FMC has won the CBC Toronto Vision Award for Immigrant Inclusion, presented by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). The firm was chosen because of the Legal Professional Internship for internationally trained lawyers.
The program is significant. “Foreign-trained lawyers have long struggled to meet the requirements to practice law in Canada,” we reported in our Fall 2009 issue. “They face a variety of obstacles not only culturally, but also procedurally, as they attempt to navigate the Canadian accreditation process.”
The subject of that article — and of a Metro Morning interview and Toronto Star story today — is Amrit Soar, a lawyer and former partner at a firm in Kenya who came to Canada in 2007 and was the first person to complete FMC’s program.
Soar told the Star that it could take until 2012 before she’s admitted to the bar and even longer to find a job, which — despite the improvements brought about by FMC, the TRIEC, and the U of T Law School fast-track program for international lawyers that launches in May, is far too long for a professional with years of training and experience.