NCA exams for In-house counsel positions

[YeosoSoft]

Hello everyone,

Just for clarity, if one were to say attend a T-14 U.S school, practice for 5-10 years then come back to Canada for an In-house Counsel position at a corp. (Ex. Telus, Birch Cliff energy, etc.) Would I still need to undergo the NCA exams and sit for the provincial bar? Or is that only if I am wanting to practice as a lawyer at a law firm?

[Mal]

On 1/1/2024 at 4:44 PM, YeosoSoft said:

Hello everyone,

Just for clarity, if one were to say attend a T-14 U.S school, practice for 5-10 years then come back to Canada for an In-house Counsel position at a corp. (Ex. Telus, Birch Cliff energy, etc.) Would I still need to undergo the NCA exams and sit for the provincial bar? Or is that only if I am wanting to practice as a lawyer at a law firm?

The easiest is to simply ask the law society, but I would expect that you need to be called to the bar. You need to be called to the bar to practice law, regardless of setting. Whether an in-house position counts as practicing law depends a bit, but ordinarily, it would count. Most legal departments will simply require bar membership to be hired, so it is largely a moot question.

That being said, in a situation where you have significant practice in the US, you'd likely be able to apply to have the NCA exams and articling waived. The requirements for the bar depend on the province, but they will likely want to ensure you meet the standards through a requirement to pass the bar exam (or course). 

[beepboop]

If you need to be called to the bar, you will be required to write the five mandatory NCA exams plus a legal, research and writing course through CPLED, regardless of how long you have practiced. In the province I'm from, foreign trained lawyers can waive some of the articling time but not all - they require a minimum of 6 months of articling for foreign trained lawyers.