The Law Societies of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society worked on a project to identify and validate the competencies needed for entry to legal practice. This initiative resulted in the development of the Competencies for Entry to Legal Practice (CELP), which will inform lawyer training and education, including bar admission program development and experiential learning opportunities in the coming years.
While the CELP has been approved by all participating provinces, it is not being implemented at this time. For the time being, students will not be assessed at the time of bar call based on the competencies listed in the CELP, nor are principals responsible to integrate the competencies into learning plans. No action is required from articling students or principals at this time.
The CELP is the first step in a larger initiative and it will take time to fully implement. There is a significant amount of work that still needs to be done with the CELP, particularly around where and how these competencies will be acquired and the appropriate method of assessment for these competencies.
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| Competencies for Entry to Legal Practice |
About the CELP
The purpose of the CELP is to develop a framework of competencies for individuals to demonstrate at entry to legal practice that is consistent across the participating Canadian provinces – Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
The CELP serves as a foundational document that will help the law societies build a better system for lawyer competence moving forward. It will create a common benchmark for performance across all bar admission requirements that didn’t previously exist.
The CELP establishes a foundation that will allow us to explore the following opportunities:
- Work with existing bar admission programs to evaluate which competencies they currently address and where they could be adjusted to best align with the CELP.
- Evaluate current articling systems/experiential learning activities to understand which competencies should be acquired during this term.
- Develop better guidance for principals about the competencies students are expected to obtain through experiential learning and how principals will be expected to assess those competencies.
- Explore alternative experiential learning options that would provide students with the tools to develop the required competencies of the CELP.
The CELP will not serve as an additional layer of requirements for an articling student to meet. Rather, it will be used to evaluate and improve the bar admission process going forward.
Next Steps
More information will be shared as we work towards developing guidance and resources to implement the CELP over the next few years.
We will update the profession as we make progress, and there will be opportunities for engagement with the profession as we begin to evaluate bar admission programs and experiential learning activities, but this process will take time. Nothing is changing overnight.
If you have questions about the CELP in the interim, read our FAQ below or contact Education.
About the CELP
No, the CELP is not being implemented at this time. For the time being, students will not be assessed at the time of bar call based on the competencies listed in the CELP. No action is required from articling students at this time.
No, the CELP is not being implemented at this time. For the time being, principals are not responsible to integrate the competencies into learning plans. No action is required from principals at this time.
There is a significant amount of work that still needs to be done with the CELP, particularly around where and how these competencies will be acquired and the appropriate method of assessment for these competencies.
Participating law societies will collaborate with the relevant stakeholders to complete this work. More information and resources will be shared as they are developed, but it will take time.
The PREP curriculum has been aligned with the CELP to ensure that candidates are trained and assessed against a modern, validated set of competencies developed in collaboration with law societies from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia.
With the adoption of the CELP, CPLED has not replaced the current Competency Framework in full. Instead, the CPLED team identified where the existing framework did not fully reflect CELP competencies and updated the curriculum to ensure alignment with the CELP, while building on the existing PREP framework. No action is required from PREP candidates.
There are other existing competency profiles within the legal profession in Canada. These apply to lawyers and students at various points in their careers, but the CELP fills a gap in lawyer development.
The National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) Competency Profile outlines the competencies required for internationally trained lawyers or students to demonstrate that their legal education and experience are roughly equivalent to those of graduates of Canadian common law programs. The National Requirement sets out the minimum requirements that a law school must meet within their curriculum to be accredited. This translates to include the skills and competencies law graduates from Canada must have to qualify for entry to law society bar admission programs. The CELP does not repeat any of the substantive knowledge competencies included in the National Requirement or NCA Profile. These are assumed to have been acquired before the point of entry to practice.
The PREP Competency Framework sets out the skills and level at which PREP candidates need to demonstrate at the completion of the PREP or Accelerated PREP. The CELP does not replace the PREP Competency Framework. Rather, it becomes a foundational layer that the PREP Competency Framework is built on moving forward.
In Alberta, there are also competencies listed within the CPD Tool that lawyers must choose from to complete their annual CPD plans. Many of the competencies in the CELP align with these to allow for a smooth transition once lawyers enter the practice of law.
Content and Next Steps
The competencies outlined in the CELP define the knowledge, skills and abilities that an individual should have at the time they are called to the bar in any of the four western jurisdictions. Once the CELP is implemented, these will be the universal competencies for all individuals at entry to practice in the four western provinces, regardless of practice area or setting.
The CELP is made up of seven domains (or areas of competency), each containing two to five competencies for a total of 25 competencies. Each competency has two to seven performance indicators for additional guidance on how that competency might be demonstrated.
The CELP outlines seven domains in which competencies are categorized:
- Ethics and Professional Responsibilities
- Communication
- Truth and Reconciliation
- Professional Relationship Management
- Critical Thinking and Analysis
- Advice and Advocacy
- Practice Management and Well-being
Performance indicators show how these competencies can be demonstrated. They provide examples of different aspects of the competency that an individual should exhibit. Please note that the performance indicators under competency 3.1 of the Truth and Reconciliation domain do not apply in Alberta to comply with the Regulated Professions Neutrality Act.
The participating Canadian law societies will continue to work together in the next steps of this project over the next couple of years. This will involve developing guidance for bar admission programs and principals/supervisors.
More information will be shared as we work towards developing guidance and resources to implement the CELP over the next few years.
If you have questions about the CELP in the interim, contact Education.