www.canadianlawyermag.com 35
University of Toronto professor Anita Anand
in a recently published paper.
In 2007, England and Wales — which
had until then taken the same approach as
Canada — joined Australia in implementing
co-regulation, where two or more bodies
share the oversight of lawyers. In the
U.S., courts tend to delegate to state bars
to set professional standards, as part of
the "separation of powers" set out by the
constitution, Anand added.
Canada, by contrast, has mostly stuck
by its self-regulation model, centred on
law societies. Durcan notes that as other
professional regulators move toward smaller,
skill-based boards and other regulatory
models, Canada's law societies stand out.
South of the border, meanwhile, legal
regulation is changing rapidly, says law
professor Gillian Hadfield. Hadfield is
helping states such as Utah create a new
regulatory agency to track the provision
of legal services — by lawyers and non-
lawyers alike. California and Arizona are also
considering the approach in response to "an
era of regulatory reform."
The Institute for the Advancement of the
American Legal System, which, like Hadfield,
is working with state governments on legal
"I'm a big supporter of principles and
big supporter of diversity. But these
regulators are not doing their job at all."
Gillian Hadfield
