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National Admission Standards


Only individuals who follow a rigourous training program and demonstrate their suitability to serve the public with a high level of competence, are eligible to join Canada’s legal profession and be licensed by a Canadian law society to practise law.

Because Canada’s national mobility regime requires each law society to recognize the credentials of members of the legal profession wherever they were initially licensed to practise law in Canada, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada is leading initiatives to ensure that admission standards are consistent across the country.


National Competency and Good Character Standards

Law societies are mandated by provincial and territorial statutes to regulate members of the legal profession in the public interest. The licensing of members of the profession is a key component of that responsibility.

Applicants for admission to the profession must demonstrate that they possess the core skills and knowledge necessary to practice law competently. Members of the legal profession are also expected to be of good character.

The legal profession is increasingly mobile. Under the terms of a series of agreements between Canada’s law societies, members of the legal profession may move with ease from one jurisdiction to another. With admission to one law society effectively permitting admission to every other Canadian law society, consistency in admission standards is desirable.

The Federation has undertaken a major initiative on behalf of the law societies to develop national standards for admission to the legal profession. With the assistance of volunteers and senior law society staff from across the country and the guidance of a consultant specializing in professional credentialing, the Federation is drafting a two-part admission standard: a profile of the competencies required upon entry to the legal profession and a standard for assessing whether applicants meet the requirement to be of good character. 

To ensure that the competency profile accurately reflects the knowledge, skills abnd abilities required for new members of the profession to practice competently, the Federation will soon be conducting a large-scale survey of members of the profession. Lawyers from every province and territory and Quebec notaries who have been practicing law for five years or less will be invited to take the survey. The data collected will be vital in refining the competency profile.

Options for implementation of the admission standards will be considered in the second phase of the project.


National Requirements for Canadian Common Law Degree Programs

Individuals applying for admission to a Canadian law society must hold a law degree earned at a Canadian law school or a Certificate of Qualification issued by the Federation’s National Committee on Accreditation .

For the first time in 50 years, in 2007-2009 the Federation of Law Societies of Canada carried out a comprehensive review of the requirements for recognition of a Canadian common law degree program for the purpose of enabling graduates to apply to a law society. The Report of the Task Force on the Canadian Common Law Degree is available here.

The report was approved by all of Canada’s law societies in 2010 and work is underway, in close consultation with Canada’s law schools, to ensure that the recommendations are implemented.

 
National Standards for Approving New Law Degree Programs

The last time a new law school opened in Canada was in the 1970s. In 2011, the Federation approved applications for two new law schools in Canada on the basis of the new national standards set out in the report of the Task Force on the Canadian Common Law Degree as approved by Canada’s law societies. The report of the Federation committee that recommended the approval of law degree programs at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia and Lakehead University in Ontario, is available here.

 
National Standards for Assessing Credentials of Internationally-Trained Law Graduates

Individuals applying for admission to a Canadian law society must hold a law degree earned at a Canadian law school or demonstrate that their legal training outside of Canada is equivalent to that provided by a Canadian law school.

To ensure that individuals with international legal credentials (or Quebec civil law training) are treated equally, Canada’s law societies in the common law jurisdictions have delegated the evaluation of those credentials to the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. 

This function is carried out by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). Learn more about the NCA and how to obtain a Certificate of Qualification here.