Manitoba Articling Program Review

The Law Society of Manitoba (in conjunction with the law societies of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society) is seeking feedback on the types of training and mentoring articling students are receiving, issues related to discrimination or harassment and how prepared articling students feel to practice law in the 21st century.

This survey follows up on a similar review completed in 2019 with Alberta and Saskatchewan. Like the 2019 survey, there will be two distinct surveys—one targeting articling students and new lawyers, and the other tailored for principals, recruiters and mentors—we aim to identify parallel issues from their unique perspectives. Given the scope and impact of the information gathered in 2019, it is important to follow up and do a comparative analysis to understand how the articling system’s landscape has changed over the last five years, what progress has been made on key issues and what areas still need work.

The results of this engagement will provide insight into the provincial articling systems and help the law societies to make more informed decisions around our programs and resources, especially as they relate to articling, lawyer competence, and equity, diversity and inclusion.

Ultimately, we hope this will help us to enrich the articling experience and better prepare articling students for the practice of law in the future.

The profession will be notified once the surveys launch and are ready to be completed later this spring.