What We Do

Certifying Internationally Educated Lawyers and Law Graduates

The National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) assesses legal education credentials obtained either outside of Canada or in a civil law degree program in Canada, for individuals intending to apply for admission to a law society in a Canadian common law jurisdiction. The NCA is a standing committee of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. It helps Canada’s law societies protect the public interest by making sure that anyone who earned their legal education and training outside of Canada has knowledge of Canadian law similar to that offered by an approved Canadian common law degree program.

Just over five years ago, the Federation undertook a comprehensive review of the mandate, structure, policies and activities of the NCA. The goal was to determine whether the NCA program positioned applicants for success in the law society bar admission process, and in legal practice. One of the review outcomes was a recommendation for a competency-based assessment system for NCA applicants. This led to the creation of the NCA Assessment Modernization Committee with a mandate to make recommendations to the Federation for the development and implementation of a competency-based assessment system for candidates applying to the NCA.

 An initial draft competency profile was developed by an appointed Task Force. The draft was refined following feedback from interested parties such as members of the legal academy, members of the legal profession, law societies, and the Federation’s Indigenous Advisory Council. 

The competency profile is intended to serve as the foundation for the development of competency-based assessment tools for NCA applicants. The next step is a survey to validate the draft profile, and to provide guidance on the relative importance of each competency.

If you are involved in the legal profession in Canada, you are invited to participate by using this link. The deadline for completing the survey is March 17, 2024.

The survey may take up to 20 minutes to complete.  Individual responses are completely anonymous, and the data records will be deleted from the file server one month after the close of the survey.