Are you asking yourself “Where can I practice law?” The coronavirus pandemic caused havoc on the legal industry. Before the virus took its toll on the economy, lawyers were already struggling.

For the past decade, many companies have started hiring in-house counsel instead of hiring law firms. In addition to this, other pressures on the legal market included there simply being too many licensed lawyers in Canada.

Schools like Bond University in Australia have made it easier for people to quickly get their law degree. These law students can then come back to Canada and soon after practice law. There are simply too many lawyers in Canada and not enough work.

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There is also the problem that many lawyers do not know how to run a business. Attorneys have no idea how to create a search engine-optimized website, run Google Ads, and provide customer service.

All of these issues were putting massive financial stress on attorneys prior to COVID-19.

Now we have added COVID-19 to the list of problems with the legal market. Many customers of legal services believe incorrectly that the courts are shut down.

Where can I practice law?

I am calling on the law society to make it easier for lawyers to earn a living. The legal industry in Canada is not profitable enough to be heavily regulated. I am not suggesting that trust accounting rules should be relaxed.

It’s time for lawyers to find ways to increase the size of their market. If lawyers want to stay in business, they will need to expand their practice area outside of the province.

What needs to happen is for the law society to allow lawyers to practice law remotely anywhere in Canada. This would make it easier for people to hire a lawyer.

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Right now lawyers can only practice in their own practice. When someone contacts my company ClearWay Law, our attorneys often cannot help because it is a multi-provincial issue (and sometimes international.)

Let’s say that someone in Toronto has a custody dispute with their ex-spouse who is located in Vancouver. The child is also located in Vancouver and the spouse has a property in Toronto.

Our lawyers in Toronto might only be able to help with the property in Toronto. The lawyers will not be able to represent the client fully because the lawyer can only deal with Ontario legal matters.

That is completely ridiculous.

Can you practice law outside of your province?

A law student can get educated about the law in Australia, and then come to practice law in Canada. However, someone who is already a lawyer in Ontario cannot provide legal advice in British Columbia or Alberta.

The only reason the lawyer can’t practice in the other province is that the other provinces’ law society wants their fees.

If a lawyer knows the law in that other province, they should be allowed to practice law wherever they want in Canada.

A lot of lawyers like to speak about access to justice as a buzzword. At the same time, they do absolutely nothing to improve it.

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I have been pushing for years for the right to operate an online law firm. This law firm would help clients exclusively via email, phone, and Skype.

The temporary measures put forward by the law society currently allow law firms to practise law online, as there is no other choice. However, it is the opinion of many lawyers that these measures are short-term.

Law firms don’t want to invest a lot of time and money in their online strategy and putting in place the infrastructure to operate an online law firm.

Law Society In Canada

A lawyer who is only knowledgeable about real estate law is permitted under the rules to offer legal advice for divorce.

A lawyer who has no experience with going to court is allowed to take on litigation files without any experience. However, if the person who needs legal advice isn’t in the province, forget it!

It is time for the legal industry to stop being so pretentious. Lawyers, law firms, and the Law Society need to see that the legal market in Canada is dying.

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If lawyers do not push for their right to run a successful business and to be properly compensated for their many years of studying and hard work, they will find themselves making less money than a manager at a local retail store.

These retail store managers would have entered into their positions right after high school.

There is nothing wrong with being a retail manager. However, going to school for four years to get your bachelor’s degree, getting a good result on the LSAT, three years of law school, articling, and then passing the bar to become a retail manager doesn’t make much sense.

It’s time for a change.