Process

The National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) is a standing committee of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Committee members include administrators of provincial and territorial law societies and of the practising bar, and representatives of the Council of Canadian Law Deans.

We help Canada’s law societies protect the public interest by making sure that anyone who earned their legal education and training outside Canada has the knowledge they need to practise law in Canada. We tell people how to improve their knowledge of Canadian law so it compares to the knowledge they would get from an approved Canadian common law degree program.

The NCA does this using a process that assesses your academic training and professional experience. Then the NCA uses a single standard to determine what exams or studies you need to complete to either fill gaps in your knowledge or show that you have the knowledge you need.

During the assessment, the NCA reviews your academic and professional experience. We find gaps between your education and training on one hand, and the knowledge you would get from an approved Canadian law school program on the other hand. Then we assign exams or studies to make sure you meet our standard, called the National Requirement.

Canadian law school graduates, as well as NCA candidates, must meet this standard to qualify for bar admissions in a common law jurisdiction in Canada.

The NCA evaluates the qualifications of anyone with a law degree, whether you are:

• a Canadian citizen who got your legal education abroad
• a Canadian civil law graduate
• a newcomer to Canada with an overseas legal education
• someone considering immigrating to Canada.