Reducing the length of a Placement

You may apply for an abridgment of the articling term based on prior legal experience if you have:

1. been licensed to practise law in another jurisdiction and practised as a lawyer in another jurisdiction, or
2. had other legal experience obtained after completing a law degree.

The following factors will be considered when evaluating your request for an abridgment: 

• the length, recency, nature, scope and diversity of your legal experience, and
• the relevance of the legal experience to the experiential training competencies and requirements for candidates established by the Law Society

Experience obtained by you before completing a program to obtain a Bachelor of Laws or Juris Doctor degree from a law school, or experience obtained while enrolled in a program of a law school, including full-time, part-time or summer experience in a law firm or legal organization, and/or clinical experience will NOT be considered when evaluating a request for an abridgment.

Note: If you request an abridgment of articles based on prior legal experience and you are licensed to practise law in another jurisdiction, you must currently be in good standing in that jurisdiction or must have chosen not to maintain their license to practise law in that jurisdiction for reasons other than disciplinary action.

To apply for an abridgment based on prior practice experience, the following documents are required:

1. Application for Articling Abridgment
2. A letter from you, describing the period of your legal experience. You must reference the experiential training competencies for candidates and provide specific examples of the applicable competencies;
3. A letter of reference from one or more lawyer or judge referees, who has direct knowledge of your legal experience. The letter(s) must verify the period of your legal experience and  provide specific examples of the applicable competencies. The letter(s) of reference must be sent directly from the referee to Articling by regular mail, email or facsimile.
4. Letter from Principal (only applicable if the candidate has begun articling)- The letter from the Principal or firm must include the start date of the articling placement and the amount of Time Off from articles the candidate has taken up to the date of request, including any vacation, sick days, or study days.
5. Where you have been admitted to the bar(s) of a foreign jurisdiction, an original Certificate of Standing must be sent from the governing body of that jurisdiction directly to the Law Society’s articling office. Previously, the physical copy of the Certificate of Standing was required, however, we will now accept Certificates that are emailed directly from the issuing jurisdiction.

Any documents that are not in English or French must be translated by an Association of Translators and Interpreters of Ontario (ATIO) Certified Translator. You may wish to refer to ATIO's Directory of Certified Translators on its website at www.atio.on.ca. The original Certificate of Standing must be sent by the governing body of that jurisdiction directly to a certified translator. The certified translator must then send both the original and translated copies of the Certificate of Standing directly to Articling at the Law Society of Ontario.

An application fee of $160.00 (plus applicable taxes). The Law Society will invoice your online account in the amount of $160.00 (plus applicable taxes), or you may pay by certified cheque or money order payable to Law Society of Ontario.

The approval process takes approximately 15 business days once all required documentation listed above has been received by the Law Society’s articling office and the fee is paid.