Replacing the bar exam for new lawyers not acceptable: Ontario Attorney General

Doug Downey, Attorney General of Ontario holds a press conference at Queens Park in Toronto Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Ontario’s Attorney General says that potential changes that could eliminate the bar exam as a requirement for new lawyers in Ontario “simply aren’t acceptable.”

Doug Downey made the comment in a message posted to social media on Monday.

His comment comes after the Law Society of Ontario confirmed to CP24 last week that it was currently in the midst of a consultation process on potential changes to the licencing process for new lawyers that would see the written bar exam replaced with a skills-based course.

The consultation process is expected to wrap up in January.

“An objective, written and rigorous test is an important part of proving new lawyers are ready to practise law‚” Downey said. “Any changes that water down standards by scrapping written exams simply aren’t acceptable.”

Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have already made the switch from a written bar exam to a skills-based course, adopting the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP). PREP is a training program run by the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education.

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

Atrisha Lewis, the chair of professional development and competence at the Law Society of Ontario, told CP24 last week that the goal of the licensing process is to ensure entry level competence and there is some evidence that the bar exam “may not be meeting those goals.”

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.

“We want to make sure that the assessment tool that we use is actually rigorous but not unfairly disadvantaging any group,” Lewis told CP24 last week.

A spokesperson for Downey declined further comment when contacted by CTV News Toronto on Monday.