The debate turned as a minority on the Law Society of Upper Canada’s articling task force rejected last week’s proposal for a law practice programme in favour of doing away with articling - on-the-job training, at a lower introductory salary, under supervision - altogether.

Opposing views

The Law Times reports that Peter Wardle, a member of the minority on the articling task force that opposed the report’s main recommendation of a new law practice programme, said that articling had ‘outlived its usefulness’.
The final report was released last week with recommendations on how to solve the recent problems in Ontario. However it contained opposing views from task force members. Some want to abolish articling altogether and introduce a ‘comprehensive transitional pre-licensing programme’ – including online learning and exams – while others have suggested a five-year project, beginning in 2014, to create an alternative option to the current system.

Hard decisions

However, Mr Wardle – a partner at Toronto-based Wardle Daley Bernstein – said it was time to take hard decisions about articling now. He told the Law Times News that the alternative plan would lead to a ‘two-tiered’ system.
An alternative view was put forward by Tom Conway, task force chairman and LSUC treasurer, who suggested a slower implementation would lead to an effective long-term solution. He said that in his opinion it was the first time in North America  that a law society or a regulator of the legal profession opted to apply the latest in objective assessment techniques to measure the effectiveness of a practical training programme.
The task force will present a motion to Convocation next week asking it to adopt the majority’s recommendations.