Licensing > Becoming A Lawyer In NS > Bar Admission Course / Exam

February 2010 - Important Notice**

Given that we expect firms and principals will be starting to make plans for the upcoming articling year, the Admissions Department wishes to provide a “heads up” that there may be changes to the timing and format of the Skills Course for the 2010/2011 articling year. Council will be considering the changes at its March 26^th meeting. One of the changes we are hoping to implement is to offer writing and drafting online.

The articling application and supporting forms will be updated in the next 2 – 3 weeks and posted online. Please be advised that there is one significant change to the documentation required. Under the new Regulations, articled clerks must now submit criminal record checks with their applications. For the particulars on the requirements, please refer to our website for the Policy on Criminal Record Checks.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Caron Ferguson Eagan at 422-1491.

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The following information relates to the Bar Admission Course as it is.

The Bar Admission Course acts as a bridge between law school and practice by providing programs which ensure the highest standards of professional responsibility and competence of the Society's members.

The policies of the Bar Admission Course are set by the Credentials Committee. The Course currently consists of three components:

An Articling Orientation (2 days in July)
Skills Course (5 weeks in duration offered 4 times per year)
Bar Examination (written twice per year in January and July - two days each time).

The Skills Course is a five-week course teaching lawyering skills. The skills addressed are: Interviewing and Counselling, Negotiation, Litigation, Legal Writing, and Legal Drafting.

The Bar Exam tests the competence of applicants in the following areas of practice: Administrative Law, Business Organizations, Commercial Transactions, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Family Law, Professional Responsibility, Real Estate, Torts, Trial Procedure, and Wills and Probate. The examination is an essay format, requiring the applicants to work through hypothetical fact scenarios, to identify issues, governing laws, and then to apply them to the facts and reason to a logical conclusion - in other words, to "think like a lawyer." Unlike law school exams, this examination is the first time that many applicants are asked to put together everything they've learned and to apply that knowledge rather than being tested on discrete subject-specific topics. The examination is not designed primarily to test information, memory or experience. Applicants answer 12 questions over a two-day period, with 45 minutes per question. Each question is marked out of ten. The pass mark is 70% (84 out of 120).

An Exam Writing Seminar is held approximately one month prior to each Bar Exam sitting. The date of the next seminar can be found here.

Further information on the Bar Exam and sample questions (and answers) can be found here.

Bar Review Outlines, which are synopses of the main areas of law on which the clerks are tested have been prepared and are distributed to all applicants for admission. These outlines have been prepared by practitioners and professors. The Credentials Committee is responsible for setting the standards for the examination. Through the Screening Committee, Credentials ensures that the examinations are jurisdictionally sound. Staff have no input in the marking of examinations but are responsible for choosing the areas from the Master Question List that will be tested on each examination in an effort to ensure fairness and consistency.

A selection of Frequently Asked Questions about the Bar Admission Course can be found here.