by Jocelyn Frazer, The Law Society of Alberta
At best, becoming a lawyer in Alberta is a lengthy process. There are many requirements that every prospective applicant must satisfy: being of good character and reputation, meeting the academic qualifications, successfully completing a bar admission course and serving a term of articles. For applicants who are internationally trained lawyers or who obtained their law degrees outside of Canada, continuing or initiating their legal practices in Alberta can present additional challenges.
They must, prior to accessing the bar admission process in a Canadian common law province or territory, obtain a Certificate of Qualification from the Federation of the Law Societies of Canada’s National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). The NCA is the body responsible for assessing the legal education and professional experience of individuals who have obtained their credentials outside Canada or from a Canadian civil law program. It sets out requirements, such as further training and examinations in areas relevant to Canadian legal practice, the applicant must meet prior to receiving a Certificate of Qualification.
In recent years, the numbers of internationally qualified or educated individuals entering the legal profession in Canada has risen sharply. In Alberta, four internationally educated lawyers were called in 2004. Twenty-six were called in 2011, and as of March 31, 2014 there are over ninety articling students who received their legal education outside Canada.
The majority of these applicants were educated in England, the US or Australia but many are also coming from Nigeria and India. On a national level, there has also been a dramatic increase in the total number of applicants to the NCA. Between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, the NCA received 1,316 applications, a 90% increase over 5 years, and issued 730 certificates of qualification, an almost 300% increase over 5 years. Interestingly, a significant number of these prospective lawyers are Canadian born students who were educated abroad. With the numbers being projected to increase again this year, the NCA is the largest single source of law school graduates in Canada.
We hear from some internationally-trained lawyers that becoming a lawyer in Alberta can be long, confusing, expensive, and discouraging. Obviously, internationally-trained lawyers or internationally educated law graduates are not a homogenous group, and challenges or barriers to entry into the Canadian legal profession will vary.
Many of these lawyers do, however, encounter obstacles that Canadian-trained lawyers do not. Some of the challenges relate to finding information about the process, locating support or resources along the way, successfully completing the requirements stipulated by the NCA, finding articles, completing the bar admission course, and then becoming integrated into the legal community.
Many application deadlines, eligibility criteria, and law firm recruiting systems are designed to meet only the needs of Canadian law school graduates. The Law Society of Alberta is collaborating with other organizations in seeking to better understand the challenges and barriers internationally-trained lawyers face, with a view to addressing them where possible.