A proposal to replace the Ontario bar exam with a mandatory skills-based course is stirring debate in the province's legal ranks over the best way to ensure new lawyers are competent to practise.
Some in the profession argue that while the current exam isn’t perfect, it represents an objective, black-and-white assessment of the applicants' understanding of the law – a crucial gatekeeper in protecting vulnerable members of the public who seek legal services.
Others argue the multiple-choice, open-book exam doesn't test legal knowledge or skills, but rather the ability to compile and effectively use a table of contents, and focusing on practical skills and ethics would be a better gauge of who's qualified to be a lawyer.
Spurring the discussion is a proposal by the professional development and competence committee of the Law Society of Ontario, the body that regulates and licenses the province's lawyers and paralegals.
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In a report dated late September, the committee says the current exam model was brought in nearly two decades ago and the legal landscape has evolved since then, while questions have emerged about the effectiveness of multiple-choice tests in evaluating the skills lawyers need.
Rather than spending significant resources to revamp the exam, which consists of two tests on separate days, the committee is proposing to switch to a mandatory online course with ongoing evaluations and a final assessment to determine whether people meet entry-level requirements to work as lawyers.
This change would also help address some of the challenges faced by internationally trained lawyers, who had a higher fail rate on the 2023 bar exam and receive a disproportionate amount of complaints and disciplinary measures, the committee says in the report.
Several other provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan, have already moved to a similar model, and British Columbia announced plans to do the same last month, with its last set of exams scheduled for next year.
The goal is to have an entry-level assessment that's "more responsive" to the issues lawyers face in their work, whether that's communication or managing their clients and practice, said Atrisha Lewis, the committee chair.
"The intention is still to test for substantive law, it's just (that) the method of testing might be different," Lewis said in an interview this week. "I'm not sure a multiple-choice exam is the best way to test whether or not someone has substantive knowledge of an area of law."
Allan Ritchie, who oversees a business law practice in Toronto, raised concerns about the proposal on LinkedIn, writing that abandoning "objective testing" amounts to lowering the standards to become a lawyer.
Rather than prioritizing competence and public protection, he said in a recent interview, it seems the law society is focusing on the experience of the candidates and the struggle some face in passing the exam.
Evaluating softer skills such as interviewing or negotiation is important but it's not a substitute for testing candidates' understanding of Canadian and Ontario law, which is the purpose of the bar exam, said Ritchie, who is also licensed to practise in New York State.
There must be a "robust examination that produces binary right and wrong answers" to certify a base knowledge of the law, particularly since new and junior lawyers typically serve the most vulnerable members of society, he said.
"The risk when lawyers don't have the minimum competence ... can be quite severe," he said.
"They can result in somebody losing their freedom, in the case of a criminal case. They can result in somebody losing custody of a child, in a family law case. They can result in somebody losing a business in the context of a corporate dispute."
Mirilyn Sharp, a class-action and commercial litigator in Toronto, said many of the skills the proposed course aims to address can be dealt with during articling, a supervised placement that can fill the practical component of licensing.
While support for international graduates should be considered, a "complete overhaul" of the exam is a "disproportionate and unnecessary response," she said in an email.
Gabriel Latner, a litigator who focuses on appeals, applications and dispositive motions, said the current exam doesn't accomplish what it sets out to do – measure understanding of the law.
Anyone who has time to prepare and put together an index could pass without going to law school or articling, he said.
The exam doesn't even test reading comprehension, but rather reading speed, which penalizes people who aren't as strong in English regardless of their legal chops, said Latner, who studied in the United Kingdom and passed the Ontario and New York bar exams.
"I also think lot of the lawyers – not all of them, but a lot of the lawyers who are opposed to this, never wrote the bar exam in its modern incarnation and don't understand how absolutely ridiculous it is. It's a silly, silly test," he said in an interview this week.
Latner said he doesn't want to minimize others' objections, noting there have been issues with major changes being pushed through. The committee also didn't provide enough information on its proposal to properly assess it, he said.
Alison Craig, a criminal defence lawyer in Toronto, said she never considered the bar exam to be a good gauge of who's qualified to be a lawyer, adding the only "remotely relevant" skill it tests is the ability to work under pressure.
Craig had a good index prepared to help find the answers during the test, and since she already knew she wanted to go into criminal law, she didn't care much about other areas, she said in an interview this week.
"I'm successful enough now that I can say this out loud: most of them, I took the cellophane off the (reference) materials on the subway on the way to the exam," she said.
The defence lawyer said she would prefer to see more focus on research, memo writing and other practical skills, as well as ethics, as part of the licensing process.
Lawyers and other stakeholders can weigh in on the proposal, which is up for consultation until Jan. 31. After that, the law society's board of directors will make a decision, said Lewis, the committee chair.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.
