The legal community is not immune to a labour shortage.
The Federation of Ontario Law Associations (FOLA) is looking for incentives from the Law Society of Ontario that encourage new lawyers and existing practices to relocate to underserviced areas.
FOLA is concerned with what it calls a “greying of the bar” in many parts of the provinces.
The profession has seen a number of lawyers in rural and small communities retiring and closing their practice.
However, there aren’t enough new lawyers filling those shoes.
Chair, and President of the Rainy River District Law Association, Doug Judson, says it is an issue in northwestern Ontario even with a law school in Thunder Bay.
“The Bora Laskin School is specifically designed to funnel new graduates into rural northern communities to practice. The Bora Laskin School is a great school, but we haven’t seen a lot of people make their way into the Rainy River District in the ten years it’s been operating. So there still seems to be a gap that we need to work to address,” says Judson.
And it is not just a northern issue.
Judson says several communities in southern Ontario are facing similar difficulties finding someone to represent them in a criminal defence matter or a family matter if they’re on legal aid because no one is practicing in those areas.
“So what we are trying to do at FOLA is get our professional regulator, the Law Society of Ontario, to develop some policy incentives and structures, whether those are financial or non-financial ones, that can really encourage people to consider careers or relocating practices or coming into practice opportunities in some of these underserved markets.”
Technology is trying to fill that gap.
Judson says even with his own practice, clients are located across the province. Meetings are done using online platforms like Zoom and Teams.
But he notes there is a segment of the population that doesn’t have the ability to connect online, making it necessary for legal professionals to be situated in different parts of the province.
Several lawyers from outside the Rainy River District have clients here.
Judson says there are travel and scheduling challenges as a result.
“It creates all kinds of chaos just because if your practice is mostly based in one district, you tend to sort of build it around what the court schedule is. But the second you’re going all over the place, it makes things much more difficult.”
Judson feels there is some openness on the part of the Law Society to look into the issue.
He says Law Society staff expect to bring forward recommendations to the governing board of the Law Society within the year.
