Students must complete the Law Society Admission Program satisfactorily before applying for call and admission to the Bar.
At least 30 days before their anticipated licence date, students must submit an application package for call and admission which includes:
- Petition for Call and Admission
- Declarations of Principals and Applicants
- Joint Final Report signed by both the student and principal
- An indemnity or non-practising membership application
- Completed Fee Option sheet and applicable payment
After completion of all requirements for call and admission and approval of appropriate documentation, the student must take the barristers and solicitors oath prior to becoming eligible for practice.
Transfers
Lawyers transferring to BC must complete the transfer process. To be called and admitted in BC, a transfer candidate must either:
- attend a call ceremony and be presented in open court; or
- before beginning the practice of law, take the barristers and solicitors oath before a judge or a practising lawyer.
A candidate opting to take the oath before a judge or practising lawyer will not be entitled to renew his or her practising certificate until after having attended a call ceremony.
Call ceremonies
New lawyers must be presented to the court in a call and admission ceremony, although they do not need to attend that ceremony prior to issuance of their practising certificate. Presentation to the court is required, however, before the first renewal of a certificate (i.e., before the end of the calendar year in which the new lawyer qualifies for call and admission).
As an exception, if a new lawyer qualifies for the first time in the last four months of the calendar year, the new lawyer may have his or her certificate renewed once without presentation in court. The lawyer must be presented to the court before the end of the calendar year after the one in which he or she qualifies for call and admission.
When a new lawyer applies for call and admission he or she will be informed of the options available for presentation to the court.
Approximately 30 days before a call ceremony, eligible candidates will receive a confirmation email with the ceremony details, schedule and instructions for the day. This email also includes information about obtaining robes.
Vancouver call ceremonies are held 4 times a year in the Great Hall at the Vancouver Law Courts. Customarily, there is one ceremony in the morning and one held in the afternoon.
Arrangements can be made to be called at a regional call ceremony elsewhere in BC.
Call ceremonies: COVID-19 update, May 2022
With the lifting of restrictions on public gatherings, the Law Society is resuming in-person call ceremonies beginning in May 2022. Since the last ceremony over two years ago, there have been over 1,900 licensing candidates eligible to attend a call ceremony, and it will take some time to accommodate all candidates who wish to attend an in-person ceremony. Some may prefer to take advantage of a rule change adopted as part of the Law Society’s pandemic response that makes attendance at a call ceremony optional, and arrangements will be made to provide those candidates with a call and admission certificate. We are contacting candidates chronologically, beginning with those who have been eligible since late 2019. It will take some time to accommodate all candidates who are interested in attending an in-person ceremony, and we ask that candidates wait for the Law Society to contact them. We will make every effort to reach candidates as early as we can. For further information, please contact callceremonies@lsbc.org.