Law Society of Ontario may replace the bar exam with skills-based courses

Osgoode Hall is the home of the Law Society of Ontario, the Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The building includes the Atrium with a geometric tile floor, 19th-century courtrooms, and the Great Library. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel

The process of becoming a lawyer in Ontario could soon change, with the bar exam potentially being scrapped entirely.

The Law Society of Ontario is considering ending the bar exam, which has been in place for nearly 20 years. In lieu of the bar, aspiring lawyers would need to take a skills-based course instead.

The move would follow other provinces that have made the change, including Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. B.C. also recently announced that the bar exam will be “gradually retired.”

Provinces that replaced the bar, have instead adopted the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP), an admissions training program created by the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education.

Atrisha Lewis, the chair of professional development and competence at the Law Society of Ontario, said a consultation phase is currently ongoing and is expected to last until January.

“After we received feedback from various stakeholders, the Law Society will decide what it wants to do for next steps,” she told CTV New Toronto.

Lewis expects a decision to be made in 2026, though couldn’t say when the changes would be implemented if the decision to replace the bar is confirmed.

The bar currently requires students to take two substantial exams – barrister and solicitor. Each one is open book and multiple choice, with students given around four-and-a-half hours to complete.

Alain Roussy, associate professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, told CTV’s Your Morning that the previous testing system that was in place before the bar was similar, though with the addition of a summer course, which consisted of a mix of courses and exams.

“The law society in a sense is going back to a little more proactive educational model that I think they had before,” he said.

Lewis said the society’s goal is to ensure entry level competence.

“There’s been some indicia that we’ve received that (the bar exam) may not be meeting those goals,” she said.

According to 2023 data from the Law Society of Ontario, Canadian graduates have an 88 per cent pass rate average for the barrister exam and 81 per cent pass rate for the solicitor exam. That’s a contrast to foreign-trained graduates, who had a pass rate of 58 per for the barrister exam and 50 per cent pass rate for the solicitor exam.

Lewis said taking the bar is “an exercise in having an index,” which is a detailed table of content that can be used to look up the answer to a question.

“The concern about that is that doesn’t actually measure competence if you’re just looking up answers in this kind of way,” she said.

Since the process of putting together the index is extremely time-consuming, students often do it in groups, to break up the tasks. Someone who is internationally trained may not have access to the same networks and ability to split up the work with people they know, which would lead to a disadvantage that isn’t related to competence, she explained.

“We want to make sure that the assessment tool that we use is actually rigorous but not unfairly disadvantaging any group,” Lewis said.