The bureaucratic red tape and finger-pointing that could have left Ontario lawyers unable to launch a career in the United Kingdom has been resolved after an about-face by the Canadian Federation of Law Societies.
The quick turn-around came after an inquiry from Precedent.
In September, the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) in the U.K. unveiled its updated fast-track program, the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme. It allows international lawyers from specified regions to qualify as solicitors after taking a series of courses and tests, but Canada — along with India, New York and other U.S. states — was not included.
The SRA said the affected law societies didn’t send in the required paperwork in time. In April, the SRA sent an in-depth survey to law societies around the world and asked them to return it by September 1 if they wanted to be on the list of recognized areas. But SRA policy executive Jenny Rawstorne acknowledges the documents may not have been sent to the right contacts. However, she adds that recipients didn’t realize how time-sensitive the documents were.
“I think with a number of law societies, they just got lost,” she says. (New York and India have since submitted their paperwork and been added to the list.)
The Canadian Federation of Law Societies, which is overseeing the submission of paperwork for Canadian jurisdictions, declined to be interviewed. When first contacted by Precedent in September, a representative said that compiling the information and having it approved could take until early 2011. Instead, after hurriedly assembling the required documents, Canada’s law societies were approved by the SRA on October 13 and lawyers in those jurisdictions can now apply to qualify.
Canadian lawyers may practise in the U.K. under their own titles without taking the tests, but many London firms require associates to take the tests within a year or two. Lawyers can’t practise as solicitors or make partner until they do. So while the bureaucratic snag didn’t disqualify Canadians from working in the U.K., a months-long delay could have hurt recruitment.
Photo by Ian Muttoo