Canadian Lawyer 4Students

now annually seek admission to the Ontario bar. Many are Ontario residents who were unable to find a place in an Ontario law school. If the Ontario law schools were to reduce enrolment, those who could afford to would simply study abroad. Less wealthy Ontario students would be forced out altogether. This would not make a meaningful dent on the demand for articles." According to statistics from the Ontario Universities' Application Centre, from 2000 to 2012, the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law increased its enrolment by 198 students. The University of Windsor's law school also increased its enrolment by 67 students during that time, whereas every other law school's numbers stayed relatively the same. Sossin points out there is a tremendous demand on law schools. "We get 11 or 12 people vying for every spot at Osgoode," he says. "Canada doubled its population over a 30-year period if you go back, and virtually that was the last new law school, so arguably there's a pent-up demand issue. I don't think the answer is restricting admissions or not allowing new law schools to develop." Cameron Bryant, a third-year student at Osgoode, tells 4Students increasing enrolment isn't fair to students. "When a law school simply lets in more students than there are jobs, it fools us into thinking that we'll all be able to have articling positions." Another point of contention has been the lack of cohesiveness between Ontario's law society and law schools in trying to solve this articling problem. Feldthusen shifts some of the blame onto the law society for a lack of consultation. "The law schools could work as equal partners in co-operation with the profession to help address real problems. They have never been invited to do so," he wrote. Cameron, too, says she is disappointed by the lack of communication between the law schools and the LSUC before the changes were passed. "My view is, frankly, that people in law schools know more about teaching and learning and training than most mem- Get Connected at one of Ontario's Top 10 firms at one of Ontario's Top 10 firms As a student at Fogler, As a student at Fogler, Rubinoff LLP you'll Rubinoff LLP you'll experience a wide variety of experience a wide variety of complex and challenging complex and challenging assignments that puts you at assignments that puts you at the table and in the courts. the table and in the courts. Check us out at Check us out at 10 TOP ONTARIO REGIONAL FIRMS AL ONTARIO REGIONAL FIRMS AL Named a Top 10 firm May 2011 Named a Top 10 firm May 2011 fog l e r s . c o m fog l e r s . c o m Student Program Chair, Myriah Graves Student Program Chair, Myriah Graves 416.941.8846, mgraves@foglers.com 416.941.8846, mgraves@foglers.com 77 King Street West 95 Wellington Street West, Suite 1200 Suite 3000, PO Box 95 Toronto-Dominion Centre, TD Centre, Toronto, ON M5K 1G8 Toronto, ON M5J 2Z9 416.941.8852 Tel: 416.864.9700 Fax: T: 416.864.9700 F: 416.941.8852 20 Spring 2013 ogler_4st_Spring_13.indd 1 CANADIAN bers of the law society, and I don't mean that to sound pejorative at all, but we all have our areas of expertise." Langille says it's ridiculous that the parties most affected by this issue haven't been able to work together. "The law society, the government, and the universities are all extremely powerful [and] prominent institutions in society. The idea that they cannot sit down at the table and figure out a solution is shocking given the severity of the problem," he says. A growing concern is the increasing numbers of internationally trained lawyers seeking entry to the Canadian bar. Conway says that group is the largest single source of licensing candidates, and the majority of them are Canadians who studied abroad because they couldn't get into a law school here. Provinces such as Alberta are seeing more candidates come through the national accreditation process, which foreign-educated and -trained lawyers must go through in order to get licensed to practise in Canada. Steve Raby, president of the Law Society of Alberta, says previously he didn't think there was an articling problem in that province. "Until this year, we thought that most of the students that wanted to article in Alberta were finding articles, but the number of students in our [Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education] course this year went up from 336 to 411, which is by far the biggest jump we've seen. We initially thought when we saw the numbers that there must be a lot of Ontario people coming here, but it seems that most of the increase is people with foreign degrees coming through the national accreditation." CPLED is the bar admission program in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. "It would seem logical that if those numbers continue to increase at this year's rate, very shortly we'd be in a crunch as well," he adds. With that in mind, Raby says Alberta's law society is watching with interest to see what happens in Ontario, adding there may be a push to adopt a twostream licensing system across the country if Ontario's pilot project is successful. Jack Cram, president of the Law L a w y e r 4 students 13-02-05 3:53 PM

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