Ivana Peloza is a 3L JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School. This article was written as a requirement for Prof. Pina D’Agostino’s IP Intensive Program.

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s foremost news media company, a nationally-distributed newspaper with one of the largest circulations in Canada. The newspaper’s print and digital formats reach over 6 million readers every week, with Report on Business magazine reaching over 2.5 million readers every issue in print and digital. When I was placed with The Globe and Mail as part of Osgoode’s IP Intensive program, however, I certainly did not expect the extent to which I would be intertwined in the world of tech. Publishing is, of course, one of the core copyright industries – if not the core industry historically associated with copyright. IP law in publishing, especially at The Globe –  who is known for being an early provider of digital media and device-agnostic content delivery – goes far beyond copyright infringement and litigation. There are significant overlaps and considerations to think of with the roll-out of a privacy policy, consumer protection laws, and a range of different agreements including those related to advertising, purchase and sale, events, and content production freelancer rights.

Over the course of my time at The Globe, I gained vast and multidisciplinary experience, but three major themes emerged within my practical and research work: privacy, contracts, and data protection. On my very first day, my supervisor (thankfully) lent me a copy of The Tech Contracts Handbook: Cloud Computing Agreements, Software Licenses, and Other IT Contracts for Lawyers and Businesspeople by David Tollen to start familiarizing myself with these themes. Complying with privacy regulations, especially in IT contracts, is as important as it can be misunderstood. Especially in an era of rapidly developing regulation and technology surrounding privacy, corporate organizations have a strict duty to continually follow the developments in Canadian privacy and data protection law as it relates to different jurisdictions.

My internship also allowed me to reflect on and speak with my supervisor about the differences – between working in-house versus private practice. For instance, private practice may have an entire staff dedicated to accomplishing just one specific aspect of a privacy or contracts matter whereas in-house lawyers might deal collaboratively with the whole breadth of a legal process. In-house has the potential to, therefore, offer a much greater variety and scope of practice and expertise. If my experience at the Globe has taught me anything, it's that this type of legal work makes the days more interesting, in my opinion!

An in-house legal department is also intimately intertwined with the organization’s commercial decision-making. Learning how to navigate the specific challenges of interdisciplinary brainstorming, drafting, and decision-making was a significant takeaway as well. Often, legal professionals or a corporation’s legal team will be coming late compared to the business process and left out of major contractual decisions. Sometimes, however, as was the case with the incredibly accomplished lawyers who I was lucky enough to learn from at The Globe, just by virtue of experience, the legal professionals have beneficial insight into the commercial deal process. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes it leads to “spinning of wheels” but the point is there is deal structure expertise that isn’t always brought until after the deal is “set.” One of the jobs is to try to get further upstream – even if you’re not necessarily trying to be involved in the day-to-day happenings – but you need to find a way to have some perspective and plan more effectively.

To this point, I often reflected on a piece of advice I was given on the very first day of the IP Intensive Seminars. When I asked the alumni speakers their advice for someone who has never had a summer legal placement before, Denver Bandstra, Associate at Bereskin & Parr LLP, reminded me that I would get used to it “just like any other job.” Like any job, there will always be work-place procedure and workflow that requires orientation and practice. Learning the workflow of a contract renewal and negotiations, or the day-to-day contrast for an in-house lawyer compared to a private practice lawyer, only comes from experience. The experience given in the IP Intensive program, for that reason, is the most worthwhile part of my legal education so far. And particularly, as all things in IP and technology law are proving to be, developing knowledge and familiarity with data and privacy, the Internet and disruptive technology is worthwhile – not just for a career in IP law, but also for any person using social media in the digital age.

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As I completed my placement at The Globe, it’s worth noting that I haven’t seen a newsroom or handled A3 newsprint. Like many of my peers learning law in the time of pandemic, I’ve spent the semester hunched over a computer in a corner of my apartment. At the same time, I’ve been fortunate to have virtual experiences that most law students won’t: I’ve met with The Globe and Mail’s legal counsel on a weekly basis, supporting them with a variety of issues within and beyond the ambit of intellectual property law.

Before beginning my placement, I suspected that much of my work would relate to The Globe’s digital platforms and services. An unabashed bibliophile, I prefer print to screen but concede that screen is here to stay. After all, I may stubbornly insist on lugging an 800-page novel or casebook, but I’d be lying if I said that most of my reading takes place offline. Personal admissions aside, this assumption was, in part, correct. While print may not be dead, the digital continues to change how businesses operate and innovate. What I did underestimate was the extent to which such shifts implicate unexpected considerations and areas of law. For instance, I expected my assignments to engage copyright, trademark, and privacy, but consumer protection was a welcome surprise.

And perhaps this was my favourite part of the internship: gaining exposure to terms, practices, and industries I’d never heard of, through the lens of law. As surreal as it was to undertake my first trademark check or draft a notice of infringement, the deliverables that pushed me out of my comfort zone—be it research on advertising technology, or the review of a wire services agreement—were the most memorable. The internship fostered a space to put knowledge to practice, but it gave me a chance to learn beyond the four corners of a syllabus as well.

