Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts on motherhood in the legal profession, in partnership with our friends at MothersEsquire. Welcome Ruth Kalnitsky to our pages. Click here if you’d like to donate to MothersEsquire.
Whether it’s for a different lifestyle, political climate, or healthcare system, an ever-increasing number of families are looking to leave the United States for what they perceive to be greener pastures. Social media groups dedicated to becoming an expat are booming, lawyers (and other professionals) are looking for alternative career paths and routes to legal residency abroad, and many are looking to Canada as a potential place to resettle thanks to its physical and cultural proximity to the U.S. This is a challenge for lawyers who are geographically bound by their license and do not want to give up the practice of law, and an oft-repeated question among potential emigrant lawyers is “how do I convert my license?”
So what does it take to become licensed to practice law in one of Canada’s provinces and how long does it all take? To some extent, it depends: when I launched this adventure in 2017, I had over a decade of American practice under my belt and have since walked numerous of my fellow Americans through the process. Given the amount of inquiries coming from south of our current border, it seems a ripe time to put a handy guide together.
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Without further ado: those with many years of experience face a shorter climb with fewer relicensing exams in their future and a potential exemption from the requirement to article as detailed below. The quickest path is described below, although it should be noted that receiving a license to practice law in one of Canada’s provinces in no way secures an applicant’s immigration status, does not guarantee finding employment, and does not assist in obtaining a residence permit. Please also note that none of the below applies to the province of Québec, which, like the state of Louisiana, operates under a slightly different set of rules. On that note: each of Canada’s provinces, like each of the American states, has its own regulatory body, and admission to one Provincial Law Society (the bar) does not necessarily qualify you to practice in another province.
Caveats aside, first, a candidate is required to be assessed by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA). One is eligible for assessment by the NCA if they are licensed to practice law in any state except for Louisiana and attended an in-person, ABA-accredited, law school program. The NCA Application costs C$400 plus the cost of ordering and shipping transcripts from your alma mater. Submit an application to the NCA, and in six to eight weeks, they will provide a list of “assignments” or tasks that need to be done to qualify to take the bar exam.
Relatively experienced lawyers from the U.S. are generally required to write five out of 14 possible law school equivalency exams (Canadian Administrative Law; Canadian Constitutional Law; Canadian Criminal Law; Canadian Professional Responsibility; and Foundations of Canadian Law) and to take a short legal research and writing course.
NCA exams are offered on a rolling basis, are open book, and each is three hours long. The cost for each exam is approximately C$500 plus taxes and fees. Assuming a requirement of five exams, budget about a year to complete them all.
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Once the NCA assignments are completed successfully, a candidate can apply for a Certificate of Qualification, which entitles them to write the bar exam in any of Canada’s provinces except for Québec. The bar exam itself is offered twice a year in two sittings that are two weeks apart. In order to receive a license to practice, a candidate must pass the Barristers and Solicitors exams, both of which are one full day, multiple choice, and open book. In Ontario, each exam costs C$865 plus tax, with an additional C$100 fee for the study materials. Other provinces’ exam fees may differ and the cost of the exam is admittedly more challenging to find on the respective provincial law society websites, but should be obtainable from there.
While self-study seems sufficient for most, various courses are offered to help test takers prepare for the bar exam. Each province has its own rules for admission: in Ontario, test takers have three chances to pass and must apply for special permission to take exams four or more times. The exams are broken down by subject matter, with some crossover questions that morph a substantive subject with professional responsibility.
Unfortunately for those who are undergoing this process, that’s not it. Most provinces also have an articling requirement to become a licensed lawyer. Articling can be an incredibly valuable experience to learn to navigate a new legal landscape and make connections in a new jurisdiction, but opportunities can be hard to come by and often constitute an eight- to 12-month commitment at a significantly reduced salary. Many experienced lawyers are eligible for an articling exemption, which is applied for separately and decided by the respective provincial law society.
Once all of these requirement are met, you can sign up for your Call to the Bar (the swearing-in ceremony) that can be done in person or administratively. The ceremonial call must be attended in person and is a lovely reminder of the highlights of the practice of law, while an administrative call is efficient, albeit lacking in pomp and circumstance. Those attending a call in person, or with intention to litigate thereafter should gird themselves to be in costume as Canadian courts still require lawyers to wear robes. Mercifully, we no longer wear wigs.
Ruth Kalnitsky Roth is a partner at Torkin Manes LLP in Toronto, Ontario, where she brings nearly 20 years of experience to her family law practice. Ruth began her career in San Francisco, California, where she obtained her law degree in 2006. In addition to being a member of the Law Society of Ontario, Ruth is a member of the State Bar of California, the United States District Court of the Northern District of California, and the Bar of Washington D.C. She is also a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.