Reducing the length of a Placement

Overview

A candidate may apply for an abridgement of the articling term based on prior legal experience if the candidate has

1. been licensed to practise law in another jurisdiction and practised as a lawyer in another jurisdiction,  or
2. had other legal experience obtained after completing a law degree

The following factors will be considered when evaluating your request for an abridgement:

• the length, recency, nature, scope and diversity of your legal experience, and
• the relevance of the legal experience to the experiential training competencies and requirements for candidates established by the Law Society

When evaluating a request for abridgement based on prior legal experience, the Director of Licensing and Accreditation will not consider experience obtained by the candidate before completing a program to obtain a Bachelor of Laws or a Juris Doctor degree from a law school (for clarity, this means that experience while enrolled in a program of a law school (including clinical education experience or full-time, part-time, or summer experience in a law firm or legal organization) is not considered prior legal experience).

Note: If the request for an abridgement of articles based on prior legal experience is based on being licensed to practise law in another jurisdiction, the candidate must currently be in good standing in that jurisdiction or must have chosen not to maintain their license to practise law in that jurisdiction for reasons other than disciplinary action.

Fees

Licensing and Accreditation may grant an abridgement based on a written application submitted with the required documentation and the applicable fee of $160.00 (plus applicable taxes). Once the review process has commenced, the fee will be invoiced to the candidate’s account.

Application Requirements

To apply for an abridgement based on prior practice experience, the following documents are required:

1. Application for Articling Abridgement
2. A letter from the candidate, describing the period(s) of legal experience. Reference must be made to the experiential training competencies for candidates and provide specific examples of the applicable competencies;
3. A letter of reference from one or more lawyer or judge referees, who has direct knowledge of the candidate’s legal experience. The letter(s) must verify the period of the candidate’s legal experience cited in the candidate’s letter and  provide specific examples of the applicable competencies. The letter(s) of reference must be sent directly from the referee to Articling by email.
4. Letter from Principal (only applicable if the candidate has begun articling). The letter from the Principal or firm must include the start date of the articling placement and the amount of Time Off from articles the candidate has taken up to the date of request, including any vacation, sick days, or study days.
5. Where a candidate has been admitted to the bar(s) of a foreign jurisdiction, an original Certificate of Standing must be sent from the governing body of that jurisdiction directly to the Law Society’s articling office. Previously, the physical copy of the Certificate of Standing was required, however, we will now accept Certificates that are emailed directly from the issuing jurisdiction.

Any documents that are not in English or French must be translated by an Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO) Certified Translator. You may wish to refer to ATIO's Directory of Certified Translators on its website at www.atio.on.ca. The original Certificate of Standing must be sent by the governing body of that jurisdiction directly to a certified translator. The certified translator must then send both the original and translated copies of the Certificate of Standing directly to Articling at the Law Society of Ontario.

Review Process

Applications that do not comply with the instructions or that are incomplete will not be reviewed. Applications will not be deemed complete until the articling office receives all of the required documents relevant to the candidate’s application.

If the abridgement application is not complete within six months it will expire and the candidate may be required to re-submit the supporting documentation.

The application will be placed in queue for review once all required documentation listed above has been received by Licensing and Accreditation. Once the application has started the review process, the fee will be invoiced to the candidate’s account.

Each application is assessed on a case by case basis and we are unable to provide an approximate amount of time off without full review.