Now, it’s impossible to reflect on one’s experience at a news media company in 2020 without broaching one of the year’s biggest headlines: namely, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. When I applied for Osgoode’s in January, I imagined I’d spend my fall in an office. This never happened; however, distance did not diminish the warmth and professionalism with which I was welcomed by The Globe’s legal team. My supervisor, Yovan Grulovic, made an effort to understand my interests and assigned tasks aligned with them. The Globe’s Associate General Counsel, Sophia Javed, similarly strove to include me in conversations and projects as often as possible. I sincerely appreciated their mentorship and the time they made to invest in my experiential education. It was a pleasure and privilege to witness their approaches to in-house lawyering—under unprecedented circumstances, no less.

In addition to this wonderful group at The Globe, I extend many thanks to Professor D’Agostino, Professor Vaver, and Olha Senyshyn for their commitment to the IP Intensive. It can’t be easy to facilitate remotely a program that promises practical experience, but they did just this, and they did it well. Needless to say, if you are a student interested in intellectual property, technology, and in-house legal experience, this is the opportunity for you. As I complete my final semester at Osgoode, I can swiftly say that this one was particularly rewarding.

Written by Halyna Chumak, JD Candidate 2021, enrolled in Professors D’Agostino’s and Vaver’s 2020/2021 IP Law & Technology Intensive Program at Osgoode Hall Law School. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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During my short stay, I had the chance to work on a wide and interesting range of legal areas. The majority of my work was focused on copyright and privacy law but I was also able to work on matters related to advertising, defamation, and contract law. It turns out that, to a private corporation, the minutiae of contract law matter a lot. There were many moments where I wished I had not sold off my 1L contracts textbook for coffee money. My tasks consisted of legal research and writing, creating briefs and memos on a variety of legal topics, and often just answering questions which had any semblance of a legal element. I was always kept busy, and it made the time fly by. The legal team at the Globe is small but very talented, and I am grateful for their guidance and the occasional patience I surely invoked. The Globe's legal concerns are diverse, ranging from agreements with vendors, advertisers, advertising platforms, print-houses and various operational service providers, to management of legal risk attached to the every bit of text and every image on a published Globe product, to ensuring that subscriber information is always protected, especially when transferred to a third-party. Frankly, I saw merely a glimpse of the projects the legal team is working on at any given time, but it was enough to conclude that in-house practice truly is a buffet (a swirling vortex?) of legal work suited to the keenest minds. I would gladly have extended my time at the Globe were it possible.

Overall, my time at the Globe will be an unforgettable part of my law school journey, and I am glad to have taken on the opportunity. I honed the skills from past work experiences and applied them in a new context, and the results will surely be valuable as I move into articling. I would go so far as to say that, beyond merely the OPIR requirement, Osgoode 3Ls would greatly benefit from spending a semester of their third year at a law firm, clinic or a private organization. More so than the highly structured summer programs, this would act as a more practical transition into articling. In the meantime, the IP Intensive fulfills this gap and allows students the opportunity to get a rare glimpse into the legal work of IP-related organizations, and I cannot recommend it enough.

Asaad Hussain is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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But if you’d told me a few years ago that I could spend an entire semester of law school in the heart of a buzzing newsroom at one of the country’s most respected media companies, my answer would probably have been, “no way.” Yet that is exactly where I found myself this past September as I began my ten-week placement at as part of Osgoode’s m.

The Globe’s offices on Front Street are something of a time capsule, the walls adorned with pictures of historic moments and framed editions of the paper from decades past. A vault-sized safe beside my desk contains many well-preserved artifacts, including a bill of sale transferring ownership of the newspaper in the nineteenth century and the handgun famously used by a disgruntled Globe employee to shoot the predecessor paper’s founder, George Brown, in 1880.

Such iconic moments gave a sense of heft and significance to the organization, but there proved to be little time to sit around and stare at the walls. At The Globe, I was expected to do real work from day one. And while I came in anticipating to do a fair amount of IP-related work—and I did—what impressed me the most was the vast range of corporate-commercial work, from advertising, information technology, to civil disputes, in addition to copyright, trademark and, to some degree, patent work.

As an intern in a four-person legal department, I was on the front lines by necessity. That meant, for example, liaising with the business unit responsible for a third party vendor contract, working with the advertising department to ensure a Globe subscriber survey is compliant with anti-spam law, and serving as the point of contact for external counsel for defamation law matters. Sometimes all in the same day!

The level of responsibility I was trusted with at The Globe allowed me to see firsthand the inner workings of a world-class media organization with a thriving, engaged readership and a great digital strategy. To say that you cannot get this type of experience in law school would be a huge understatement. As in-house counsel, it is not simply your job to tell the organization what the law is, but rather to ensure that legal advice is implemented in a way that fits within the company’s overall strategic and business goals. This interplay between law and business breathed life into my legal studies in a way classroom learning is unable to do.

While the work itself was fulfilling, I was equally impressed with the organizational culture and camaraderie at The Globe. Memorable highlights include a Halloween costume competition, champagne-assisted going away parties, and a healthy dose of charity raffles. You get the sense that employees at The Globe enjoy not only what they do, but the people they do it with.

