Top Law Schools

I've wondered about this for awhile, help me out if you know. Sorry if this is posted somewhere else.

What do US law students do once they graduate from a Canadian law school? Can you sit for the American bar and practice law in the U.S? Are some states more lenient about it?

I didn't know that there were any large number of Americans who went to Canadian law schools with the intent of practicing back here in the States. I've glanced at some Canadian law school apps and they're a pain in the ass primarily due to French language requirements.

I do know that there have been Canadian grads from top schools picked up at some firms here the US so there must be a process to do that. There was an article attesting to that fact when M&A was huge and there was a corporate lawyer shortage because of that.

Hmmm...I didn't realize about the French language requirement...I could see that in Quebec, but in BC? Yuck.

The French language requirement is, as far as I know, ONLY for McGill. Im a Canadian applying to Canadian law schools now and Im 100% certain every single other school is English only.

It's entirely possible that the only app I looked at was McGills since that's the only Canadian school I know.

I heard someone say that McGill was the Harvard of the frozen north.

Well, McGill doesnt officially require an LSAT, although they will look at it as part of your application.

In general, University of Toronto, McGill, and Osgoode Hall are considered the top 3 law schools in Canada. However, most of the law schools in Canada are generally good and of roughly equal quality, and there isn't as big of a gap as there is in the US, like from T14 to like 80th or 90th rank... but maybe that's due to the fact that there's only like 20 schools up here.

I graduated from a Canadian law school (2000) and I'm practicing law in Vancouver. You don't need French except for Quebec law schools and Moncton, New Brunswick. The other law schools across Canada do not require French. No classes are taught in French except in Quebec and at Moncton.

The Quebec law schools are more like European schools - you go into law school straight out of high school. The rest of Canada has LL.B. degrees (identical to American JD, which was called an LL.B. also until the American lawyers decided they were equal to medical doctors (MD) and therefore decided to change the degree to a JD!). You can still find a few old American attorneys with an American "LL.B." (Bachelor of Laws).

There were a few top grads from University of British Columbia and from University of Victoria law school that found jobs in New York with large law firms. They were entitled to write the NY Bar exam. New York firms even headed up to conduct interviews in Vancouver. I think this dropped off post 9/11, but it certainly happened with my grad year. A number of Canadian law grads also head over to London, which is desperate for corporate commercial solicitors. Many firms in the UK like the Canadian law school education.

Further to the above, here are some Canadians practicing in the U.S. (FYI, University of Toronto recently changed "LL.B." designation to "JD"!).

http://www.whitecase.com/stephcohen/

http://www.whitecase.com/rgandesha/

http://www.whitecase.com/hgiannandrea/

http://www.whitecase.com/jkatz/

http://www.whitecase.com/mmandel/

http://www.whitecase.com/jpoon/

http://www.whitecase.com/jrosenfeld/

You'll see they are all pretty young associates (one partner in this group). This is just one firm. I searched by looking for "University of Toronto" grads. I only searched one firm (White Case).

Um... I'm from Canada, and that doesn't sound quite right to me. It was my understanding that Canadian schools fall in the range of about 10-25 in US rankings, as reflected by the admissions averages. Can someone confirm/correct this?

I'm from Canada as well, and while I agree that the University of Toronto is comparable to the top 10 in the US, I don't think UBC is ranked quite as highly as the poster claims.

I think that you two misunderstood what he said about Canadian law schools. All he said was that McGill, Toronto, and Osgoode are our top 3. Then he made a comparison between our law schools and the American law schools, essentially saying that the difference between our top schools and our bottom schools is not as noticeable a difference as somebody would see when comparing a top US law school vs a bottom US law school.

Concerning French in Canadian law schools: As noted any school in the province of Quebec, and the law school in New Brunswick require French. In addition Ottawa University teaches in both English and French and has a dual language requirement I believe.

Ambex wrote:I think that you two misunderstood what he said about Canadian law schools. All he said was that McGill, Toronto, and Osgoode are our top 3.

This is sort of true to a point. In Vancouver, going to U of T/McGill/Ozz won't be any more impressive than a UBC grad.

awesomepossum wrote:It's entirely possible that the only app I looked at was McGills since that's the only Canadian school I know.

I heard someone say that McGill was the Harvard of the frozen north.

i'm a mcgill undergrad and i can tell you that the french language requirements definitely apply to mcgill/quebec but not to the other top schools (toronto and osgoode). i don't speak any french and was accepted at schools in ontario. i will, however, be at michigan next year also, if your plan is to study up here and practice in the states id go to toronto. apparently toronto has a good reputation in new york.

Practicing in the States with a Canadian law degree would be hard. Consider how regional a lot of the US schools are, coming from another country would be as difficult, if not more.

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awesomepossum wrote:It's entirely possible that the only app I looked at was McGills since that's the only Canadian school I know.

I heard someone say that McGill was the Harvard of the frozen north.

You heard wrong. There is no "Harvard". My brother goes to McGill and I've always been smarter than the little piglet.

Tripudio wrote:Further to the above, here are some Canadians practicing in the U.S. (FYI, University of Toronto recently changed "LL.B." designation to "JD"!).

http://www.whitecase.com/stephcohen/

http://www.whitecase.com/rgandesha/

http://www.whitecase.com/hgiannandrea/

http://www.whitecase.com/jkatz/

http://www.whitecase.com/mmandel/

http://www.whitecase.com/jpoon/

http://www.whitecase.com/jrosenfeld/

You'll see they are all pretty young associates (one partner in this group). This is just one firm. I searched by looking for "University of Toronto" grads. I only searched one firm (White Case).

Many of these assholes also went to Oxford.