Reminder: One-Time Mandatory Training Required for all Principals
If you are hiring or planning to hire an articling student, you must complete the Principal Training Course, administered by the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA). Completion of Principal Training Course is a requirement for all lawyers who want to be a principal.
If you have hired a student and the student has submitted an articling agreement to you, please complete the course immediately to avoid potential delays in your student’s commencement of articles. Applications to become an articling student will be denied if the proposed principal has not completed this course.
Lawyers are strongly encouraged to successfully complete the Principal Training Course well in advance of hiring a student. This requirement will then be considered complete when applying to be a principal in the future.
The course is designed to take between 3 to 3.5 hours to complete and includes 8 lessons covering such topics as Law Society duties/requirements, how to be an effective mentor, dealing with difficult conversations and cultural competency. The course does not have to be completed in one sitting. You can stop and return to where you left off at any time.
The Law Society has worked with LESA to keep the cost of the course reasonable as it is a mandatory requirement for principals. There is a registration fee of $125 to cover LESA’s costs to deliver the course. Please ensure that you register with your Law Society Member ID so that we can track the completion of your training. For more information on the course, visit this page.