LSO reflects on launch of LSO Connects and mandatory minimum compensation last year
The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has released its 2023 annual report, which details developments in licensing and professional regulation and key initiatives aimed at modernizing its operations, improving efficiency, and advancing the legal profession and access to justice.
The annual report, available on the LSO’s website, shared statistics about licensees. Last year saw the licensing of 2,554 lawyers and 910 paralegals, which increased the total number of licensed lawyers to 58,996 and licensed paralegals to 11,061 across Ontario. Of these, 43,772 lawyers and 4,604 paralegals are currently practising law or providing legal services.
The LSO then shared the demographics of these licensees. The average age is 48 for lawyers and 42 for paralegals. Among lawyers, 47 percent are women, while 52 percent are men. Paralegals reflect a higher percentage of women at 68 percent, with men comprising 31 percent. One percent of lawyers and paralegals identify as non-binary.
Next, the report provided data on complaints relating to professional regulation. The LSO received 6,488 complaints last year, with 5.34 percent of lawyers and 2.4 percent of paralegals being the subject of these filings. Of the total complaints, Ontarians brought 78 percent, the LSO commenced 13 percent, and licensees filed nine percent.
Service issues made up the largest portion of allegations raised in the complaints at 46 percent, followed by integrity issues at 42 percent, governance issues at 17 percent, financial issues at 12 percent, and conflict issues at six percent.
Specific legal practice areas implicated in the complaints were led by civil litigation at 24 percent, family law at 21 percent, and real estate at 17 percent. Other areas of law involved in the complaints were administrative/immigration at 10 percent, criminal and estates at nine percent each, corporate/commercial at four percent, and employment at two percent.
LSO initiatives last year
In July 2023, the LSO launched LSO Connects, a secure communications platform that seeks to replace the Law Society Portal and that aims to improve communications with the public, licensees, and licensing candidates.
“Through this secure communications channel licensees and licensing candidates can complete their administrative requirements and business transactions with the Law Society,” said Diana Miles, chief executive officer, in the report. “Members of the public will use LSO Connects to make queries regarding unclaimed trust funds, ask for assistance in locating a will, make a complaint, and more.”
While the LSO generally requires the submission of written complaints via the LSO Connects portal, complaints brought by those alleging sexual misconduct and harassment or filed by Indigenous complainants or licensees are exempt from this process.
In May 2023, the LSO introduced a weekly mandatory minimum compensation of $620 for articling, Law Practice Program, and Programme de pratique du droit placements, subject to certain exemptions. Since the implementation of this initiative, the LSO has approved 12 of 18 requests for exemptions.
The mandatory minimum compensation is designed to improve pay for licensing candidates, to address financial barriers to entering the profession, and to ensure that smaller firms with limited finances can still afford to hire candidates.
Over the last year, the LSO continued developing its Family Legal Services Provider program, which is scheduled to begin next January. After a selection process involving 11 other potential choices, the LSO designated Fanshawe College as the educational institution that would develop and deliver this program for paralegals.
In 2023, the LSO also continued developing its Foundations of Sole Practice course, which addresses significant risk areas for newly designated sole practitioners. The LSO expects this course, approved in May 2022, to be in place by next January.
“My goal as a bencher and as Treasurer was to help foster increased and ongoing competence within the professions,” said Jacqueline Horvat, treasurer and bencher, in a sign-off message. “I am pleased that the Foundations of Sole Practice course requirement will become a reality in 2025 to ensure that all new sole practitioners have the supports they require to be successful, and to serve the public effectively and competently.”
Last year, the LSO approved seven new participants in its Access to Innovation program. The program, launched as a five-year pilot in 2022, enables legal innovators to operate technologies that offer legal services directly to the public.
