Truly testing competency
Ontario has the chance to move away from the barrister and solicitor exams and adopt a practical, human rights approach that better prepares lawyers for the profession. It should take it.
Supporters of Ontario’s barrister and solicitor exams will often point out the need to assess lawyer candidates based on an “objective” criterion because it ensures everyone is tested using the same standardized exam. However, the current exams are not objective and offer no clear evaluation criteria for candidates. They only test a person’s ability to stay focused and relatively calm for an excessive and unreasonable period of time. This is an arbitrary test indicator because it has no merit in determining someone’s ability to practice law.
Furthermore, the current system perpetuates harmful barriers at a pivotal point in a lawyer’s career. Even if every licensing candidate is tested using a standardized exam, their impact is not the same for everyone. Standardized exams have a disproportionately negative impact on students who come from marginalized backgrounds, neurodiverse students, and those experiencing financial precarity. They fail to account for the reality that not all students start from the same point in life. Each candidate has their own lived experience and unique history in accessing educational resources.
Ontario has the chance to modernize its licensing process and move away from standardized exams. Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, and Saskatchewan have already done this by adopting the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) as the official bar admission program. This licensing model focuses on practice readiness to better reflect the realities of contemporary legal work and integrate human rights principles.
In part, the program is structured to build skills such as interviewing, negotiation, and advocacy, which prepare candidates for the most human parts of legal work. A structured, skills-based program can integrate essential obligations for respectful and competent client service. These include the duty to respect pronouns, the ability to communicate in a trauma-informed manner, and knowledge of how to support clients who require disability-related accommodations. This is crucial in ensuring that all clients are heard, respected, and supported throughout the legal process.
PREP also focuses on written skills such as legal research, analysis, and drafting, which are fundamental to effective advocacy. A practice-ready model can introduce candidates to tools that are crucial in equitable legal practice, including Gladue and impact of race and culture assessments reports. These require lawyers to understand the systemic and historical contexts that shape clients’ experiences. Learning to interpret and work with these materials prepares candidates to engage with the complex realities of justice work.
Ethical competencies and practice management skills are also essential to building a sustainable legal career. A modern licensing model can include education on trauma-informed practice, Indigenous legal frameworks, and client relationship management. These components help prepare candidates to navigate the ethical, procedural, and interpersonal challenges that arise in real legal work.
Taken together, these skills reflect a human rights centred approach to competence. This strengthens the profession by preparing lawyers to support diverse communities and respond to the demands of contemporary legal practice. It also ensures that the licensing system reflects the values of equity, accessibility, and public accountability.
As more jurisdictions adopt PREP and other skills-based models, Ontario must decide whether it will remain tied to an outdated system or transition to a licensing approach that aligns with national trends and is better suited to the profession’s future. The Law Society of Ontario’s current consultations on the issue present the clearest opportunity in more than a decade to make this change.
The timing of this consultation is significant. The next LSO bencher election will take place in 2027. Meaningful licensing reform, including the adoption of a skills-based model, requires sustained engagement and public accountability well before that election. Stakeholders across the legal community should view this moment not simply as an opportunity to respond to a consultation, but as a chance to influence the direction of the profession for years to come.
Ontario has the opportunity to develop a licensing system that prepares candidates for real-world clients, communities, and legal challenges. Modernizing the process is both a policy decision and an ethical one. The profession benefits when its licensing pathways reflect fairness, competence, and the lived realities of legal practice.
