El Supremo

Hi everybody, this is my first post here so go easy..!

I love Canada and have always wanted to live there. I am a graduate in law (LLB) and have completed the LPC. I really want to qualify in Canada but I've heard/read that it can be tricky. My understanding is that you first have to have your degree evaluated by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) to see if it matches up with a Canadian degree and that you may/probably will have to sit a few exams. The next step is to be called to the bar and to do so you have to do something similar to the LPC.

Is this all correct? How difficult is it to do in reality? How long does it all take? Which provinces are easiest to get into?

Novocastrian

There are some lawyers on here (AlmostCanadian springs to mind), they'll be along I'm sure. Welcome.

rich07

Having just met with my lawyer today, I can confirm that your law degree shhould be recognised here, my lawyer did his law degree in London (despite him being a Canadian) and many British law schools actively recruit students here. You will need to do other exams here and one of the onboard lawyers will be able to advise you what you need to do. Good luck

Almost Canadian

It sounds like you have the main details to enable you to get going. It used to be that the NCA only offered its exams 2 times a year, they now offer them 4 times a year which means that one can relax a little more and not take as many in one go. They have also lowered the number of exams one has to write. In your situation, when I went through the system just over 3 years ago, they would ask you to write 10 exams, they are now asking people to write 4-6. The exams are similar to the problem questions one would write during an English LL.B. The killer is not having anyone to help you study. It is very much a "buy the book and teach yourself" if you intend to go the NCA route.

The alternative is to find a Uni that will allow you to attend its program and take their courses (the subjects the NCA tells you to take). No Unis in Alberta allow this so I had no option but to go the NCA route. I know that there is one in BC that does (UBC I believe) and you will have to contact the others to ascertain their position.

You will be at a very big disadvantage compared to your Canadian peers as they will have made lots of contacts at Uni and, likely, will have summered at firms between years of study. You won't have the advantage I had of having practised in another jurisdiction. Having said that, virtually all law students here obtain Articles (most unlike England) although a huge number of them are then let go once they qualify. But, it is possible to open your own law firm in Canada once you have been called to the Bar, unlike England which requires at least 3 years in practice before one is allowed to go out on one's own.

The Bar exam is a joke and nothing like as difficult as the LPC. Getting into law school in Canada is tough, once in, very few fail. I doubt very much that you will be given any reduction in your Articles but they only take a year anyway. In Alberta, one attends the Bar course during Articles, in others, for example B.C., one attends the Bar course before Articles begin - like England. You will need to contact the Law Societies in each Province to ascertain what is required.

Also, bear in mind that the Canadian LL.B. is more "practical" than the English one. Civil Litigation, Legal Research etc. can be taken as part of a Canadian LL.B. whereas they form part of the LPC in England. Canadian law students are complete frickin ninjas at writing "research memos" - pages and pages of discussion about an issue. An English lawyer would go to Halsbury's, find the answer, and that would be it. Here, I regularly had to write 80 page memos on issues such as: Can a class member in a class action revoke such membership? They love to act academic over here, dissecting every last point, while never really getting to the point. For your first few years in practice as a junior lawyer, this is all you will be doing. Junior lawyers in Canada are not very hands on at all. They are unlikely to see clients in the flesh until they have been in practice for a few years. You will face a huge disadvantage here as your training to date would not have covered this in the same way that your Canadian peers would have. Having said that, you are way more likely to be able to advocate appropriately, so it is swings and roundabouts.

Where are you heading?

Best of luck

lcar

That's really helpful.
I just don't know what to do - I'd more or less given up on the idea of practising law in Canada (having taken my OU LLB!), and I didn't take up my place for the LPC, as I felt that it wouldn't really get me far in Ontario.
Don't know whether to revive my plans for a legal career and go for the NCA exams, or let sleeping dogs lie...

Switch

From my experience when I went to some Law schools in Toronto last year to enquired about using my LLB degree to practice in Canada.
In Ontario there are a few schools you can go to and do the necessary classes and sit exams there, but it is costly. How many exams you need to do will depend on your results for your English degree and where you got it. A degree from Oxford is more prestigious than one from Blackpool.

The main problem apart from the cost, effort and time to do is that once you get your degree recognised, it will not be as good as a 'Canadian Law degree'. This will hamper you when you are looking for training contracts and jobs unless you can demonstrate to perspective employers that you have something above and beyond the normal applicant. Alternatively if you have the money and time, start from scratch and get a Canadian degree.

For me the exams I would have had to do would have taken just under 2 years and the Canadian degree would have taken 3 years and I would be better off doing the latter as at least you get a Canadian law degree out of it.

Almost Canadian

Sorry, but this information is nonsense. There are loads of foreign qualified lawyers practising in Canada. The vast majority of these are doing so very successfully.

Articles are much easier to come by in Canada than they are in England and Wales. I doubt very much that anyone would have difficulty in obtaining Articles once they have the equivalency certificate from the NCA.

It is not the law schools that validate the foreign legal credentials, it is the NCA. It is self evident that the law schools will tell you that an English LL.B. is inferior to a Canadian one and that you should attend law school. Like most things, once you are in practise, no one will care where you went to university.

With 4 exams sessions a year with the NCA and a "2 year period to take them" I can only assume that you are somewhat slow. The maximum number of exams the NCA will require anyone to write is 16, meaning that you were only taking 2 each session. I took 2 on my first session with only 3 weeks preparation and there were many at my exams that were taking in excess of 8 in one session.

Have you looked into getting into a Canadian law school? If you were required to write that many exams, one can only assume that your grades were not that good and I doubt you will be able to get into law school in Canada. If you can`t, your only option is to write the NCA`s exams.

Canadian law is based on English law. You will find the contracts, tort, trust, etc. classes you will take for a Canadian LL.B. will be virtually identical to the ones you took in England. If you wish to waste time and money taking such subjects again, go for it, I suggest that others would likely wish to spend their money and time doing other things.

spencerbear

El Supremo,

Recognised your name from The Hockey Forum. Where abouts are you looking to move to?

El Supremo

Spencerbear - Hello fellow thf-er! I'd love to move to either Vancouver,Toronto or Calgary. Having visited them all I'd love to live in any of them!

Almost Canadian - how tough are the challenge exams? I'm expecting to have to sit around 3 or 4. How long does it take to study for each of them (studying in the evenings and on the weekend)? If they're anything like the modules on the LLB I'm not sure that I'd have the patience or energy (I'm fearing that it would essentially be like adding a year of study onto my degree)?

amritk

Hi Almost Canadian,

Do you know if the NCA accept law degrees that are rated as "thirds" ?

Almost Canadian

The NCA exams are very similar to LL.B. exams, except they appear to be more generous with their marking. It is possible to get 100% in an exam here, rather than the maximum being 70% ish for an LL.B. exam.

I didn't do much studying at all. I have no idea what marks I received as it is a pass/fail scenario.

Almost Canadian

The NCA do not "accept" any degrees; they evaluate them and inform the applicant of the number of exams they need to write to be granted "equivalency" of a Canadian LL.B. Their website suggests that a holder of a third will not be given any advanced standing. I really don't know what that means and suggest you give them a call. It may mean that they are not prepared to assess such a degree, but I doubt that that would be the case.