Manitoba’s Legal Landscape Is Changing

The prairie landscape is notorious for its endless horizons, enabling the traveller to see far ahead. This long view is evident in recent changes proposed to regulation of the legal profession in Manitoba, changes that are clearly oriented toward the future.

As reported on Canadian Lawyer’s Legal Feeds blog last week, the Manitoba government on May 7, 2015 introduced a number of amendments to The Legal Profession Act.

The proposed amendments included in Bill 19 include:

• Altering the composition of the governing body of benchers
• Amending the definition of a law firm
• Permitting the regulation of law firms (i.e. entity regulation) in addition to regulation of individual lawyers

Changes to the composition of the governing body are particularly significant in that the new provisions create the possibility for a more diverse and representative body to govern. As outgoing Law Society President Karen Clearwater explains in the May 2015 issue of Communiqué 2.0, Law Society benchers have been considering how to address a lack of diversity, in skills, experience, gender, culture and more, around the bencher table. The solution they came to was two-pronged: 1. Increase the appointed lay representation around the table; and 2. Fill in gaps in skills and diversity through a mixture of appointed and elected benchers.

The provisions of Bill 19 reflect this thinking. The number of lay benchers has been increased from 4 to 6, while the number of elected benchers representing geographic regions has been decreased as follows:

• Winnipeg: decreased from 10 to 8
• Western Judicial District: decreased from 2 to 1
• Central and Dauphin Districts: formerly separately represented by 2 benchers and decreased to 1 joint representative.

Four new unelected positions have been created for appointment by the benchers themselves, using a new process that takes into account new criteria to be established by the benchers, such as “…the need for representation by region, demographics, type of law practice, or professional, leadership or management skills”.

The Bill also amends the definition of law firm to include any “joint arrangement or legal entity that provides legal services” and adds a new section that authorizes the regulation of law firms as entities and permits the benchers to make rules that “…permit and regulate different types of arrangements to provide legal services, including arrangements between lawyers and between lawyers and non-lawyers, and that establish conditions and requirements for the arrangements.”

These are significant changes, especially when viewed as a package and in light of the recommendations flowing from the CBA’s Legal Futures final report last summer. Taken as a whole, these amendments set the stage for The Law Society of Manitoba to move towards stronger and more effective protection of the public interest through a more diverse governing body, introduction of multi-disciplinary practices and opportunities for participation in and ownership of firms by those outside the legal profession.

When the amendments are passed, the framework will be in place for the legal landscape in Manitoba to develop and change in ways that respond effectively to the needs of the public, clients and the legal profession. The Bills sets out that provisions with respect to composition of the governing body will come into force on May 4, 2016, while the remaining provisions will come into force upon receiving Royal Assent.