While the majority of lawyers practising in Bermuda qualified to do so through study and qualification in the United Kingdom, a growing number are choosing to pursue their legal studies in Canada.

Today?s column will address the Canadian route to qualification. You can also qualify to practice law here via study and qualification in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the West Indies.

Like Bermuda, the legal system in most Canadian provinces is based on the English common law. The exception is Quebec, which has a civil law system.

This column refers only to qualification within the common law provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

The first stage of legal education in Canada is academic study at a university law school. Canadian schools generally require three years of full time study for a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) or a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.

Most also offer part time programmes, as well as joint degrees that combine the study of law with another field, such as business or international relations. Several even allow for study towards joint Canadian and American law degrees.

There are 16 law schools throughout the common law provinces and reciprocal recognition of university degrees allows students to study in any province toward qualification in any other.

Admission to Canadian law schools is very competitive, with well more than 10,000 applicants for approximately 2,300 places each year.

All law schools require a minimum of two or three years of study towards a first (undergraduate) university degree as a prerequisite for admission.

In fact, the vast majority of successful applicants will have already completed a full undergraduate degree, with high standing.

For mature students, who are generally over 26 and have five or more years of non-academic experience, these academic requirements may be relaxed.

In addition to the undergraduate academic record, nearly all law schools require applicants to submit reference letters, a personal statement (essay) and results from the Law School Admission Test (?LSAT?).

The LSAT is a half-day standardised test administered by the Law School Admission Council, an organisation of American and Canadian law schools.

The test is designed to measure skills in reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, logical reasoning and writing.

The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180 and the applicant?s ranking among all test-takers is also reported as a percentile. Applicants may take the LSAT up to three times in a two-year period.

All test scores are reported to the schools and policies vary as to whether the highest score or an average is considered.

The LSAT is administered four times a year at designated centres throughout the world. Special arrangements may be made with the Bermuda College to write the LSAT in Bermuda.

Upon graduation from law school, prospective lawyers begin professional training with the law society of the province in which the student wishes to practice.

Specific requirements vary slightly but all provinces require completion of a bar admission course with licensing examinations and a period of practical training under the supervision of a qualified member of the law society, called articling or articles of clerkship.

The bar admission course consists of a series of lectures, seminars, assignments and examinations, covering skills such as practice management, legal research, writing and advocacy, as well as substantive courses in business law, family law, public law, estate planning, criminal law, real estate law and civil litigation.

The articling phase is essentially a period of apprenticeship with a law firm, legal department, court or government department.

Most large Canadian law firms offer structured articling programmes, in which students rotate through the various areas of the firm.

The procedure of articling recruitment varies across the country. Most Canadian law students apply and interview for articling positions during the summer after the second year of law school. The provincial law societies have implemented strict rules governing the recruitment process, with prescribed periods for interviews, offers and acceptances. Most articling recruitment is completed before the commencement of the final law school year.

In large Canadian cities such as Toronto and Vancouver, articling recruitment is very competitive.

The recent trend has been for large firms to hire articling students from their pool of summer law students, who are recruited in the first semester of the second year of law school.

The key factors in both articling and summer student recruitment are academic performance, relevant experience and personal interviews with the supervising lawyer or firm.

The length of time for completion of the bar admission course and articling varies from 12-18 months, depending on the province.

For example, the qualification requirements in Ontario consist of an 18-week bar admission course, followed by a ten-month articling phase.

Upon completion of both phases, a student is eligible to be called to the bar. Upon qualification with a provincial law society, a person is eligible to be admitted as a barrister and attorney in Bermuda.

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