McCarthy Tétrault: student program and recruit guide

McCarthy Tétrault is a national firm with one of the largest Toronto offices on Bay Street. Its student program is unusually well documented, from how summers are structured to what the in-firm interview looks like. Here is what it says, and what to know before call day.

At a glance

The summer program

Each summer student chooses two practice areas and works with both groups at the same time, with a different mentor in each (McCarthy Tétrault). The summer opens with orientation and a two-day research training workshop. Work includes meetings and hearings, research memos, drafting, and due diligence and closings, and students can join pro bono files. Feedback is informal throughout and formal once during the summer.

Articling and hireback

Articling runs 10 months. Business Law and Litigation are the typical rotations, and students can choose one or two more practice areas, including external rotations with major clients. Each rotation has at least one mentor, each student has a principal, and formal feedback comes twice. The Toronto office hires its articling class from its summer students and typically does not take part in the articling recruit (McCarthy Tétrault).

In Precedent's 2026 Bay Street hireback ranking, McCarthy Tétrault had 19 articling students, hired back 17, and had 2 opt-outs, for a hireback rate of 100% (Precedent). Precedent removes students who chose not to stay before it calculates the rate, so a lower number is not always a sign that the firm turned people away.

Applying and interviewing

• Application package: cover letter, complete resume, official law school, undergraduate, and graduate transcripts, and a list of upper-year courses. Writing samples and reference letters are not required.
• What the firm looks for: genuine interest in the practice and its clients, teamwork, a desire to learn, motivation, initiative, and judgment.
• Interview format: on-campus interviews first, then in-firm interviews scheduled on call day. In-firms run about 90 minutes with at least four lawyers and one student.

Recruit dates for summer 2027

The Law Society of Ontario's procedures set the same dates for McCarthy Tétrault and every other firm in the Toronto 2L recruit.

Use our free call day planner to rank your firms and book slots without clashes.

Pay

McCarthy Tétrault does not publish its student or associate pay. The Globe and Mail reported in 2025 that first-year associates at top-tier Bay Street firms earn about $135,000 before bonuses, and named McCarthy Tétrault among the firms that raised associate base pay (The Globe and Mail). For students, the median weekly pay at Toronto firms was $1,900 in NALP's 2025 Canadian survey (NALP). See our student salary guide and Bay Street salary scale.

Questions worth asking at McCarthy Tétrault

Good questions show you read about the firm and want to know how the work really runs. These come straight from how the firm describes its own program:

• How do students balance work from two practice groups at once over the summer?
• What do external client rotations during articling involve, and who gets them?
• How do students choose their extra articling rotations beyond Business Law and Litigation?

For more, read our guides to questions to ask law firms, in-firm interviews, and in-firm week etiquette.

Compare with the other Seven Sisters profiles: Blakes, Davies, Goodmans, Osler, Stikeman Elliott, Torys, or see all seven side by side.

This profile uses the firm's own student pages and the public sources linked below. Lateral Law Report is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any firm. Programs change from year to year, so confirm details with the firm's student programs team before you rely on them.