What do Indian lawyers normally do if they want to get a job in Canada? And what are the common mistakes they make? Let’s discuss those in this email.
The PR or permanent residency blunder: They apply for a PR putting in a lot of effort and money, are granted one, and land up in Canada. But they are unable to find legal jobs there, and realise their options are to drive Uber cabs, or work in restaurants and gas stations as one of our learners did. Finally, when they see that they are unable to get any white-collar jobs, some of them come back to India.
Getting a PR, uprooting yourself and reaching Canada and then looking for legal jobs is an expensive process. And a mostly unsuccessful, frustrating one. So frustrating, that some people even blame racism for their failure.
The truth is that if you are finding it hard to get good jobs in India, how can you expect to get a great job in another country which has a different culture, different legal system, and entirely different standards for the legal profession?
Most lawyers trying to go to Canada through the PR route, in my experience, walk into a disaster because they do not take the time to understand what would have made them successful in the first place, forget any realistic preparation.
Yes, getting a PR is a good idea, but only if you are prepared for the transition into a career in Canada. And we are holding a free, live, online bootcamp to explain how you can do that.
The LL.M. blunder: The other blunder people make is doing a very expensive LL.M. in Canada, expecting that it will automatically lead to a legal career. The truth is, it does no such thing. An LL.M. gives you barely 10 months to learn a new legal system, do well in courses and get your degree, do internships that may lead to jobs, extensively network so that you get enough opportunities, while also cracking the bar exam. This is just not enough time.
Those who already had good transferable skills and experience before trying for the LL.M., such as contract drafting, deal lawyering or international arbitration, can still make it. A few of them do. The rest are disappointed and return home after exhausting their savings.
What you can do instead
I want to propose an alternative for anyone looking to build a long-term, successful legal career in Canada.
- Write your NCA exam: This you can do in India, without travelling to Canada. Once you pass this exam, conducted by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA), you are considered equivalent to any Canadian law graduate.
- Start doing remote paralegal work for Canadian lawyers and law firms. It is exceptionally easy to get remote freelance paralegal work once you have cleared the NCA exam and are preparing for the Ontario Bar Exam. The idea is that once you succeed as a remote paralegal and later clear bar exams, it will be quite easy for you to get a job in Canada when you want to move there based on your existing experience of working on Canadian legal problems, track record of working for Canadian employers and of course the professional network you will develop through remote work.
Of course, it is important that you should have some skills that are actually useful before you start as a remote paralegal also. Here are 10 skills I will highly recommend if you are looking for remote work from Canadian lawyers/ law firms/ startups:
- Drafting commercial contracts
- Contract management & administration
- Venture capitalist and private equity investment deals, due diligence in startups, documentation and negotiation, banking and finance contracts, term loans, syndicated loans
- International taxation, transfer pricing, tax structuring
- US IP law – patent, trademark, copyright – registration, office action, licensing, infringement monitoring
- International business expansion and market entry
- Data protection and privacy management
- Tech contracts, governance of emerging tech
- Litigation support – legal research, drafting, finding precedence, formatting and vetting documents
- Content writing/ marketing/ business development for law firms/ legal tech companies
One step at a time – eventually pass bar exam
Pass your Ontario Barrister and Solicitor Exam. For this, you have to go to Canada in person. It is possible to write the bar exam by getting a temporary resident visa. This could be either a business visa or a tourist visa.
You can get this visa if you visit a friend/ family/ relatives, attend a conference, or take a business trip to network with your clients, and then you can write the bar exam. A temporary resident visa allows you to stay in Canada for up to six months.
It is possible to write the bar exam even while on a tourist visa, though I would recommend a business visa. Getting one is not difficult if you have a few law firms/ startups in Canada as clients who will give you a letter of invitation, and if your financial statements show a healthy influx of money from Canada every month.
Please understand that getting your bar registration and PR status only give you a floor to stand on, and do not guarantee your success as a lawyer, just as your Indian citizenship and clearing the All India Bar Examination do not guarantee, in any way, that you will get a well paid job in India. For that, apart from high-demand and low-supply skills, you need to build a track record, and do a strong outreach.
What next?
So how do the steps I have described lead to PR status? At what point should you apply for PR?
I would highly recommend that you apply for PR only once you clear your bar exam. And the great news is, you can easily clear the Ontario Bar Exam (and NCA exam before that) in the next 6-12 months. Because we are here to help you with that.
Apply for PR after these two exams, and simultaneously build a healthy track record of remote work in Canada too.
For the best guidance on how to crack the NCA and bar exams and for a strategy roadmap on how to use these to obtain PR status in Canada, join our online, Crack NCA – Canada Examination – Test Prep Course.
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