Category: Uncategorized
Save the Law Practice Program
Long Live the Law Practice Program
I am struggling to understand the justification for the recent committee recommendation to end the Law Practice Program. The LPP is the Law Society’s alternative licensing program predominantly used by candidates unable to find articling positions.
The committee‘s central rationale seems to be that the LPP is “perceived as second tier.” They acknowledge that (i) “there is no evidence to suggest that the LPP is in fact second-tier” and (ii) the LPP is “of very high quality and may, in fact, excel over articling in a number of areas” in terms of preparing candidates for practice (para 59).
A regulator ending the LPP because it’s perceived as second tier to articling is like a regulator banning Chevrolets because they are perceived as second tier to Cadillacs. A regulator which does so must, at very least, have a realistic plan to ensure that everyone will be able to drive a Cadillac/get an articling position. I can’t find any such plan in this Report.
The committee could have proposed reforms to expand the articling stream to accommodate everyone. For example they could have proposed that every licensed lawyer be required to either serve as an articling principal, or else contribute x% of his/her law practice income to a fund used to compensate lawyers who do serve as articling principals.
In the absence of any such plan, ending the LPP simply eliminates a path into the profession which is disproportionately used by equity-seeking and relatively disadvantaged candidates. Perhaps more importantly, it also deprives equity-seeking/ disadvantaged would-be-clients of 200+ new lawyers per year who would be more likely to serve them than articling-track lawyers are.
The Report’s only other serious argument against the LPP is that we can’t decide who should pay for it. It costs roughly $17k per candidate. At present a portion of this is absorbed by LSUC. Articling stream candidates pay a large share, due to the equalization of costs for LPP-stream and articling-stream candidates.
Who should pay is a tough problem, and there’s a convincing argument that the articling-stream candidates shouldn’t have to subsidize LPP-stream candidates to the extent that they currently do. Personally, I think LSUC fees should be increased, and made progressive based on licensee income, in order to fund LPP and other A2J-enhancing initiatives.
But even requiring LPP candidates to pay the entire $17k per year themselves would be better than completely depriving them, and their would-be clients, of the opportunity to practice for which they have already invested so many years and so many tens of thousands of dollars.
The perception of second-tier or stigmatized status for LPP and its candidates is unfortunate. LSUC should fight this inaccurate perception, not surrender to it. But even if they can’t or won’t fight it, a professional path perceived as second tier is better than no path at all.
Three Routes to Justice for All
Lawyers Weekly (October 30, 2015)
Full text: http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/articles/2545
The LSUC needs to expand the scope of paralegals,online information and ABS.
Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting: Final Program
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec
June 2-4, 2010
Osgoode Hall Graduate Law Students’ Association Conference: May 20th and 21st, 2010
Osgoode Professional Development Centre, 1 Dundas West, 26th floor. Toronto, Ontario.
BEYOND LAW: AT THE EDGES OF LAW’S AMBIT
Thursday, May 20th
8:15-9:00 AM: REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST (Room E)
9:00-9:15 AM: CONFERENCE WELCOME (Room C)
-
- 9:00: GLSA President Stu Marvel – Welcome Message
- 9:05: Welcome Message from Incoming Dean Lorne Sossin
9:15 – 10:35 AM: KEYNOTE ADDRESS (Room C)
PROFESSOR JANET HALLEY (Harvard Law School)
10:35 – 10:50: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)
10:50 -12:00pm: PANELS I & II
PANEL I: Tracking Financial Actors From Civil Society to the Marketplace (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: ANITA ANAND (University of Toronto Law) CHAIR: Charis Kamphuis
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School |
PANEL II: Human Rights in Question: ‘Metanarratives of (Dis) Ability’ (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: LES JACOBS (York) CHAIR: Ruby Dhand
