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Contact information & employment changes

Pursuant to Law Society Rules 2-10 and 2-11, lawyers must keep their contact and employment information up-to-date with the Law Society. Changes can be reported to the Law Society through your Member Portal account. 

If you are a designated representative of a law firm and wish to report address, phone number, or staffing (lawyer) changes of your law firm, please refer to the Changes to a law firm section on the Law Firm Registration webpage. 

If your primary place of practice is a law firm, your business contact information (phone number or address) in the Lawyer Directory will automatically be displayed as that of your law firm. 

How to update your email address

  1. Log in to the Member Portal
  2. In the “My Settings” bar on the right, click on “Email settings” under “My Profile”
  3. Under “Update email address”, click the “Change Email” button
  4. Enter your new email address and the effective date
  5. Click the “Change Email Address” button

How to update your phone number

  1. Log in to the Member Portal
  2. In the “My Settings” bar on the right, click on “Phone change” under “My Profile”
    1. If you are adding a phone number, click the “Add” button beside “Additional phone numbers on record”. Select the phone type, enter the phone number, effective, date, and check off “Primary” and “Lawyer Directory” if applicable.
    2. If you are changing a number, add a new record of the same type and the existing number will be replaced. (i.e., if you are changing your home number, add a new home number)
    3. If you are removing a phone number, click the “Expire” button beside the applicable number. Enter the expiry date of that number. Click “Expire”.

How to update your address & employment information

  1. Log in to the Member Portal
  2. In the “My Settings” bar on the right, click on “Address/employment change” under “My Profile”
  3. Review your current information
  4. Click the “Change Address / Employment” button
  5. Read the “Professional Liability Indemnity Coverage and Membership Category” page and review your current membership category and indemnity coverage. Confirm whether your address/employment change will result in any change to your current membership status or professional liability indemnity coverage by selecting “Yes” or “No”. Click “Next”. 
    • If you selected “Yes” because your membership category or indemnity coverage will be changing, follow the instructions outlined on the following page to submit a Membership Category Change application and/or an Indemnity Change application.
    • If you selected “No” because your membership category and indemnity coverage will not be changing, continue to the next steps below.
  6. Dependent on your membership category, follow the applicable steps below: 
    • Practising members: Select the option that best describes the reason for your change of address and then click the “Next” button:

Select this:

If:

Note

My current firm is moving to a new location

the firm you are at is relocating to a new address, and the current location will cease operation. 

Only Designated Representatives can update the law firm location address. If you are not the designated representative, you will be redirected to contact one of the designated representatives to update the address or location information.

My current firm is adding a new location 

the firm you are at is opening an additional office at a new location, and you will be transferring to this new office while the current location will continue to operate. 

I am moving to another location within the same firm

the firm you are at already has multiple offices and you are transferring to one of its existing locations

 

 

This option will only appear if the firm has more than one location registered with the Law Society. If the location you are looking for does not exist, you may email registration@lsbc.org or contact the Designated Representative of your law firm, who can add the new firm location that has not already been reported through the Member Portal. 

I am joining an existing organization (i.e. company, law firm, Crown Corporation or government agency)

you are joining an organization that is already registered. This includes:

  • changing employment (ending your current position and starting at a new organization), or 
  • adding an additional place of practice and having multiple places of practice (e.g., dually employed)

If the organization you are joining is not available in our system, please double check the spelling of the organization name. If still not found, email the following information to registration@lsbc.org to set up the organization in our system:

1. Company/Organization name
2. Phone number
3. Address
4. Email address

I am starting a new firm

you are establishing a new law firm. 

You will be redirected to the Law Firm Portal to register your new firm.

I am between practise arrangements

you have left/are leaving your current place of practice and are awaiting the start of your next practice arrangement, while maintaining your current practising membership and indemnity coverage. 

An end date will be added to your last employment information and you will be requested to provide a personal mailing address, which will not be displayed on the Lawyer Directory.

  • Non-practising, retired, and former lawyers: Follow the instructions and prompts on the subsequent pages to enter your new mailing address
  1. Review and submit your request – add notes if needed. Click the checkbox to confirm the information provided is correct, and then click the “Submit” button

You will be notified when your address and/or employment information has been updated in the system.

Sole Practitioner at a Law Firm

If you are a sole practitioner at a law firm and leaving that firm for a new place of practice, you will be required to close your practice as a result of your employment change. Please review and follow the steps outlined on the Terminating/Deregistering a Law Firm webpage. These steps also apply if you are the only BC lawyer practising at an extra-provincial law firm registered with the Law Society and you will be leaving the firm, even if the firm will continue to operate at its current location. 

If you are submitting an address and employment change solely to report that you are leaving your sole practice and are not joining a new law firm/organization, please do not submit an address and employment change. Instead, follow the steps in the link above to close and deregister your law firm.

Practice Management Course

Pursuant to Rule 3-27, if your change in employment results in you practicing at a small firm, you may be required to complete the Practice Management Course (PMC), unless you meet the criteria for exemption. Additionally, the departure of a lawyer from a firm may result in the firm becoming a “small firm” and the remaining lawyers at the firm will be required to complete the PMC. You will be notified by email if you are required to complete the PMC as a result of an employment change. 

More information on the PMC, including exemption criteria, deadlines, and how to access and certify completion of the course, can be found on the Law Society Practice Management Course webpage.

Returning to Practice Rules

All requests submitted are subject to the returning to practice rules (Rules 2-88 to 2-90) and apply whether or not you hold, or are entitled to hold, a practising certificate. For more information, please refer to the Return to Practice webpage. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set my chief place of practice if I am dually employed?

Before you take steps to mark your chief place of practice, please review your current address and employment information first by taking the following steps:

  1. Log in to Member Portal. 
  2. Click on ‘Address/employment change’ under ‘My Settings’. 
  3. Your current information will be displayed under the heading ‘Current Information’. This will also be the same information that is displayed publicly on the Lawyer Directory. Any additional places of practice will be displayed under the heading ‘Additional places of employment’ on the same page. 
  4. If your current primary place of practice is listed incorrectly, you may click on the button ‘Set as my Chief Place of Practice’ next to the place of practice that you wish to mark accordingly. You will be prompted to enter the effective date of this change. Please allow 5 business day(s) for processing. 

I have submitted a request to change my place of practice and was approved, but the Lawyer Directory does not reflect the new information. When will this be updated?

Once your request has been processed, your updated employment information may take up to 24 hours to appear in our Lawyer Directory. If your new information is still not showing after that time, please contact the Registration & Licensee Services department at: registration@lsbc.org or 604-605-5311. 

Please note that if you were dually employed in the past, you must update your “chief place of practice” information. Refer to the first FAQ for more information. 

Have a question? Visit our contact us page.