Ontario bar exam for future lawyers could be scrapped, replaced with skills-based course
CBC
The hurdles future lawyers need to jump through in Ontario could soon change.
The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) is considering ending the bar exam and replacing it with a skills-based course as some other provinces have done — but the move is already drawing skepticism from students and industry players.
That includes the province's attorney general Doug Downey, who pushed back on the idea on X, formerly Twitter, Monday.
“Any changes that water down standards by scrapping written exams simply aren’t acceptable,” he wrote.
If the LSO goes ahead with the change, Ontario would join other provinces including Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and B.C., which announced its decision to scrap the bar in October.
Most of them went on to adopt the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP), a training program offered by the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education that’s nine months long, or 14 weeks in an accelerated format.
The LSO is still determining how the course could be structured in Ontario, but there will be a final test with scenario-based assignments to “confirm that candidates meet entry-level competence,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement to CBC Toronto.
The law society started public consultations in October, which will wrap up in January 2026.
The bar exam has been in place for roughly 20 years and consists of two open-book, multiple choice tests: the barrister exam and the solicitor exam.
Before the bar exam, there was a course-based model that included multiple tests.
But according to a September report from the LSO’s Professional Development and Competence Committee, there were concerns that the current bar exam doesn't assess what lawyers need to know in the real world.
The report also notes complaints that the exam was "extremely stressful and took a significant toll on their mental health."
Those concerns came largely "more frequently" from candidates who are Indigenous, require accommodation, or are internationally trained, the report said.
Some candidates also said the open-book nature of the exam turned it into an “exercise in ‘indexing,’” the committee wrote. That could place foreign trained candidates without established networks in Ontario at a disadvantage, as the report notes they may not have access to indexes domestic law school students typically share with their peers.
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