Scrapping the Bar Exam Won’t Fix Ontario’s Licensing Problem

The Law Society of Ontario is considering removing the written barrister and solicitor examinations as part of the lawyer licensing process. They published a report on the subject and asked members of the legal community to comment.[1] While I agree that the licensing process and especially the examinations requires modernization (and I’ve written about this at length before[2]), I disagree the completely replacing standard written examinations will accomplish this goal but rather will be costly and will lower the standards for entry into the profession. The Law Society’s report identified four thematic concerns they wanted to address by going forward with this plan: (i) rising number of international candidates, (ii) operational concerns, (iii) aligning with competency standards and (iv) aligning with provinces.

International Candidates Need Support, Not Lowered Standards

The Law Society has identified that internationally trained candidates are increasing but experience much lower pass rates on the Ontario bar exams than domestic students (57% vs 88%). This is a serious concern — but eliminating the exams is the wrong solution.

International candidates face barriers because they are unfamiliar with Canadian law, institutions, and legal culture, especially the culture around passing the written examinations. The answer is not to remove one of the few objective measures of competence in Ontario, but to modernize the accreditation and preparation pathways that precede licensing. Strengthening the NCA process, improving access to preparatory courses, and increasing transparency around exam expectations would address inequity without compromising entry standards.

Lowering the bar for everyone — including domestic candidates who currently pass at high rates — sends the wrong message to the public and undermines confidence in the profession.

Operational Problems Don’t Disappear — They Shift

Another justification for scrapping written exams is administrative burden: cost, accommodations, security, and logistics. But these challenges do not vanish under a skills-based regime.

A province-wide skills assessment model would require thousands of individualized evaluations, trained assessors, oversight mechanisms, appeal processes, and accommodations. In effect, the Law Society would be creating a new virtual college, customized for each individual. That model is inherently more expensive, more open to security failures, and less scalable than centralized written testing.

Written exams can — and should — be improved. A closed-book format, essay-based components, updated subject matter, and clearer marking transparency would reduce security risks, eliminate costly materials, and better assess analytical competence.

Written Exams Are a Screening Tool — Not Skills Training

The most persuasive argument against written bar exams is that they do not reflect “real-world” legal practice. That criticism is partly correct — but also misses the point.

Written exams are not meant to replicate practice. They are meant to confirm that candidates possess a minimum level of substantive legal knowledge before being entrusted with clients, files, and ethical decision-making. Skills training already exists through articling and the Law Practice Program. Removing written examinations conflates two distinct objectives: knowledge validation and experiential training.

Every regulated profession maintains a knowledge-based gateway. Medicine, accounting, engineering and nursing all require written testing alongside practical components. The burden is on candidates to meet professional standards — not on the profession to lower standards to improve pass rates.

The Law Society’s report and conclusions relied heavily on a Denver study questioning the effectiveness of traditional bar exams. But the American licensing landscape is fundamentally different. Each state has its own system, ethical examination, character review, and skills requirements. But Canada’s provincial system is not quite the same. Ontario should be cautious about importing conclusions drawn from fragmented foreign regimes that do not reflect Canadian legal culture, mobility frameworks, or regulatory structures. At a minimum, studies from other common law countries like England and Australia who continue with written examinations should be granted similar weight than this study.

Interprovincial Alignment Is a Red Herring

Removing Ontario’s written exams would not meaningfully improve interprovincial mobility. Licensed lawyers already benefit from mobility agreements. There is also nothing wrong with having Ontario maintain different licensing standards due to its differing population and volume of candidates and legal services.

A Better Path Forward

The choice is not between outdated exams and no exams at all.

Ontario should retain a written licensing examination — but modernize it. Written testing should focus on substantive knowledge, ethical reasoning, and legal analysis, while experiential competence continues to be assessed through articling, the LPP, or enhanced skills-based programs.

Reform should raise standards, not obscure them. The public deserves lawyers who are both capable and qualified — and written examinations, properly designed, remain essential to that mandate.

This article is a brief summary of my input to the Law Society. I have practiced law in Ontario for over a decade, entered the profession as an internationally trained lawyer, and am familiar with foreign bar examinations. I now run a multi-office Ontario law firm and am deeply involved in recruiting, training, and supervising early-career lawyers. From that vantage point, my experience tells me that written examinations still play a critical role in safeguarding baseline professional competence.

This article was originally published by Law360 Canada, part of LexisNexis Canada Inc.: https://www.law360.ca/ca/pulse/articles/2430268/scrapping-the-bar-exam-won-t-fix-ontario-s-licensing-problem

[1] https://lso.ca/about-lso/initiatives/consultation-lawyer-licensing-process

[2] https://www.law360.ca/ca/articles/1813411/revisiting-the-bar-exam-jacob-murad