Lawyer

All lawyers in Quebec must obtain a university degree in Civil Law. This usually takes 3 or 4 years to complete. In the rest of Canada, lawyers get a university degree in Common Law instead. That is because Quebec’s legal system is different. Quebec Civil Law comes from France, and the rest of Canada follows the Common Law system, which comes from Britain.

McGill University offers students the option of doing degrees in both Civil and Common Law at the same time in both English and French. You have the choice of writing your exams in either language.

Five universities offer Civil Law degrees in French only, but at these universities, you are allowed to write your exams in English:

• Laval University
• University of Montreal
• University of Ottawa (Civil Law stream)
• University of Quebec in Montreal
  
• University of Sherbrooke

Regardless of where you study, you must have an understanding of French, since most of the judgements and books you will be expected to read the Civil Law are in French.

Once you have finished your law degree, you must then complete “Bar School” at the École du Barreau du Québec. Bar School teaches you all of the practical things you need to know to become a lawyer in Quebec. During Bar School you increase your understanding of Quebec law and learn important skills, such as how to write various kinds of legal documents, how to argue cases before the court, etc.

Bar School takes either 4 or 8 months to complete depending on whether you go full or part time. Classes are offered in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, and Ottawa. At the end of Bar School students must pass an exam called a bar exam. All classes and books at Bar School are in French, but you can write your bar exam in English.

Following the bar exam, you have to do a 6-month internship called “articling.” This is an on-the-job training during which you meet with clients, do legal research and even go to court to argue cases. At this stage, you are supervised by lawyers and learn how to do the day-to-day work of a lawyer, but you cannot give legal advice since you are not a lawyer just yet.

Once you have a university degree in law, pass the bar exam and finish your articling, there is still one more step before you can call yourself a lawyer: you have to be “called to the Bar”. This is a ceremony that officially gives you the right to practise law. Once you have been “called to the Bar”, you are officially a member of the Barreau du Québec (an association to which all lawyers in the province must belong). Finally you are a lawyer and you can use the title “Maître”!

To learn more about the job prospects (salary, rate of growth of the profession, etc.) for lawyers, take a look at the Job Futures website.