There is a list of measures required for admission into a law school in Canada. It should not come as a shock that Law school admission requirements in Canada differ from the law school requirements in other countries.
Admission requirements into law school are on two levels:
- The National requirements
- The school requirements.
Every country has a unique law by which it is governed due to differences in political systems, societal norms, culture, and beliefs.
These differences in law have an impact, leading to law school admission requirements differences across the nations of the world.
Canada has national requirements for law schools. We’ll see them below.
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The National Requirements for Law Schools Admission in Canada
Alongside approved Canadian law degrees, the Federation of Law Society of Canada put in place a competency requirement for admission into Canadian law schools.
These competency requirements include:
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- skill competencies; problem-solving, legal research, written and oral legal communication.
- ethnic and professional competencies.
- substantive legal knowledge; the foundation of law, public law of Canada, and private law principles.
For students who want to study law in Canada, you must meet up with the National Requirements to get admission into a law school in a North American country.
Law School Admission Requirements in Canada
There are things a Law school in Canada looks at before giving admission to a student.
To get admitted into a Law school in Canada, applicants must:
- Own a bachelor’s degree.
- Pass the Law School Admission Council LSAT.
Either having a bachelor’s degree in art or a bachelor’s degree in science or having completed 90 credit hours of your bachelor’s degree is first of all required for admission into a Canadian law school.
Beyond having a bachelor’s degree you must be accepted as a member of any Law School Admission Council (LSAC) in a Canadian Law School, you achieve being accepted by passing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).
Individual law schools also have specific requirements that must be met before admission can be offered. When choosing a law school to apply to in Canada, you must make sure you meet the requirement for admission to that particular law school.
You must also check out the quality and rank of the law school, knowing the top global law schools in Canada can help with your search. You must also know how to get financial aid for law school, check out global law schools with scholarships to ease your search process.
There are 24 law schools across Canada, each of which admission requirements varies with respect to their province.
The requirements for law schools across Canada are stated in the Official Guide to Canadian JD Programs on the LSAC website. All you need to do is input your choice of law school and the criteria to be admitted will pop up.
We will take you on the Law school requirements for Admission in Canada below.
Requirements to Become a Professional Practicing Lawyer in Canada in 2022
The requirements to become a professional practicing lawyer in Canada includes:
- Having a first degree in art or science
- Attending a law school in Canada or an approved foreign law school
- Becoming a member of one of the 14 territorial and provincial law societies in Canada and abiding by its rules.
The 14 territorial provincial law societies are in charge of every law practitioner in the whole of Canada including Quebec.
Graduating from law school is a major requirement to become a Canadian lawyer, just like in most countries. The Federation of Law Societies of Canada (FLSC), is credible for formulating federal regulations criteria for the legal profession in Canada.
According to FLSC an approved Canadian law degree must include completion of two years of post-high school education, a campus-based legal education, and three years in an FLSC legally authorized law school or a foreign school with comparable standards as an FLSC-approved Canadian law school. The National requirements for law schools in Canada were established by the FLSC National requirements.
What You Need to Know Before Taking the Canadian Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
LSAC arranges for the LSAT to be taken four times a year; all the fixed LSAT dates are clearly stated on the LSAC website.
The LSAT has a score scale that ranges from 120 to 180, your test score on the scale determines the law school to which you will be admitted.
Your score is a factor that determines the law school you attend. You need to score as high as you can because the best law schools take the students with the highest scores.
The LSAT examines candidates:
1. Reading and Comprehensive Ability
Your ability to read complex texts with accuracy will be tested.
It is one of the basic requirements for admission. Encountering long, complex sentences is a norm in the legal world.
Your ability to properly decode and understand weighty sentences is important to thrive in law school and as a practicing lawyer.
In the Law School Admission Test, you will come across long complex sentences, You must give your answer based on your ability to understand the sentence
2. Reasoning Ability
Your reasoning ability affects your performance in law school.
Questions will be given for you to speculate, detect connective relationships, and render reasonable conclusions from the sentences.
3. Ability to Think Critically
This is where candidates’ IQs are tested.
Candidates that you study and answer all questions intelligently making inferences that would result in a suitable conclusion to every question.
4. Ability to Analyze the Reasoning and Arguments of Others
This is a basic requirement. To do well in law school you must be able to see what the other lawyer sees. You can get study materials for the LSAT on the LSAC website.
You can also take LSAT prep courses to boost your chances.
Website such as official LSAT prep with Khan Academy, LSAT prep course with Oxford seminar, or other LSAT prep organizations gives LSAT prep courses.
