Legal Jobs: Ontario legal task force mulls articling changes
A lack of jobs is forcing Canada's biggest legal regulator to consider either scrapping its age-old tradition of legal apprenticeship, known as articling, or modifying it substantially.
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A lack of jobs is forcing Canada’s biggest legal regulator to consider either scrapping its age-old tradition of legal apprenticeship, known as articling, or modifying it substantially.
Lawyer Thomas Conway, who is chairing a Law Society of Upper Canada task force studying the articling situation in Ontario, said “over the last 10 years the number of articling positions available for candidates in our licensing program has remained about the same.” The problem, he said, is that “the number of candidates looking for articling positions has increased substantially.”Mr. Conway said large and medium law firms in the major urban centres continue to provide the bulk of the placements and that small firms no longer “play as significant role,” even though most lawyers end up practising in firms of 10 or fewer lawyers.
The law society has attempted to increase the number of firms offering articling positions, but was only able to muster up a few takers.
In Canada, unlike the United States, lawyers who graduate from law school must spend a up to a year working under the tutelage of a practising lawyer before they get the green light to practise law, similar to doctors, engineers and architects.
However, the pace of law school graduates is outstripping the number of articling positions that law firms offer. Some students who have spent thousands of dollars attending law school can’t get the final posting they need to qualify as a lawyer and get their license.
In 2008, 5.6% or 81 of the 1,391 students seeking to article in Ontario were unplaced. By 2011, that number had grown to 12.1% or 214 of 1,767 students.
It’s prompting the profession to re-evaluate the final training component that lawyers face and raising questions whether law schools should offer more practical or “experiential” training to fill the void.
Doug Ferguson, a law professor at the University of Western Ontario who runs the legal clinic at the law school, said the current system is “not sustainable. Change is coming, the question is what kind of change.”
Mr. Conway’s taskforce has put forward five options. The first two involve keeping the current articling system with some enhancements. However, without further placements being made available, it’s unlikely to relieve the situation.
The third option is a “post-licensing system.” It would allow recent graduates to start working in a law firm and require them to undergo additional training within a set time frame.
The fourth option would allow students to choose either an articling stream or a practical legal training course (PLTC) to be completed either during law school or possibly afterward. One of the challenges there is cost. Australia, which uses a PLTC, charges students about $7,600.
The fifth option is to scrap articling altogether and replace it entirely with a PLTC.
Mr. Conway said “we recognize the importance of a practical training component to the licensing of an competent and ethical lawyer.”
The fourth option has engendered much discussion among legal educators, as it would in-corporate findings by a 2007 U.S. study of law schools from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education. The Carnegie Foundation found that introducing more clinical training into the system in the second and third year of study would enhance legal education.
Making clinical training mandatory during law school has merits, say legal educators. Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, said “there will be interest from some law schools, among other partners, in developing and delivering such a course.”
Right now, many law schools run legal clinics on campus, but Mr. Ferguson added “we see lots of enthusiasm building” for a Carnegie-like model.
Mr. Ferguson said “there has to be some practical skills training. Most law students leave law school without ever having seen a file.”
While many law schools run clinics, he said that, alone, is not a viable alternative for a PLTC because “we couldn’thandle all the students.” About 40 to 50 students currently work at the clinic. However, he notes that law schools sit empty during the summer months, so they could be used to deliver a PLTC. “We need to take a holistic approach to legal education. We are not doing that right now.”
Mr. Sossin added there is no articling “pot of gold … at the end of any rainbow.” Even if the economy bounces back, he doubts, law firms will expand their articling positions. “All qualified graduates who have skills and talents ought to be able to apply to be licensed to practice. Right now we got a situation where that is not the case. If you can’t find an articling position, the door is shut.”
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