Breakwater Law

11/12/2023

Breakwater Law's Jacqueline Flett, business lawyer extraordinaire, summarizes what business owners and employers in BC need to know about the new Pay Transparency Act that came into effect on November 1, 2023.

New Requirements for BC Employers Posting Jobs November 12, 2023 by breakwateradmin Jacqueline Flett is a business lawyer practicing in Victoria, BC. Employers, be aware: fresh law in effect in BC this month takes aim at the gender pay gap, and also imposes significant obligations on BC employers. I...

08/25/2022

We are a full service law firm based in Victoria, B.C. We have two offices in Victoria, a virtual office up "north", and a practice that reaches across all of B.C.
We seek a legal receptionist, to start. We want to recruit someone who wants to learn, on the job, to become a legal assistant. Pay will increase over time as this person transitions from a receptionist to a junior legal assistant, and hopefully beyond.
Our firm is 99% paperless, modern, and grounded. This means our new team member needs to be totally comfortable with modern technology, including answering and operating phones, scanning documents, and using an e-mail client to review incoming and outgoing e-mails and to save them to their appropriate homes in our cloud-based document management system. They will also need to be comfy interacting with other team members using instant messenger programs (Slack), email, Zoom and anything else we discover from time to time. They're familiar with creating and editing PDFs using Adobe, and familiar generally with using Microsoft Office 365. While we can send our future teammate for some training on the more advanced features of Office 365, we do need them to be comfortable working with and formatting documents properly as a starting point. We print very little, but our receptionist will need to know how to change a printer drum or toner package from time to time. We use exclusively Mac machines at our firm, so comfort with using Macs is important.
Our ideal team member wants to wear jeans or other comfy, yet appropriate, clothes at work, and is okay with some good natured swearing around the office, and with lawyers both excitedly chatting about, and complaining about, our files, lawyers and/or the justice system in general, in their presence. Some of our existing team have pretty big personalities (i.e., hilarious, irreverent and/or loud, depending who you ask.. for example, Jo will tell you she is hilarious) and so our receptionist will need to be okay with that. This role probably isn't for the timid. We are lovely, kind, and funny people who often roam the firm barefoot, making jokes or telling stories.
Our future colleague understands that our legal team sometimes deals with sad or difficult, very rarely even disturbing, legal matters, and this means occasionally being exposed to some sad or difficult phone calls, file materials, or emails from or to our clients.
We are not OK with our team members being harassed or treated poorly by other lawyers or clients, and so our future colleague can expect to be treated with respect and dignity. We do not tolerate the toxic behaviours some lawyers and some law firms are known to exhibit towards their "support staff". Not here. We really are a team -- check out our website or Instagram, which speak for themselves in that regard.
The most important thing to us about our future receptionist is that they understand that they will be our face to our clients: their first impression of our firm. They need to be a people-person, and preferably have some experience in customer service. They behave appropriately with clients and other lawyers, and are able to speak confidently and eloquently on the phone and in written correspondence with the outside world. They have an absolute command of the English language.
We welcome all qualified candidates; legal assistant or receptionist experience would be a plus. Some of us are parents, and we understand that as a parent, it can be particularly difficult to find a position that understands, and is suitable for and flexible about, the need to drop off and pick up kids from daycare or school-- so, we want to flag that this position would be great for a parent with those kinds of needs. We need someone for around 32 hours a week, graduating up to full-time, and those hours can be flexibly scheduled from week to week, within reasonable limits that we can discuss with you.
We won't be contacting candidates who don't follow these instructions (because following instructions is, obviously, really important for this job): please email Jo directly -- not through Indeed-- a resume with a cover letter that demonstrates your command of Microsoft Word and the English language, and which shows us your personality.
Application deadline: 2022-08-31
Job Types: Part-time, Full-time
Part-time hours: 32 per week
Salary: $18.00 per hour
Benefits:
Casual dress
Flexible schedule
COVID-19 considerations:
We do most of our client meetings by Zoom or phone, these days, to reduce exposure potential. We have a robust COVID sickday policy and ask anyone with COVID exposure or contact to stay home, or work from home. We close offices during COVID outbreaks.
Ability to commute/relocate:
Victoria, BC: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Education:
Secondary School (required)
Experience:
Reception or admin assistance: 1 year (preferred)
Application deadline: 2022-08-31
Email application to reception(@)breakwaterlaw.ca

08/23/2022

We are a full service law firm based in Victoria, B.C. We have two offices in Victoria, a virtual office up "north", and a practice that reaches across all of B.C.

