Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50906
Similar themes arise at the University of Moncton. Marie-France Albert, dean of the faculty of law, says two-thirds of her students originate from New Bruns- wick, with the remainder coming princi- pally from the rest of Canada. Locals tend to remain in New Brunswick, while those from the other provinces go to Ottawa or Toronto, she says, with only a hand- ful of them returning to their homes. Once again, even those who stay in New Brunswick are not returning to the small towns from whence they came. "They don't go back to small towns like Cara- quet or Shippagan," says Albert. "Most of them, they want to stay in Moncton, or they go to Fredericton and Saint John because the big fi rms are there." Ottawa's study demonstrated there was no stereotypical route, says Émard- Chabot, with people working everywhere and in all types of law and work settings. "And that was really nice for us to see that in fact these francophone students had not been pigeonholed or limited in their opportunities. Quite the contrary." "Usually our students who work in French in other provinces are able to talk in French with their clients in a few prov- inces, to write their legal papers maybe in French — but all the court system is still in English, so except for criminal justice and a few things like that . . . it's not easy to work in French," says Albert. "But ev- ery day, you have people giving services in French for French-speaking people, and that's very important." Although 30 years of producing bilin- gual law graduates has improved matters of access to justice in French, some ob- stacles remain, including the following: Shortage of French-speaking lawyers in small towns It's not a problem unique to French communities, but it's even harder to fi nd French-speaking lawyers willing to work in small towns when you're drawing from a smaller pool of qualifi ed candidates. One potential — and somewhat con- troversial — solution is the possibility of opening a third law school providing French common law instruction. As peo- ple tend to gravitate geographically and attend schools closer to where they live, this might attract more local students in- clined to stay in the North, and reduce the often-prohibitive student debt loads incurred by students pursuing their stud- ies away from home. One such proposal was in the works by Laurentian Univer- sity in Sudbury, although with the deci- sion by the Ontario government to deny funding for new law schools it's hard to say where it will end up. "We probably have 10 to 12 lawyers from the University of Moncton here [in Sudbury]," says Claude Lacroix, of Lacroix Forest LLP, and director of the Association of French-Speaking Lawyers of Ontario, "which is kind of one of the impetuses for looking at a law school for northeastern Ontario. We're often called upon to do work in areas like North Bay where they have few bi- lingual lawyers, if any. . . ." However, it's early yet. There were also competing proposals for law schools from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, for example, and the idea of adding more lawyers at all — let alone another French common law pro- gram — has its detractors. Even if the government hasn't stepped on board, it still opens up an interesting debate. Émard-Chabot, for example, says he was "personally concerned" about the numbers being suffi cient to support three programs. "You need a certain number of students to justify the number of positions to have a decent list of elective courses, so if you're running a smaller program it becomes a really restrictive program. . . . The population would just be split to a degree that all three programs would in fact be hurt by it," he says. "Not that they wouldn't be viable, but you wouldn't get the wealth of selection as you would from a program that's slightly larger." On the other hand, the numbers show currently Ottawa receives 150 to 220 appli- cations for 45 to 60 spots, while Moncton receives 90 applications for 35 to 40 places. In the meantime, the University of Ot- tawa has implemented a few recommen- dations from its own study in an attempt to bring more French-speaking lawyers to small towns, including offering fellow- ships for those going to work or article with sole practitioners in remote com- munities, and offering more fl exibility on internships. "We have added pieces within what we control to do this, but I think certainly there's a role for the law society, and frankly, for the provincial government, to support fi nancially the small law fi rms or the sole practitioners in those communities to hire someone so that they can get established and get their credentials and remain in those communities," says Émard-Chabot. "A fi rm in Kapuskas- ing, Ont., "THE PENT- UP DEMAND FROM FRANCOPHONES WAS DEFINITELY THERE, AND AS SOON AS THE SERVICES WERE AVAILABLE, THEY STARTED USING THEM." — Stéphane Émard-Chabot, University of Ottawa does not have the resources of a fi rm in Toronto, and certainly not the size. Making it easier for sole practitioners to supervise and ob- tain articling student[s] would be a won- derful way to eliminate barriers." Shortage of bilingual judges "There's a very big demand for bilin- gual judges that can understand cases in French," says Aucoin. "What's been hap- pening in Ontario and Nova Scotia, is that bilingual judges have been replaced by unilingual judges. . . . A lot of times be- cause there is such a shortage, people are going to the English system even if they would prefer the francophone system." Educating the francophone population One of the "surprises" that came out of the Ottawa study, says Émard-Chabot, 4STUDENTS SPRING 2009 29