Sponsored by the York Centre for Public Policy and Law |
12:00 -1:00 PM: LUNCH (Room E)
NOON SEMINAR – Edward Elgar Publishing, Law Acquisitions Editor Tara Gorvine (Room B)
1:00 – 2:50 PM: PANELS III & IV
PANEL III: Sustaining Resources, People & the Environment (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: TBC (Osgoode) CHAIR: Patricia Hania
Sponsored by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability |
PANEL IV: Rethinking Law’s Method (Room D) DISCUSSANT: BRUCE RYDER (Osgoode) CHAIR: Claire Mumme
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School |
2:50 – 4:00 PM: PANELS V & VI
PANEL V – Tracking Copyrights Across the Globe (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: CARYS CRAIG (Osgoode) CHAIR: Vanisha H. Sukdeo
Sponsored by the York Centre for Public Policy and Law |
PANEL VI: Legal Immanence: Religion, Mythology and the Influence of the Divine (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: JANET MOSHER (Osgoode) CHAIR: Stu Marvel
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School |
4:00 – 4:15 PM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)
4:25 – 5:55 PM: PANELS VII & VIII
PANEL VII: Knowledges Across Time: Traditional and Contemporary Frameworks (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: DAYNA SCOTT (Osgoode) CHAIR: Irina Ceric
Sponsored by the Canada Research Chair in Feminist Political Economy |
PANEL VIII: Law, Youth and the Child: Exploring Vulnerabilities (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: USHA RAMANATHAN (Indian Law Institute)
Sponsored by the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies |
6:15 – 7:15 PM – SPECIAL COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCE WORK (Room C)
NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ARTS presents
The Road Forward – a staged reading
By Yvette Nolan
With Craig Lauzon, Michaela Washburn and Falen Johnson
(To be followed by Q&A)
7:20 – 9:00 PM: VINO DE HONOR RECEPTION (Room E)
Please be invited to join us for a glass of wine after the performance.
Osgoode Hall Graduate Law Students’ Association Conference
May 20th and 21st, 2010
Friday, MAY 21st
9:30-10:00 AM: BREAKFAST (Room E)
10:o0- 11:10 AM: PANELS IX & X
PANEL IX: Multiple Orderings: Legal Pluralism (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: KATE SUTHERLAND (Osgoode) CHAIR: Amaya Alvez
Sponsored by the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security |
PANEL X: Constructing Socio-Legal Identities (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: SONIA LAWRENCE (Osgoode) CHAIR: Cailin Morrison
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies at York University |
11:10 – 11:25 AM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)
11:25 – 12:35 PM: PANELS XI & XII
PANEL XI: Bodies Beyond Borders (Room C) DISCUSSANT: MARY CONDON (Osgoode) CHAIR: Mary Stokes
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Sexuality Studies at York University |
PANEL XII: Grappling Health Law’s Controversies (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: KIMBERLEY WHITE (York) CHAIR: Karen Fernandes
Sponsored by the York Institute for Health Research |
12:35 – 1:20 PM: LUNCH (Room E)
1:20 – 2:30 PM: KEYNOTE ADDRESS (Room C)
PROFESSOR FRANCISCO VALDES (Miami School of Law) – After Law
2:30 – 2:45 PM: COFFEE BREAK (Room E)
2:45 – 4:15 PM: PANELS XIII & XIV
PANEL XIII: Remembering and Resisting (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: KAREN KNOPP (University of Toronto) CHAIR: Sujith Xavier
Sponsored by the Centre for Refugee Studies |
PANEL XIV: Competing Orders or Competing Disorders (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: ROBERT LATHAM (York) CHAIR: Amar Bhatia
Sponsored by the York Centre for International and Security Studies
|
4:15 – 4:30 COFFEE BREAK (Room E)
4:30 – 6:00 PM: PANELS XV & XVI
PANEL XV: Pushing the Limits of Rights (Room C)
DISCUSSANT: ANNIE BUNTING (Osgoode) CHAIR: Igor Gontcharov
Sponsored by the Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project |
PANEL XVI: Refusing Western Legal Universalisms (Room D)
DISCUSSANT: SEAN REHAAG (Osgoode) CHAIR: Kim Stanton
Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School |
7:00 DINNER – Adega Restaurant – 33 Elm Street
We will convene in Reception Room E after the panels have concluded and walk over to the restaurant together.