We seek a legal receptionist, to start. We want to recruit someone who wants to learn, on the job, to become a legal assistant. Pay will increase over time as this person transitions from a receptionist to a junior legal assistant, and hopefully beyond.

Our firm is 99% paperless, modern, and grounded. This means our new team member needs to be totally comfortable with modern technology, including answering and operating phones, scanning documents, and using an e-mail client to review incoming and outgoing e-mails and to save them to their appropriate homes in our cloud-based document management system. They will also need to be comfy interacting with other team members using instant messenger programs (Slack), email, Zoom and anything else we discover from time to time. They're familiar with creating and editing PDFs using Adobe, and familiar generally with using Microsoft Office 365. While we can send our future teammate for some training on the more advanced features of Office 365, we do need them to be comfortable working with and formatting documents properly as a starting point. We print very little, but our receptionist will need to know how to change a printer drum or toner package from time to time. We use exclusively Mac machines at our firm, so comfort with using Macs is important.

Our ideal team member wants to wear jeans or other comfy, yet appropriate, clothes at work, and is okay with some good natured swearing around the office, and with lawyers both excitedly chatting about, and complaining about, our files, lawyers and/or the justice system in general, in their presence. Some of our existing team have pretty big personalities (i.e., hilarious, irreverent and/or loud, depending who you ask.. for example, Jo will tell you she is hilarious) and so our receptionist will need to be okay with that. This role probably isn't for the timid. We are lovely, kind, and funny people who often roam the firm barefoot, making jokes or telling stories.

Our future colleague understands that our legal team sometimes deals with sad or difficult, very rarely even disturbing, legal matters, and this means occasionally being exposed to some sad or difficult phone calls, file materials, or emails from or to our clients.

We are not OK with our team members being harassed or treated poorly by other lawyers or clients, and so our future colleague can expect to be treated with respect and dignity. We do not tolerate the toxic behaviours some lawyers and some law firms are known to exhibit towards their "support staff". Not here. We really are a team -- check out our website or Instagram, which speak for themselves in that regard.

The most important thing to us about our future receptionist is that they understand that they will be our face to our clients: their first impression of our firm. They need to be a people-person, and preferably have some experience in customer service. They behave appropriately with clients and other lawyers, and are able to speak confidently and eloquently on the phone and in written correspondence with the outside world. They have an absolute command of the English language.

We welcome all qualified candidates; legal assistant or receptionist experience would be a plus. Some of us are parents, and we understand that as a parent, it can be particularly difficult to find a position that understands, and is suitable for and flexible about, the need to drop off and pick up kids from daycare or school-- so, we want to flag that this position would be great for a parent with those kinds of needs. We need someone for around 32 hours a week, graduating up to full-time, and those hours can be flexibly scheduled from week to week, within reasonable limits that we can discuss with you.

We won't be contacting candidates who don't follow these instructions (because following instructions is, obviously, really important for this job): please email Jo directly -- not through Indeed-- a resume with a cover letter that demonstrates your command of Microsoft Word and the English language, and which shows us your personality.

Application deadline: 2022-08-31

Job Types: Part-time, Full-time
Part-time hours: 32 per week

Salary: $18.00 per hour

Benefits:

Casual dress
Flexible schedule
COVID-19 considerations:
We do most of our client meetings by Zoom or phone, these days, to reduce exposure potential. We have a robust COVID sickday policy and ask anyone with COVID exposure or contact to stay home, or work from home. We close offices during COVID outbreaks.

