In the mail today came another complimentary copy of Precedent magazine, a publication that's supposed to be targeted to lawyers, but really, it's only for lawyers working on Bay Street. I've never really liked their style, but I feel bad about throwing out their work as soon as I get it, so I usually browse through it for a few minutes, looking at the pictures, before declaring that people need to realize that not every lawyer works on for a big firm in downtown Toronto.

Anyway, a brief article caught my eye regarding articling requirements for foreign trained lawyers. The Law Society is now allowing foreign trained lawyers who had work experience elsewhere to be exempted from articling. On the upside, this frees up available articling positions for Canadian law school graduates, since those are in short supply.

The downside, and this is really a negative, is that foreign trained lawyers can immediately open up shop and provide legal services, despite never having worked a day in Ontario. So the next lawyer offerring low prices may be someone who has absolutely no idea how things work in Ontario. Sure, they might have sat through a class and learned the basics, but it's not a real substitute for work experience.

In my view, it also creates a double standard: Canadian law graduates, with a proven standard, are forced to jump through hoops, whereas a foreign trained lawyer from a diploma mill university who worked as a tea server at a law firm under the guise of a junior lawyer can now skip articling completely.
Members of the Law Society, lawyers and paralegals alike, should be bordering on a revolt by now. But I guess unlike me, most lawyers actually throw out Precedent magazine without looking at it.


Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

        

 

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