April 8, 2026Back to Latest

In November 2025, the Law Society of Alberta invited the legal profession to participate in a short online survey focused on substantive law competence and continuing professional development (CPD). The results of the survey are now available.

In the context of the survey, substantive law was collectively defined as both what specific knowledge and skills a lawyer needs to be able to practise in a certain area of law and how that knowledge and skills are applied in a practical setting. The “what” includes things like relevant legislation and caselaw. The “how” relates to procedural law and includes things like rules, practice notes and directives, but also unwritten rules and norms on how proceedings are conducted that are often specific to a practice area and jurisdiction.

Method and Response Rate

All Alberta lawyers and articling students were invited to participate in the survey. This means the survey results represent a non-probability sample – participants self-selected to complete the survey if they met the eligibility criteria rather than being randomly selected from the entire population.

Like all online surveys that use this type of sampling, response bias and non-response bias are factors to consider when interpreting results. Those who self-selected to participate may have stronger opinions on the subject matter than those who did not.

However, the data still provides valuable feedback about the substantive law CPD experience.

There were 265 respondents who completed the survey: 262 Alberta lawyers and three Alberta students-at-law.

Given that the survey was open for any Alberta lawyer or student-at-law to respond and that the number of respondents is a small percentage of the total number of lawyers in Alberta, the results may not be representative of the entire profession.

The purpose of the survey was to gather more information and context around this issue, and to hear from Alberta lawyers who were willing to share their thoughts on substantive law competence and CPD. Even though this data cannot be applied to the entire legal profession in Alberta, it provides insight and key themes to consider moving forward.

This is not the only information that will be used to make future decisions regarding substantive law CPD.

Key Findings

Key findings from respondents are:

• Most feel well-versed in the substantive law of their practice areas, with 87 per cent rating themselves as a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale for the “what” aspect of substantive law competence and 83 per cent for the “how”.
  • When looking at a cross section of the respondents, confidence is lower among newer lawyers and those educated outside Canada, indicating potential value in more targeted supports.
• Barriers to participate in substantive law continuing professional development are primarily cost, time, relevance and travel, rather than a lack of interest.
• There is a preference for flexible, self-directed learning formats over in-person or live opportunities.
• Awareness of existing Law Society substantive law resources is low.

Read the full report for more details.

Substantive Law Resources

As a reminder, the Law Society and other partner legal organizations have several available resources related to substantive law that Alberta lawyers and students-at-law can take advantage of.

• AdvisorLink – AdvisorLink connects you with other experienced counsel to answer your one-off substantive law inquiries in a wide range of practice area
• Practice Fundamentals Program – The Practice Fundamentals Program is an online program developed by the Law Society and the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) that supports new lawyers through the development of skills critical to legal practice, including some content on substantive law. Lawyers who first gained active status with the Law Society of Alberta in 2024 or later can access the Program at no cost.
• Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) – LESA has subscriptions and Practice Manuals available by area of law. Content is sorted into six core areas of law (Business Law, Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Family Law, Real Estate and Wills and Estates), and there are many additional, more specialized resources within those categories.
• Canadian Bar Association (CBA) – Alberta Branch – CBA Alberta has specialty groups, or Sections, that focus on substantive law within various practice areas in the province. The Sections host professional development events and are an opportunity for lawyers to engage with like-minded professionals.

View this resource for more information on ways to stay current on substantive law.

Background

The Law Society is increasingly receiving feedback regarding substantive law competence concerns from the judiciary, lawyers and other legal stakeholders.

Due to the increase in feedback we are receiving, we wanted to better understand if we could collaborate with other legal stakeholders in this space or find other ways to meaningfully contribute to the substantive law competence of lawyers in Alberta. We do not intend to duplicate existing efforts, as a lot of excellent work is already being done for substantive law competence. But we do believe it’s important to have a clear understanding of any gaps to see if there is a meaningful way that we can contribute.

The purpose of the survey was to gather information about CPD opportunities related to substantive law and how the Law Society could potentially support lawyers more proactively in this area.