Ability to commute/relocate:

Victoria, BC: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Education:

Secondary School (required)
Experience:

Reception or admin assistance: 1 year (preferred)
Application deadline: 2022-08-31

08/26/2021

We are a full service law firm based in Victoria, B.C. We have two offices in Victoria, a virtual office up "north", and a practice that reaches across all of B.C.

Our firm is 99% paperless, modern, and grounded. This means our new team member needs to be totally comfortable with modern technology, including answering and operating phones, scanning documents, and using an e-mail client to review incoming and outgoing e-mails and to save them to their appropriate homes in our cloud-based document management system. They will also need to be comfy interacting with other team members using instant messenger programs (Slack), email, Zoom and anything else we discover from time to time. They're familiar with creating and editing PDFs using Adobe, and with using Microsoft Office, including proper use of headings and numbering, etc. We can send you for some training on the more advanced features, but we do need you to be comfortable working with and formatting documents properly as a starting point. We print very little, but our receptionist will need to know how to change a printer drum or toner package from time to time. We use exclusively Mac machines at our firm, so comfort with using Macs is important.

Our ideal team member wants to wear jeans or other comfy, yet appropriate, clothes at work, and is okay with some good natured swearing around the office, and with lawyers both excitedly chatting about, and complaining about, our files, lawyers and/or the justice system in general, in their presence. Our future colleague understands that our legal team sometimes deals with sad or difficult, very rarely even disturbing, legal matters, and this means occasionally being exposed to some sad or difficult phone calls, file materials, or emails from or to our clients.

We are not OK with our team members being harassed or treated poorly by other lawyers or clients, and so our future colleague can expect to be treated with respect and dignity. We do not tolerate the toxic behaviours some other lawyers and other law firms are known to exhibit towards their "support staff". Not here. We really are a team -- check out our website, which speaks for itself in that regard.

The most important thing to us about our future receptionist is that they understand that they will be our face to our clients: their first impression of our firm. They need to be a people-person, and preferably have some experience in customer service. They behave appropriately with clients and other lawyers, and are able to speak confidently and eloquently on the phone and in written correspondence with the outside world. They have an absolute command of the English language.

We welcome all qualified candidates. Some of us are parents, and we understand that as a parent, it can be particularly difficult to find a position that understands, and is suitable for and flexible about, the need to drop off and pick up kids from daycare or school-- so, we want to flag that this position would be great for a parent with those kinds of needs. We need someone for up to 25 hours a week, and those hours can be flexibly scheduled from week to week, within reasonable limits that we can discuss with you.

Please send us a cover letter and resume that demonstrates your command of Microsoft Word and the English language, and shows us your personality. Applications will be reviewed until September 10, 2021.

08/26/2021

Office doggy date: two doodles and a lab, all in their court finest.

06/14/2021

Who wouldn't want to come work with us, and with Kevin? Someone on here joked that maybe Kevin should apply for the open associate position. Kevin comes to work n**e and eats files, so unfortunately I don't think he'll make the interview stage. Sorry, Kevin. But you can remain our cute and beloved office dog.

06/08/2021

We are hiring!

We are seeking an associate lawyer of 2+ years of call, and preferably, but not necessarily, with a significant amount of family law experience, to join our team at Breakwater Law. The position is, at your choice, a combination of remote work, work-from-home, and in-person work. (If you elect to work remotely/from home, you will need to get yourself to Victoria for any in-person court appearances.)

We are a firm based in Victoria, BC, but we have a virtual office up “north”, and a practice that reaches across all of B.C. For more info on our firm, please visit https://breakwaterlaw.ca/.

Our team practices general civil litigation, wills and estates, estate litigation, and does small- to medium- sized business law work, along with some criminal law and the occasional admin law file. We, like most frontlines firms in B.C., have a lot of family law work.

