The law society of upper Canada and access to justice: Lessons from lawyer-licensing reform

The process for licensing new lawyers in Ontario is in the midst of significant change following the Law Society of Upper Canada's approval of a recommendation by it's Articling Task Force to introduce of a 3- year pilot project that will provide a program of practical legal training as an alternative to articling. This article describes and critically analyzes these changes and the process that led to them in relation to three aspects of access to justice: access to the legal profession, access to legal services, and access to legal governance. The analysis reveals numerous shortcomings that provide lessons that could be applied to the proposal for evaluating the pilot project as well as to the Law Society's recently announced initiative to overhaul its institutional approach to access to justice.