Sole practitioners have always been the backbone of the legal profession.
In communities across the province, a lawyer running their own shop is often the first port of call for individuals, families and small businesses seeking assistance with complex legal issues.
Together, we account for about one third of all Ontario lawyers and every year, around 775 lawyers join our ranks for the first time, either straight out of law school or after switching from practice in another setting.
On Jan. 1, 2025, the Law Society of Ontario will take a landmark step towards reinforcing that spine of legal practitioners, by requiring all those entering sole practice for the first time to enroll in a practice essentials course known as Foundations of Sole Practice (FSP). Licensees who violate the new rules will risk an administrative suspension.
Key Features of FSP
The 30-hour mandatory program will cost $250 and will be delivered online via modules that lawyers can take at their own pace.
We don’t have all the details of what will actually be in the FSP, since the LSO is in the final stages of content development. However, the regulator has told lawyers to expect an executive-style course, including practical training and assessment activities covering topics such as client service and communication, financial and practice management, the business of running a law practice and professional responsibility in practice.
The deadlines for completing the course will depend on the date when the lawyer declares themselves a sole practitioner for the first time:
- Anyone declaring in 2025 will have until Dec. 31, 2026, to complete the program.
- From 2026 onwards, anyone declaring in the first five months of the year (Jan.1 to May 31) has until Dec. 31 of the same calendar year to complete the program.
- From 2026 onwards, anyone declaring after the first five months of the year (June 1 to Dec. 31) has until Dec. 31 of the following calendar year to complete the program.
- The June 1 cutoff is designed to ensure that the largest cohort of new calls starting their own practice get at least one full calendar year to complete the course.
The Rationale for FSP
The idea for a practice essentials course like the FSP emerged from the final report of the LSO’s Competence Task Force – the regulator’s first comprehensive review on the subject in more than two decades – which was presented to Convocation in May 2022.
After receiving submissions from numerous groups and hearing feedback from various focus groups, Task Force Chair Sidney Troister told Convocation that they had identified a “gap that needs to be addressed” between legal education and effective legal practice.
It’s hard to disagree with him: although I emerged from law school with a strong grasp of substantive law, nothing in my student days or even my early practice at larger firms could have prepared me for the challenges that came with hiring my own staff and handling my own accounts or marketing and managing my business.
Sole practitioners are disproportionately represented in the LSO’s complaints and disciplinary processes and the regulator has used that information in the development of the FSP, targeting its subject matter at the issues which result in the highest incidence of complaints and malpractice.
By helping members instill good practice management habits early in their career, the LSO hopes to reduce the need for reactive regulation and may even be able to scale down its audit and practice review programs.
What's in it for sole practitioners?
There is always a danger that fresh regulatory requirements will be seen as an unnecessary hardship for sole practitioners already dealing with the pressure of launching and running your own firm. However, the LSO has done its best to sweeten the pill.
For example, the new mandatory course is not only CPD-accredited, but the LSO has also exempted its content from the usual ban on carrying forward CPD hours. That means that licensees will be able to report the hours they spend working on the FSP in both the calendar year that they begin the course and the following year. The course has also been designed to satisfy the LSO’s professionalism and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion CPD requirements.
In addition, LSO financial projections suggest that the $250 fee it has set for the FSP will effectively see the course being offered to licensees below cost. The additional cost will be subsidized by the rest of the LSO’s members from annual dues to the tune of around $5 per licensee.
Assuming the final FSP product is up to scratch and maintains a high level of quality, then lawyers could have plenty to gain over the longer term. At the very least, licensees who take the course can expect to reduce the chances that they will become the subject of malpractice claims, law society complaints or disciplinary process over the course of their career. And in the best-case scenario, meaningful training and instruction on the challenges of life in sole practice have the potential to set them up for success well into the future.
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