Law Times

Page 4 May 28, 2018 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com LSO report contemplates alternatives to articling BY AIDAN MACNAB For Law Times A mid a consultation process to develop possible alternatives to articling, the Law So- ciety of Ontario is considering whether to change the licensing procedure for law school gradu- ates, including an option to eliminate articling. Between April and June 2017, the LSO led a "dialogue on li- censing" with the legal com- munity. About 300 lawyers, law graduates and law students as well as 33 organizations were consulted, according to the LSO's Professional Development and Competence Committee's "Lawyer Licensing Consulta- tion" paper, which was presented to Convocation May 24. From the students, the com- mittee heard about overwhelm- ing debt, expensive licensing fees and the suggestion that articling be replaced by a standardized training course. Some lamented unpaid articles or work place- ments they endured and that they were often tasked with jobs unrelated to the development of legal skills. Others told the LSO that articling should be main- tained for the singular learning experience it provides. "We've had a lot of input through the dialogue on licens- ing and they're very interested in jobs and making sure they get access to the job market. They're very concerned about debt load and I think they're looking for alternatives to the traditional structure," says Peter Wardle, chairman of the committee and associate counsel at Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP. To gain the transitional train- ing needed to be licensed, pro- spective lawyers can article for a law firm or complete the Law Practice Program, a 17-week training course followed by a work placement. Through the consultation process, the committee spotted weak spots in the current transi- tional training model and devel- oped four options to address the issues they found. One issue was the scarcity of articling positions. Only 10 per cent of Ontario law firms offer articling positions, while the number of graduates from Ontario law programs rose by 60 per cent from 2007 to 2012, according to the committee's paper. Globalization has also added to the strain on the market for potential licensees. Thirty per cent of new registrants in the last five years attended law school outside of Canada. Those can- didates need to be verified by the National Committee on Accreditation, which has seen a 250-per-cent increase in the number of applicants in the last 10 years. Wardle says the inf lux of law grads not able to find enough articling positions is a problem that will persist. "I wouldn't describe it as se- vere, but it's now a permanent problem," he says. "The num- ber of international candidates coming into our system is in- creasing and it's showing no signs of slowing down. So, it's going to continue to put pressure on our licensing system as we go forward." The committee's paper states that, in Ontario, between 200 and 300 candidates do not find an articling position in time for September, when articling sea- son begins. "I know many of my col- leagues were not so fortunate to secure an articling position, and the reality is that there are more law school graduates than there are available work positions," says Blake Bochinski, who just fin- ished his third year of law school at the University of Ottawa. The committee came up with four options for which it is now seeking feedback. The first op- tion is that no change be made to the current transitional training programs but that they would be "continuously adjusted to accom- modate new developments." The second option retains the current model but requires that articling students be paid the minimum wage, greater over- sight of the employers provid- ing the articles and work place- ments, and the barrister and so- licitor exams would come before the transitional training with a new "skills examination" pre- licensing, the paper states. In what the committee calls "examination-based licensing," the third proposition is an elimi- nation of transitional training. Those who land in a firm with six or more lawyers and those who do not end up practising law after their call will require no additional steps, but those in a small firm or practising as sole practitioners will be obligated to take a "practice essentials course" and be subject to audit "within their first few years of practice," according to the paper. Axing the evaluation that comes with articling for lawyers entering larger firms rests on the idea that they will be adequately trained by their colleagues. "We also know that our regu- latory risk is primarily with sole practitioners and those prac- tising in a small firm environ- ment," says Wardle. "This model essentially says if you're going to go into practice and you're going to practise in a firm of more than five licensees, we're assuming that you will get all the training that you need from your em- ployer." The fourth option is LPP for all candidates. Instead of arti- cling, law grads would all com- plete the LPP, without the work placement component, and then pass the barrister and solicitor exams and the new skills exami- nation. Wardle says the LPP has not had the appeal that was ex- pected, while Bochinski says the program has a stigma among students. "I, personally, had mixed feel- ings about the law practice pro- gram in law school. You were taught to be fearful of the LPP. For most students, if they are en- rolled in this program, it usually means that they were unsuccess- ful in securing an articling posi- tion," he says. "Simply put, there is a stigma associated with the LPP. Many students are actually reluctant to be there." Bochinski says the stigma is unnecessary, as the LPP is a great program that provides a more consistent education and is more systematic than arti- cling. He says law schools should implement it into the final year of law school. A common complaint the committee heard from law stu- dents was the level of debt stu- dents acquire while in school, the steep cost of licensing and the fact that many are not paid during their articles or work placement. About 85 per cent of respondents said they had a debt of at least $40,000 or more. The committee's paper says that, currently, LSO licensing fees are $4,710. Bochinski says the high debt levels lead students to go for jobs they wouldn't otherwise be in- terested in, if not to take a bigger piece out of their debt. "Some people have that men- tality that they need to get the highest-paying job possible. So I know that some of my col- leagues that even if they don't like big law, even if they don't want to work in a big law firm, they deliberately chose to obtain an articling position with a big- ger law firm," he says. Wardle says the LSO will con- duct focus groups, take written submissions and continue con- sultations with the legal commu- nity until the end of October. 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I know many of my colleagues were not so fortunate to secure an articling position, and the reality is that there are more law school graduates than there are available work positions. Blake Bochinski

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