As The Globe prepares to move into a brand new home on the east side of downtown later in 2016, I feel incredibly privileged to have been with this organization in the last moments of the historic Front Street offices it has inhabited since 1974.

I want to thank my supervisors at The Globe and all the individuals who made my experience so rewarding and fulfilling. The opportunity to participate in the IP Intensive has truly been one of the highlights of my law school career.

And for this one-time student journalist, it has shown me that maybe you can have the best of both worlds.

Brendan Monahan is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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What do The Globe’s in-house lawyers do?

I applied to the intensive program with the goal of gaining insight into the challenges faced by media companies in managing their brands, intellectual property assets, and technology. The Globe and Mail was a perfect fit for me. More than just Canada’s newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail (The Globe) is a digitally savvy media company that owns award-winning media products such as the  magazine and . Working with in-house counsel at the organization, I was able to engage not only in my areas of interest, but also other areas of law that I hadn’t realized were central to the daily practice of law for corporate counsel.

At The Globe, in-house counsel advise on any matters that concern the company. In additional to corporate/commercial work, in-house counsel maintain The Globe’s trademarks, advise on copyright and defamation matters, and liaise with editorial teams on content licensing and freelancer agreements. Their central role is to limit the company’s liability as much as possible, assess the risk of every new endeavour, and provide direction and advice to various business teams to ensure compliance of regulatory matters.


The benefit of a placement with The Globe

The learning curve at the beginning of any intensive program is high. During my first week at The Globe, I vetted an advertisement’s compliance with , had a thirty-minute rundown of trademark law before filing my first renewal, amended contest rules to comply with the terms and conditions of various social media platforms, and reviewed a number of commercial contracts.

As I spent more time at The Globe, I gained insight into the broader organizational concerns that face not just media companies, but other organizations in Canada. Negotiating cross-jurisdictional agreements with vendors, determining when external counsel should be consulted, and gaining the ability to build strong relationships with various teams throughout the company are transferable skills that will be an asset in any future employment. As well, a large portion of my work was in the area of privacy law, which is hard to gain experience with in law school.

What I gained more than anything from my intensive placement is a sense of fulfillment above and beyond the end-of-semester ah-ha moment in a class. Working as part of The Globe’s in-house legal team instilled in me a sense of professionalism and a renewed my interest in legal practice. It also drew upon what I had learned in traditional IP and black letter law classes. Since one cannot be an expert in every area of law, my time at the company taught me how to face new legal challenges with confidence.

I am grateful to my supervisors at The Globe, and all of the employees that guided and supported my learning. I am happy to have been given a variety of responsibilities, the opportunity to gain a first hand understanding of the operations of a large organization, all with the right balance of independence and supervision. The IP intensive program has been the highlight of my law school experience to the extent that I, like many of my peers, am sad to see the semester end.

Faye Alipour is a JD Candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and was enrolled in Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program. As part of the program requirements, students were asked to write a reflective blog on their internship experience.

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We have a wonderful array of , from government agencies to media organizations, hi-tech companies, and innovation centres. For the Fall 2013 term, we have partnered with three brand new placement organizations: Apotex, Cobalt Pharmaceuticals Company (the Canadian subsidy of Actavis, Inc.) and CBC/Radio-Canada. We are also pleased to welcome the return of TVO from our inaugural year. Other IP intensive placement organizations include: Canadian Heritage, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, Industry Canada (Copyright and International IP Policy Branch), the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), Stanford Centre for Legal Informatics (CodeX), The Globe and Mail, and VentureLAB.

The IP Intensive is a unique program that gives students practical, experiential education in a workplace setting for an entire term in lieu of being in the classroom. Our students gain valuable practical experience which will assist them in obtaining employment after law school, and some of our students' research in the program has been published in the (IPJ).

The IP Intensive begins with , led by IP Intensive Students currently enrolled in the IP Intensive, which will feature presentations and workshops by experts prominent in the IP community. The seminars will cover a wide variety of topics, from “Trade-mark Prosecution” to “Intellectual Property Reform Process”, from “Biotechnology Focus: Pharma” to “Digital Media, Journalism, Freedom of Expression”.  Our IP Intensive students will be interacting and engaging in stimulating discussions with the Chair of the Trade-marks Opposition Board, a senior policy analyst from Canadian Heritage (Copyright Policy Branch), counsel from the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office, in-house counsel and top executives from a broad range of industries, practitioners from the major Canadian law firms, academics and members of the judiciary. Then IP Intensive Student Interns will participate in an 11-week internship with one of our placement partners.

The program director for 2013 will be Professor David Vaver. Throughout the term, the students will be meeting with him periodically to discuss topics relating to intellectual property law, to share their experiences in the work environment, and to participate in a cross-pollination of ideas. The students will also be maintaining a reflective journal and blog on the . They are also responsible to lead their own seminar presentations, which will occupy the wrap-up week of the course.

If you are interested in attending any of our sessions or participating as a placement, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me directly.

Giuseppina D’Agostino is the Founder and Director of IP Osgoode, an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, and the Founder of the IP Intensive.

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