term you run a mock file from first call to final reporting letter: a fictional client's home purchase or incorporation, on training copies of the same workflow the firm uses. Nothing you touch is a live matter.
What you would learn
- How intake, searches, closing documents and reporting letters fit together on a real estate file
- How a minute book, registers and annual filings are kept
- How trust accounting works under the Law Society's By-Law 9, through reconciliation exercises on a practice ledger
- How a professional firm prices, bills and collects, and why this one publishes its fees
- Sitting in on client meetings and attending real estate closings, to see the workflow on live matters
Final project
A process map of one firm workflow and a written improvement proposal, presented to the lawyer at the end of term. It's yours to keep for your portfolio.
Legal Marketing Lab
For marketing, communications, media and business students. Lawyers can't advertise the way other businesses do. This lab teaches the rules and how to market well inside them, practised on fictional briefs.
What you would learn
- The Law Society's marketing rules, including why words like "specialist", client testimonials and crossed-out prices are regulated, applied to sample ads
- A competitor and search audit of three law firms
- Content mock-ups for a made-up practice: short-form video, social posts and a sample posting schedule, with feedback on every draft
- Simple visuals, such as diagrams, checklists and comparison tables, that make a legal point clear
- Sitting in on client meetings and closings often enough to understand what you are marketing
Final project
A marketing pitch for a fictional law firm, presented to the lawyer at the end of term and kept for your portfolio.
How to apply
Use the form on this page. It goes straight to the founder, with no applicant tracking system or recruiter in between.
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, Winter or Summer Law Student, or the Legal track, Practice Management Lab or Legal Marketing Lab) and the term you want to start, and say why this firm rather than any firm.
Send anything you have made
A writing sample, a transcript, a project, something you built. It's optional, and it's what separates applications. Email it if it won't fit the upload.
Go to the application form, or email karim@barbarianlaw.ca with the role in the subject line. There is no deadline.
Every application gets a reply, including the unsuccessful ones. If you haven't heard back within ten business days, follow up by email; it probably went to spam.
Questions
Are Barbarian Law student placements paid?
No. Student placements at Barbarian Law are unpaid training placements for current college, university and law school students, and the terms are confirmed in writing before you start. If your school offers placement or co-op credit, name your program in your application.
Name your program in your application. It has its own requirements, and it is easier to meet them from the start.
Will I get a reference at the end of a Barbarian Law student placement?
Yes, where the work merits one. Former students have come back years later and asked for one, and in one case the firm wrote three references for the same person, in three different years.
Several former students have come back years after finishing and asked for one. A placement is ultimately worth what it is worth to the next person who asks about you.
Are student placements articling positions?
No. These are training placements, not an articling term under the Law Society of Ontario's licensing process, and the winter and summer law student terms are not paid summer positions. If the firm opens an articling position it will be posted separately and described as such.
Where is Barbarian Law's office and is attendance in person required?
The office is at 14981 Yonge Street, upstairs, in Aurora, Ontario, open Monday to Friday 8:00 to 16:00, Saturday 9:00 to 15:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 14:00. The Executive Legal Assistant role is hybrid. Student placements are in person, because sitting in on a closing or a client call does not survive being remote.
Can I apply to more than one track?
Yes, but say which one you would rather have and why. Applying to every track without a preference reads as applying to none. If you are genuinely strong at more than one, say that too — someone who can draft a resolution in the morning and write the explainer about it in the afternoon is unusually useful in a firm this size.
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.
Student and staff applications
Let us know what you can bring to the team.