Back To Law Matters | Winter 2015-16

Internationally Trained Lawyers

“I came to Canada alone in 2012. Just me and my backpack.

That is the way Ximena Espana begins her story about leaving her home in Colombia in a bid to become a Canadian lawyer. Espana was working as an oil and gas lawyer in Bogota. But she wanted more out of her career so decided in 2011, at the age of 26, to leave all that was familiar and apply to the University of Calgary’s energy law LLM program. When she was accepted she assumed if she graduated, her Canadian LLM “would be the trampoline” into being allowed to practice in this country.

“I was optimistic and excited,” she recalls.  “I understood of course that there will be some training you have to go through but I wasn’t aware the process would be so tough.” Because Colombia is a non-Common Law jurisdiction Espana faced ten challenge exams set by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (FLSC). 

The challenge examinations are intended typically for Internationally Trained Lawyers (ITL) who have qualified somewhere else other than Canada. According to the NCA website the series of examinations are designed to ensure “an understanding and knowledge of Canadian law, and knowledge equivalent to that of a graduate of a Canadian common law program”. 

Writing the NCAs, as they are universally known by all applicants, is a difficult, draining and nerve wracking experience. “Yes, I was scared” Espana remembers “you wonder what if I don’t pass just one of the exams.”

Another internationally trained lawyer Agnes Bielecki, from Poland remembers a feeling of isolation. She also had to pass 10 NCA exams. “There is no help, no guidance, all exams are on a self-study basis. It is difficult to find textbooks, there is no assistance in that. It is long and you are alone.”

And as both Espana and Bielecki found out, after all their struggles to qualify they still faced the vital final step in becoming a lawyer in Canada…finding articles. While they hoped their language skills and foreign experience might be viewed as assets finding a Canadian firm willing to take them on was very, very difficult.

This is where Lara Pella, a Canadian lawyer in Imperial Oil’s Calgary office, steps in. She has enjoyed a remarkable legal career, with plenty of international exposure. Over lunch in downtown Calgary one day she started chatting with a woman from Nigeria, who had practiced as a lawyer in her home country. The woman had fulfilled her NCA requirements along with obtaining a Masters in Law in Canada, but was simply unable to obtain articles and had been working as a legal assistant for two years. “It struck me as so unjust that after all that education and training, she was unable to practice law in Canada because she could not obtain an article.  I felt I had to do something,” Pella recalls. 

And she did.  

“I talked to all my contacts in private law firms asking if they had an articling position for this remarkable woman.”   It was a long journey – a six-month journey, in fact - but Pella found a friendly ear in Heather Treacy, then with the Calgary office of Dentons. Starting in 2012 Dentons and Imperial shared the Nigerian-trained lawyer’s articles and she is now able to practice law in Alberta and has since found a legal position.

But it didn’t stop there. Dentons and Imperial formalized their Internationally-Trained Lawyers program and it is now in its 3rd year. Dentons also developed a similar program in Toronto.

Agnes Bielecki was chosen next by Imperial and Dentons. She completed her articles and has become an associate in Dentons’ Calgary office. Imperial has further expanded its Internationally Trained Lawyer program and has now developed a relationship with DLA Piper in Calgary. Pella strongly believes the key to assisting Internationally Trained Lawyers overcome barriers is to create awareness across the Alberta and Canadian legal community. “I didn’t know the problem existed until it was brought to my attention. When lawyers are made aware of the issue, they want to be a part of the solution”, says Pella.

As for Ximena Espana – the woman with the backpack - she finally got articles at Osler’s in Calgary. “I think they appreciate diversity and like to cut the cookie a little differently sometimes.”  Espana expects her Bar call in April. Her advice to other internationally trained lawyers?  “Be patient, be confident and be persuasive.”  

Daniel Lo another candidate who joined the ITL program at Dentons in Calgary and is now an associate there, is a good example of being patient, confident and persuasive. 

Born in Hong Kong he came to Canada at five and grew up in Toronto. Fluent in Cantonese he aspired to become an international lawyer. After an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto he went to the University of Birmingham in England to take his LLB then back to Toronto for an LLM. While doing his LLM and later while working in a non-lawyer roll at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, he successfully wrote five NCA examinations. Over those years Lo also sent out “at least” 150 resumes.  At first he got absolutely no responses. But, when he was able to include his RBC Capital Markets work, he sparked some interest and finally got an offer from Dentons. His takeaway from all this is: “Never give up the dream”.  Incidentally he expects to qualify as a solicitor in England this fall.

But Lo isn’t just enjoying his hard work and good fortune, he remains active in a volunteer organization he founded with Espana, Bielecki and Pella. It is called Global Lawyers of Canada or GLC. It is designed to help other internationally trained lawyers who have come to Canada and are struggling to make their way through the system.  GLC offers advice, encouragement and provides a networking opportunity.

And there has been another big change. Last fall the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law launched an Internationally Trained Lawyer Program – NCA Accreditation.  It is designed specifically to help ITLs study for the NCA challenge examinations. Under the program ITLs sit in regular Law School classes taking exactly the classes they need for their NCAs. The coordinator of the program is Courtney Wagner. She calls it “a pilot project” and says “we’re working out the wrinkles”. That is one reason the course, which is not cheap, is costing $30,000 this year and next, and then being upped to $40,000. But it seems to directly meet the demands of Internationally Trained Lawyers seeking a way through their NCAs.  But of course it does not alleviate the struggle to find articles.

In that search they may want to consider one of the strategies Daniel Lo used to land his articles. “I made a business case,” he says “with the growing globalization of the profession languages and cultural integration are important and valuable skills. Now they see the business case.”


Geoff Ellwand is a Calgary criminal lawyer with an MA in history. A former CBC reporter he continues to write about the law and history. He recently had an article published in the Saskatchewan Law Review about Canada’s most famous handwritten will.