Career Connections offers a variety of networking opportunities and professional exchanges for common law students, to inform and equip them for early legal career success.
uOttawa law students will have the opportunity to meet with both private sector organizations and public interest organizations, attend the session ‘You Belong Here: Networking with Confidence in Law School’, and get a professional headshot taken.
Listen attentively, gather information, ask questions, and build your professional network. Most importantly, have fun!
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
12 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. - Check-In (Canada Room Entrance)
1 p.m. – 2:10 p.m. - Breakout Sessions
2:10 p.m. – 2:25 p.m. - Break
2:25 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. - Breakout Sessions
3:35 – 3:50 p.m. - Break
3:50 p.m. – 5 p.m. - Breakout Sessions
Breakout Sessions:
Public Interest Organizations Networking Circuit (Canada Room Foyer)
Private Sector Organizations Networking Circuit (Atlantic-Pacific Room)
You Belong Here: Networking with Confidence in Law School (Arctic Room)
Networking including a rotation with private sector and public interest organizations, a networking training session, and professional headshot!
Representatives from practice settings of different shapes, sizes and locations, across the private and public interest sectors.
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The National Arts Centre, 1 Elgin Street, in Ottawa.
Step out of your comfort zone and bring your whole, authentic, energetic self to the event. Keep an open mind and let the magic happen!
Because the connections you build with the legal community, now, while in law school, will help ensure your long-term success in this profession!
Walking into a room full of employers can spark a swirl of internal thoughts: What do I say? How do I make myself stand out? Everyone else seems to know what they’re doing. What if I freeze?
If any of that sounds familiar, you’re not alone - and this session is for you.
Designed especially for law students launching their careers, this interactive one-hour workshop will help you approach networking with greater confidence, clarity, and authenticity. Rather than focusing on scripts or self-promotion, the session explores how to build genuine professional connections by understanding your strengths, regulating nerves, and showing up as yourself.
Through reflection, discussion, and guided activities, students will learn how to reframe anxiety, identify the value they bring to conversations, set realistic goals for networking events, and practice engaging with curiosity and presence.
You will leave with practical tools you can use immediately, along with the reminder that feeling nervous and being capable can coexist. You belong in these rooms and this session will help you walk into them knowing it.
Lana Saleh is a bilingual (English/French) lawyer, facilitator, and speaker specializing in emotional intelligence, communication, and professional development within the legal profession. With over twenty years of experience as a presenter and facilitator, she brings a practical, empathetic, and highly relatable approach to skill-building in high pressure academic and professional environments.
A University of Ottawa Alumna, LLB 2007, and called to the bar in 2008, Lana draws on her lived experience as a lawyer to address the real-world demands of legal education and practice. She has worked with law students, lawyers, and legal organizations, including the University of Ottawa, Programme de pratique du droit, Legal Aid Ontario, the Canadian Bar Association, and the Law Society of Ontario, among others.
Lana designs and delivers training that integrates emotional intelligence with communication and professional identity development. Drawing on her background in law, psychology, art, and communication studies, she delivers Law Society–accredited professional development that is reflective, practical, and immediately applicable for students and legal professionals alike.
Understand your commitment. Once you register, you are expected to follow through and attend the event, barring exceptional circumstances.
The event may be photographed or recorded for use in promotional material by the Faculty of Law.
Filling out the registration form will take you approximately 5 minutes.
Registration opens February 17 and closes February 23. Sign-up for the event before you leave for Reading Week!
Trouble Signing Up? Email [email protected].
Monitor your email and prepare for the event using the resources and information provided on the Career Connections Brightspace page. For any additional questions, email [email protected].
