Throughout the world legal parlance, each country and jurisdiction has its own educational requirements for entry into its legal profession. The standard formal and informal requirements and experiences needed for one to access the legal profession also depend on whether a Sate is a civil or common law jurisdiction. Canada is an example of common law country and applies common law standards and rules for access and entry into its legal profession.
The Canadian legal profession access and entry requires one to meet the laid down legal requirements for anybody who wishes to join the profession as solicitors and attorney barristers. On the issue of access to the legal profession, one of the Canadian provinces, Ontario, has enacted The Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the formal and informal education, background and experiences needed to access the Canadian Law Profession. The effectiveness of the required standards for entry and access in the profession will also be analyzed.
The regulation is both at national and territorial levels in Canada with each province having its own law society. It is a mandatory requirement that one be a member of the relevant law society in his respective province for one to practice law. For judges, they are required to possess a valid law degree from an accredited law institution. Judges are further required to have experience of law, having practiced as a lawyer for a reasonable period. They are also required to obtain a license if they wish to practice as lawyers.
The Canadian legal education prepares students for admission into the legal practice and the bar. The starting point for anybody who wishes to practice law under the Canadian legal system and profession is a formal University education. One must have undergone college education and attended a law school. Canada has fourteen provinces and territories with their individual law schools that offer various law programs. Each of these provinces has its own law societies. There is therefore a state by state entry or access requirement for the Canadian legal profession but overall, there is a national body called the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (FLSC) that develops the national regulatory standards of education necessary to enable one joins the legal profession.
The formal legal education is regulated at the provincial level. Canada lacks a national accreditation body for its law schools, but there are several associations exist that do the regulation at the local level. For entry into most Canadian law schools, a Bachelor of Science (BS) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) suffice as requirement. This is after having passed the Law Admission Test (LSAT).Finally, after sitting for and passing the law school exams, one needs approval by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). A Certificate of qualification to be a lawyer is then issued by the NCA. In addition, one is required to have completed a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B) or Juris Doctor (J.D) program for them to be admitted to the bar for any of the Canadian provinces. One is then required to complete a further Bar Admission Course for the respective territory of Canada.
The Canadian formal legal education system ranges from two to four years of university for an undergraduate degree program and three years degree program in law.
One of the most important aspects of the informal education as a means of access and entry into the Canadian legal system is articling. Articling refers to a form of apprenticeship arrangement between an experienced lawyer and a student. This period involves a student engaging with an experienced legal practitioner who teaches them the best practices in the legal profession for a period of nine months. Informally, the Canadian legal system allows one to access the legal process without having gone through the formal law school education course. This informal education is mainly in the form of training and apprenticeship in the legal skills. The training is carried out in various law firms in Canada. The Various law societies also offer training on the required legal skills. Finally, for admission to the Bar, one must go through the Bar Admission Course (BAC) where one acquires the relevant legal skills and knowledge particularly in the province of Ontario.
According to the Law Society of Canada, the following criteria should be used as the benchmarks of competencies required for entry into the Canadian law society bar licensing and admission into the legal profession:
Skills in legal research
Statutory interpretation skills and principles
Ethical and professional principles
Basics of Canadian common law such as criminal law, torts, property and contracts law
Proper mastery of common law principles, doctrines and sources as applicable in Canada
Constitutional law
The regulatory nature of the Canadian legal profession dates back from 1797 when a group of lawyers founded the Law Society of Upper Canada. By then, the lawyers governed their own affairs and from there on, no one would be admitted to the legal profession without the approval of the Society. The Law Society would at some point in time apply rules and regulations to restrict entry in the legal profession of non-lawyers. The legal background for access into the Canadian legal profession is based on the Code of Professional Conduct for lawyers. Most law schools require an individual to have an experience of up to two years.
One is required by the code to show some level of competency by applying the relevant knowledge, skills and attributes while in the legal profession. The Code of Professional Conduct also requires one to be able to offer quality legal skills once admitted to the Bar or Bench hence, very strict requirements are put in place by the Canadian Bar Association. One must be able to demonstrate a high level of experience and background information on most legal aspects of the profession. In one of the reports by the Tickling Task Force to the Canadian Bar Association, the report notes that licensing of lawyers in Canada is an invaluable and integral part of the Canadian Law Society’s mandate in regulating the legal profession in the interest of the public. The report proposes that there should be a transition to practice period before one can be licensed to practice as a lawyer in Canada. It also recommends a pre-licensing training period before one can be licensed to practice in Canada.
It is further argued that there are still challenges in relation to equity and access into the Canadian legal profession as some communities in Canada are still unrepresented in the Canadian Bar and Bench.
The Canadian legal profession has various National Admission Standards such as the National Competency and Good Character Standards that require a high level of professionalism from anybody who wishes to join or access the profession. There are also National Standards for Approving Law School Degree Programs and National Requirements for Canadian Common Law Degree Programs. All these are aimed at ensuring that only those who have undergone rigorous training programs and show the ability to render legal services to the public competently are legible to join the legal profession and receive the Canadian Law Societies’ practicing license. Chapter one of the Model Code of Professional Conduct states the Standards required of the Canadian legal profession as integrity and competence.
These educational requirements and experience under the Canadian legal profession may receive opposition and criticisms on the basis that the admission standards are not uniform or consistent across Canadian provinces. The accreditation requirements for lawyers and law schools by the various law societies in Canada is also open to challenge on the grounds that there it sometimes allows incompetent institutions offering substandard to operate and provide law courses for Canadian law students.
It has been suggested that the existing entry requirements and regulations into the Canadian legal profession such as education standard requirements still have the effect of restricting entry into the profession for some disadvantaged groups in Canada who would otherwise make good attorneys. The Canadian law school and Bar Exams have been lauded as means of ensuring quality control in the profession, but have also been opposed by many who feel they are a barrier to many who would like to join the profession and lack the required education standards.
The Canadian law profession places barriers to foreign students from civil law jurisdictions to join the system. However, these are mere restrictions and not complete barriers. The foreign students who wish to gain access to the legal profession in Canada are required to sit and pass additional examinations before they can be admitted into the profession.
The Canadian Bar Association (CBA), in one of its resolutions notes that there are several barriers and inequalities that restrict entry and access into the legal system and proposes a number of measures to be taken to make the profession more liberal while at the same time maintaining quality standards. The association notes barriers in the legal practice whereby private law firms are restricted and proposes these restrictions be relaxed. In the Resolution, the Association also states that the Association needs to develop an objective criterion for appointing of judicial officers such as judges and make public such criteria to the public.
Recently, there have been restrictions on articling services for foreign students in Canada and this action by the Canadian legal profession and the law society. While this regulated barrier is in the interest of Canadian student lawyers, it has been opposed and harshly vilified on the basis that it is unfair and restricts access to justice by the general public. The opponents argue that such regulations that restrict Students from Ontario from Practising in other provinces, for example, goes against the spirit of access to justice and legal information.
The paper has discussed the educational or academic experiences and requirements needed in order for one to access the law profession in Canada. From the above discussion, it is evident that there are strict legal requirement standards for entry into the legal profession, some of which are efficacious in preserving the integrity and nobility of the profession. Some of these professional standard requirements can however operate as barriers to access to justice and the legal profession in general.
