Drafting Successful Cover Letter with Updated Samples

WHEN

Live webinar August 5, 2022 @ 12:00 PM EST 
OR available available video recording

INSTRUCTOR

Chantal Desloges

DURATION

3 hours

SUMMARY: This workshop will involve an in-depth discussion of how to write excellent and persuasive submission cover letters in order to maximize your client’s chance of success. Practical exercises and examination of well-drafted precedents will provide specific examples to flesh out attendees’ understanding. Ethical and professionalism responsibility considerations regarding honest submissions and client service will also be addressed.

  • Overview ​
  • Background knowledge
    • Know your Act, Regulations and policy instruments
    • Understand the legal test
    • How to properly research
  • Theory of the Case
    • Identify your strongest and weakest facts
    • Tie the facts to the legal test
    • Clearly state your elevator pitch
  • Conceptualizing your submission letter
    • Do your subheadings first
    • Think about your introduction and conclusion
    • Address and mitigate your weaknesses
  • Best Practices
    • Avoid procrastination
    • Use of quotations and excerpts
    • Evidence is everything
    • Think critically
    • Use plain language
  • ​Common Errors and Pitfalls​
    • ​Disorganized presentation
    • Lack of evidence
    • No connection between facts/law/evidence
    • Over-reliance on precedents
  • Ethical Considerations​
    • ​How to handle suspected false documents
    • Confronting contradictions and implausibilities
    • Setting fair fees
    • How to deal with clients who don’t follow advice
  • ​Practical Exercises
    • ​Review and critique of sample precedents
    • Brainstorming a sample legal argument
    • Brainstorming a sample document list
  • Questions and answers 

See Full Course Outline

CPD CREDITS

 For Lawyers and Paralegals

Law Society of Ontario
   • Substantive Hours: The program in eligible for up to 2.5 hours
   • Substantive Hours: The program contains 30 minutes of Professionalism Content

Law Society of British Columbia
   • Approved for 3 CPD credits

Law Societies of Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia

   • For members of these Law Societies, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your mandatory annual requirements

For Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants

College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants
    • Approved for 3 CPD hours
    • Video recording valid until August 5, 2023

Purchasing Options

This course is no longer for sale. 

Click below to see an updated version:

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If you are interested in several previous year courses, reach out to us at [email protected]

Your Instructor

Chantal Desloges

Barrister & Solicitor - Certified Specialist

Senior Partner, Desloges Law Group

Chantal Desloges is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in both Citizenship/Immigration law and Refugee law. Her practice encompasses every possible area of Canadian citizenship, immigration and refugee law, such as business class applications, skilled workers, family sponsorships, work and study permits, refugee cases, citizenship applications, plus Appeals and Judicial Reviews of refused cases. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1999 and is the founding and senior partner of Desloges Law Group.

​Chantal taught Immigration Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000/2001. She also taught in the Immigration Practitioner Certificate Programme at Seneca College from 1999 – 2010 and the Immigration Consultant Diploma at Herzing College from 2015 – 2018. She currently teaches a number of continuing professional development programs for LPEN, IMEDA and the Ontario Bar Association, among others.

​In November, 2016, Chantal and her good friend Cathryn Sawicki published the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law: A Practitioner’s Handbook. Chantal has been called upon 15 times by Parliamentary and Senate Committees to appear as an expert witness on immigration and refugee issues.

​In 2012, Chantal was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, followed by the Canadian Bar Association Young Lawyers’ Pro Bono award. In 2013, Chantal was appointed by the Minister of Justice to serve on the Federal Court Rules Committee, and was reappointed for a further term in 2016. In 2014, Chantal was also elected to the Executive of the Canadian Bar Association, Immigration Section, where she served until 2018.

​Chantal is a regular immigration commentator on CTV Power Play, and has been interviewed by both national and local television stations such as CBC, CTV National News, W5, Canada AM, Global News and CP24. She has also been interviewed and quoted in national and local newspapers such as the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, National Post and the Ottawa Citizen. 

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