See photos of the mobility agreement signing ceremony

Representatives of eight law societies across Canada today signed a breakthrough agreement allowing lawyers from one province the ability to provide legal services in another with very little impediment.

"The National Mobility Agreement aims to facilitate temporary and permanent mobility of lawyers among Canadian jurisdictions," said Sherron Dickson, President of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada at a special signing ceremony at Osgoode Hall in Toronto. "The Federation is pleased to play this leadership role in fostering greater cooperation among law societies to address emerging issues in the legal profession in the public interest."

"This agreement is a significant breakthrough," said Professor Vern Krishna, Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada and Chair of the Federation's Mobility Task Force. "Never before in the history of this country has the legal profession seen mobility to this extent. This agreement makes legal services more accessible for clients whose legal needs cross provincial boundaries."

Signatories of the new agreement include representatives of the Law Societies of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and the Law Society of Upper Canada. The Barreau du Québec also signed the agreement, though as a civil law jurisdiction, different criteria will apply. As other jurisdictions endorse the agreement there will be further signings.

Under the agreement, which calls for the creation of a national registry of practising lawyers, lawyers of common law signatory jurisdictions can provide legal services in, or with respect to the law of another common law signatory jurisdiction for up to 100 days on a temporary basis without permit.

To be eligible to do so they must be entitled to practise law without restriction in a signatory common law jurisdiction, have liability insurance and defalcation coverage, not be subject to criminal or disciplinary proceedings, and have no discipline record.

Lawyers who are entitled to practise law in a signatory common law jurisdiction and are of good character will also be allowed to become permanent members in another common law signatory jurisdiction without having to pass transfer exams. They will, however, have to satisfy a reading requirement to be determined by each signatory jurisdiction.

Note: the agreement comes into effect in each signatory jurisdiction once that jurisdiction passes the necessary rule changes. Lawyers should contact their own law society for details.

The Law Societies of Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have announced that they will attend the signing ceremony of the Mobility Agreement in Toronto, on December 7, 2002. Other law societies have also indicated their likely participation. However, a number of other law societies have indicated that more discussion and time is required in order to make a final determination. Lori Spivak, President of the Law Society of Manitoba, will sign on behalf of her society, William H. Goodridge, Q.C., on behalf of Newfoundland, Vern Krishna on behalf of Upper Canada and Raymond Larkin, Q.C., on behalf of Nova Scotia.

The National Mobility Agreement aims to facilitate temporary and permanent mobility of lawyers between Canadian jurisdictions. Most Law Societies have a process in place dealing with their respective participation in the Mobility Agreement. Once participation is confirmed, the Law Societies must amend or adopt rules, by-laws or regulations in order to implement the terms of the Agreement.

Law societies across Canada are one step closer to allowing lawyers from any common-law jurisdiction to practise in other jurisdictions without facing unnecessary barriers.

At the annual meeting of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, held in Niagara-on-the-Lake over the weekend, the heads of Canada's law societies accepted the National Mobility Task Force's report and proposed agreement to remove barriers to inter-jurisdictional mobility. Each jurisdiction that wishes to participate in the enhanced mobility regime must approve and implement the terms of the agreement.

"Canada's lawyers will soon begin to see provincial barriers to the practice of law virtually dissolve under this nation-wide multi-jurisdictional practice agreement," said Law Society of Upper Canada Treasurer Vern Krishna, who chairs the Federation's National Mobility Task Force. "T his proposal heralds a unified and streamlined approach to ease the flow of legal services across borders to meet client needs."

The report also addresses the principles by which the Barreau du Québec may participate in the enhanced mobility regime, the details of which are still to be developed.

"The task force is sensitive to the fact that Québec's situation differs from the rest of the country's jurisdictions both because it is a civil law province and because its regulatory process is more complex," said Krishna.

Currently, lawyers practising in Canada's Western provinces, Atlantic provinces and Ontario fall under the 10-20-12 rule, allowing lawyers in good standing to provide services in other participating jurisdictions for a maximum of 10 matters over 20 days in any 12-month period. In addition, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have a 6-12 rule, allowing lawyers to provide services for up to six months during a 12-month period in any of those jurisdictions.

As regulatory bodies, one of the overriding principles of Canada's law societies is protecting the public interest. Krishna stressed that the mobility regime includes public protection as a key focus.

