With Heenan Blaikie LLP set to close its doors in the coming months, students who had expected to article or summer at the firm’s Toronto office have been forced to re-enter the job market.

Responding to this dilemma, Heenan Blaikie has asked a number of other law firms to take on the now-unplaced students — 14 of which were set to article, and 11 to become summer students.

It’s a tough sell, considering that top firms have already finalized their student rosters and that the gap between students and available student positions continues to grow, but the legal community seems willing to extend a hand.

“[Both the articling and summer students] have felt a lot of support from Heenan and they feel relatively confident, under the circumstances, that things are going to work out okay,” says Kim Bonnar, a manager at Osgoode Hall’s career development office. “Everyone I’ve talked to at other firms — just speaking with them on other topics — has been very supportive and said, ‘We’re willing to help out however we can to make sure that no one’s really left in the lurch.’”

If, despite every effort, these students still don’t find another articling position, they can enroll in the Law Practice Program (LPP) at Ryerson University and become licensed lawyers without articling.

The official deadline to sign up for the LPP, and to opt out of articling, on the LSUC website has passed, but students can “change their selection by contacting Licensing and Accreditation at the Law Society,” Susan Tonkin, a communications advisor at LSUC, said in an email.

Beyond the immediate aftermath, it’s too early to predict how the collapse of Heenan Blaikie will affect the broader job market, says Emily Orchard, director of the career development office at the University of Toronto faculty of law.

She says losing 14 articling positions in Toronto is, indeed, unfortunate, but it’s uncertain how many firms will emerge out of the firm’s remains — a spin-off firm is already in the works in Vancouver — and how many new jobs those firms will create.

Until then, says Bonnar, when it comes to this year’s batch of would-be Heenan Blaikie students, “there does seems to be a rallying in the legal community and that people are coming together [on their behalf].”