The LSAT test is taken to make sure the candidate meets the national competency requirements for being admitted to a Canadian Law School.
Law school admissions council examination centers for admission tests in Canada
LSAT is a basic requirement for admission into Law Schools in Canada. Choosing a suitable examination center is advantageous in reducing stress before the LSAT examination.
LSAC has numerous examination centers across Canada.
Below is a list of centers for taking your Law School Admission Test:
LSAT Centre in Quebec:
- McGill University, Montreal.
LSAT Centres in Alberta:
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- Burman University, Lacombe Bow Valley College, Calgary
- The University of Calgary in Calgary
- The University of Lethbridge in Lethbridge
- University of Alberta, Edmonton
- Grande Prairie Regional College, Grande Prairie.
LSAT Centres in New Brunswick:
- Mount Allison University, Sackville
- University of New Brunswick, Fredericton.
LSAT Centre British Columbia:
- North Island College, Courtenay
- Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops
- University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Kelowna
- British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby
- Ashton Testing Services LTD, Vancouver
- University of British Columbia, Vancouver
- Camosun College-Lansdowne Campus, Victoria
- Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo
- University of Victoria, Victoria.
LSAT Centres in Newfoundland/Labrador:
- The Memorial University of Newfoundland, Saint John’s
- The Memorial University of Newfoundland – Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook.
LSAT Centres in Nova Scotia:
- St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish
- Cape Breton University, Sydney
- Dalhousie University, Halifax.
LSAT Centre in Nunavut:
- Law Society of Nunavut, Iqaluit.
LSAT Centre in Ontario:
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- Loyalist College, Belleville
- KLC College, Kingston
- Queen’s College, Etobicoke
- McMaster University, Hamilton
- Saint Lawrence College, Cornwall
- Queen’s University, Kingston
- Saint Lawrence College, Kingston
- Dewey College, Mississauga
- Niagara College, Niagara-on-the-Lake
- Algonquin College, Ottawa
- University of Ottawa, Ottawa
- Saint Paul University, Ottawa
- Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo
- Trent University, Peterborough
- Algoma University, Sault Ste Marie
- Cambrian College, Sudbury
- University of Western Ontario, London
- The University of Windsor, Faculty of Law in Windsor
- University of Windsor, Windsor
- Lakehead University, Thunder Bay
- Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School, Toronto
- Humber Institute of Technical and Madonna Catholic Secondary School, Toronto
- St. Basil-the-Great College School, Toronto
- University of Toronto, Toronto
- Advanced Learning, Toronto.
LSAT Centres in Saskatchewan:
- University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
- The University of Regina, Regina.
LSAT Centres in Manitoba:
- Assiniboine Community College, Brandon
- Brandon University, Brandon
- Canad Inns Destination Centre Fort Garry, Winnipeg.
LSAT Centre in Yukon:
- Yukon College, Whitehorse.
LSAT Centre in Prince Edward Island:
- University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown.
The Two Law School Certificates in Canada
Canada Law School students study to be certified either with a French civil law degree or an English common law degree. You must be certain of which law certificate you want while seeking admission into a law school in Canada.
Cities with Law schools that offer French Civil Law degrees in Quebec
Most of the Law schools that offer French Civil Law degrees are in Quebec.
The law schools in Quebec include:
- Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec
- The University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Ottawa, Ontario
- Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, Quebec
- McGill University Faculty of Law, Montreal, Quebec
- Université Laval, Québec City, Quebec
- Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec.
Law schools that offer French Civil Law degrees outside Quebec include:
- Université de Moncton Faculté de Droit, Edmundston, New Brunswick
- The University of Ottawa Droit Civil, Ottawa, Ontario.
Other law schools in Canada are located in New Brunswick, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and Ontario.
Cities with Law schools that offer English Common Law degrees
These law schools offer English Common Law degrees.
Brunswick:
- University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law, Fredericton.
British Columbia:
- University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law, Vancouver
- Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law, Kamloops
- University of Victoria Faculty of Law, Victoria.
Saskatchewan:
- University of Saskatchewan Faculty of Law, Saskatoon.
Alberta:
- The University of Alberta Faculty of Law, Edmonton.
- University of Calgary Faculty of Law, Calgary.
Nova Scotia:
- Dalhousie University Schulich School of Law, Halifax.
Manitoba:
- University of Manitoba -Robson Hall Faculty of Law, Winnipeg.
Ontario:
- University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Ottawa
- Ryerson University Faculty of Law, Toronto
- University of Western Ontario-Western Law, London
- Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto
- The University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Toronto
- University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Windsor
- Queen’s University Faculty of Law, Kingston
- Lakehead University-Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Thunder Bay.