We are ideally seeking a litigator, to take up a very active general litigation practice. That said, we would welcome a solicigator who wants to develop a general practice, or, a litigator who wants to try a taste of solicitor’s work, and decide if it’s for them; if it’s not, well, that’s fine. We presently have on our team an 11yr solicigator, a 3yr solicigator, two 2-3yr litigators and an 8yr litigator.

Our firm is 99% paperless, modern, and grounded. Our ethos centres on being approachable to clients, taking sensible routes to meaningful outcomes for clients, and on finding legal solutions that are practical and holistic, not only about dollars, or about who "won" or "lost". While those are frequently important, a good result for our clients also encompasses the big picture, and includes such critical successes as prioritizing the needs of children, or preserving dignity and mental health.

Our ideal team member wants to wear jeans or other comfy clothes at work, enjoys -- or is at least okay with -- good-natured swearing, and isn't interested in playing control games or getting into ego contests on our clients’ time. They have at least 2 full years of call, and have experience working directly with clients and in managing their own files. They work to live, not live to work.

Our future colleague will be expected to generate strong billings, which isn't particularly difficult in Victoria on the 9-5 island life. Our ideal teammate has a strong work ethic and is able to manage their own time effectively without being micromanaged; we don’t care about bums in seats, or face time, but, we do care that everyone is putting in the work required to advance our team and our brand in the community.

We offer a salary plus bonus model, where the salary provides guaranteed income and stability, but the bonus confers autonomy over just how much you wish to work.

We seek a team member who will build a reputation as a measured, thoughtful and prepared advocate, one who takes strong but reasonable positions on files, and who prefers appropriate candour over posturing, whether in or outside court.

In our team, you will be actively mentored and developed as a lawyer. You will enjoy regular check-ins with a senior lawyer on your files, and you will work with our experienced lawyers as a second chair, as well as on your own files. If you want to develop your own practice and leave and open your own firm down the line, we’ll even teach you to do that, too.

Those interested in joining our team should please contact our senior lawyer by email, attaching their CV and a cover letter that encapsulates why they think they’re a good fit.

03/05/2021

We are thrilled to formally announce the addition of Gabriella Jamieson to our Breakwater Law team! Gabriella joins us after scooping the McIntyre Gold Medal from UVic's Faculty of Law, following which she clerked at the Supreme Court of B.C. Read about her achievements and career so far on her bio at http://breakwaterlaw.ca/gabriella-jamieson/

Gabriella Jamieson she/her Originally from Cape Town, South Africa, I grew up on Vancouver’s North Shore. Prior to my legal career, I trained in dance and completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in New York City, at Fordham University and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. A few years lat...

02/23/2021

Ticked off a life bucket list item today: appear in court wearing a necktie, preferably without getting in trouble. The Judge was just fantastic, and, not a word about it - who says the bar and bench can't be progressive?

06/10/2020

IT’S OPEN!! 😍🌈 Enjoying a cold one over lunch at The Vicious Poodle. Proud to be hanging out at our new neighbourhood queer-owned and operated pub. Can’t wait for the first drag show. 🌈🌈🌈

03/24/2020

Ask an expert: how to stay connected with your kid while co-parenting with shared custody during social isolation.

Shared Custody and Social Distancing: Staying Connected, Apart March 24, 2020 by breakwateradmin Guest blogger Rhiannon Webb is a relationship and divorce coach and educator in Victoria, BC where she works in private practice. Find out more at http://divorcecoachcanada.com http://corvidawellness.com...

03/20/2020

We've always operated remotely, so... of course we're still "open"! Our lawyers are all working from home and our main phone line is still being handled by the fantastic Val, holding the fort single-handedly at the office. We aren't doing in person appointments, rather, phone and video appointments, and we are, as always, using email and cloud based technology for any document sharing.

Give us a call for help with your legal work! We're incredibly easy and flexible to deal with. Business, family, wills and estates, disputes, contracts, criminal law... we're full service. 250 999 8966 or [email protected]