Under the new agreement, which calls for the creation of a national registry of practising lawyers, lawyers can provide legal services in, or with respect to the law of another common law province for up to 100 days on a temporary basis without permit. To be eligible to do so they must be entitled to practise law without restriction in a common law jurisdiction, have liability insurance and defalcation coverage, not be subject to criminal or disciplinary proceedings, and have no discipline record. Lawyers who are entitled to practise law in a common law jurisdiction and are of good character will also be allowed to become permanent members in another common law province without having to pass transfer exams.

The agreement will address the needs of clients moving from province to province or doing business in more than one jurisdiction by allowing lawyers to more effectively meet their needs.

"It's not at all unusual for clients to be engaged in business and commercial transactions that cross several provincial boundaries. And when that's the case, the client wants his or her legal advisors to be part of those transactions in as many jurisdictions as possible," said Krishna. "Clients want their lawyers to know the files and know the business. They don't want to have to bring a stranger in a different province into the information circle, and they don't want to incur the expense of working with multiple lawyers."

The task force will continue to address ongoing issues related to mobility within Canada and with jurisdictions elsewhere in the world.

We present here a broad outline of the report, the reading of which can only be beneficial to all interested lawyers.

Principles
The value and importance of inter-provincial and territorial mobility have been recognized for a number of years by Canadian law societies. Although this recognition may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, law societies agree that it is critical to keep the needs of clients in mind. Therefore, limitations on mobility must be based on the public interest, rather than on the imposition or continuation of artificial barriers to entry.

The Task Force has spent considerable time discussing the underlying characteristics of the legal profession in Canada. This has enabled it to identify many shared values among Canadian law societies. In short, the Task Force believes that the practice of law and regulation of the legal profession across all jurisdictions in Canada is built upon a number of shared fundamental values that reflect a strong commitment to ethics, competence, and integrity, all in furtherance of the public interest. This has resulted in very similar standards and regulations across the country. These shared values operate, however, in different contexts, born out of the dual legal system (common law and civil law) that has developed within Canada.

Taking into account the Canadian dual legal system, the Task Force has considered how to develop an enhanced mobility protocol in which the Barreau could participate. The participation of the Chambre des notaires du Québec has not been addressed for the time being. The members of the Task Force believe that there is little doubt that despite significant differences between civil and common law there is a shared legal culture among lawyers called to the bar within Canada. Moreover, there are important areas of law that are governed by national law, for example, criminal, divorce, and banking law.

In developing its recommendations, the Task Force has paid particular attention to the fact that the Barreau, as well as all other professions in Québec, is overseen by l’Office des professions du Québec. Accordingly, the inclusion of the Barreau in a national mobility protocol will need to reflect an approach compatible with the one advanced by the Québec government for all Québec professions.

The Task Force believes it is necessary to include provisions both for temporary mobility and permanent mobility in the protocol. In short, it is the notion of economic nexus, as defined in the May 2002 report, which will be used in establishing if a lawyer is in a temporary or permanent mobility situation. The report also establishes that participation in any enhanced mobility protocol would be voluntary and reciprocal. So that any law society that does not wish to participate would not be obliged to do so. The only consequence of this decision would be that its members will not be entitled to take advantage of mobility provisions in other jurisdictions. This is the reciprocal feature of the protocol.

In view to insure the protection of the public at all times, the Task Force has spent considerable time on the eight following features: establishment of a national registry of lawyers, good character requirement, good standing requirement, disclosure of records and information, competence requirements, insurance and compensation fund requirements, trust accounting requirements, and conduct, competence and capacity proceedings. Some of those features are applicable in permanent mobility situations, others in temporary mobility situations, and others in both permanent and temporary situations.

In the detailed crafting of its recommendations, the Inter-Jurisdictional Mobility Task Force has taken into account that different provisions must exist for the common law jurisdictions and the Barreau du Québec. Therefore in its proposed framework, the Task Force has established a set of rules applicable to mobility among common law jurisdictions as well as another set of rules for mobility between Québec and common law jurisdictions, distinguishing in the latter case between temporary mobility and permanent mobility.

Mobility Task Force
  General
  Membership
  Reports

2002 Niagara Documents
  National Agreement  
  Mobility Resolution  

Mobility News
  September 18, 2003
  December 9, 2002
  November 4, 2002
  August 23, 2002
  June 04, 2002