A legal leg up

Thunder Bay lawyers say they’re thrilled to have a law school in the city because it will bring in more lawyers who know and understand the region’s issues.

Lakehead University president Brian Stevenson announced on Tuesday that the university’s faculty of law program received its final approval from the province. It’s the first law school approved in Ontario in 42 years and the only law school in Northwestern Ontario.

Lydia Stam, president of the Thunder Bay Law Association, said the school not only benefits Thunder Bay, but the entire Northwest.

She said Thunder Bay lawyers are overburdened and there needed to be a plan to attract more lawyers into the region. The law school will help achieve that goal.

"Thunder Bay is in a situation where we have a lot of lawyers that are ageing," Stam said.

"We are short lawyers as is, but as the population ages we need a succession plan and that is a very difficult challenge. Not all the lawyers that go to the school will stay in Thunder Bay.

“That’s not the plan. The plan is to have a law school, like every other law school in Ontario, where these individuals can practice throughout the province. We will have lawyers that have a real understand of Northwestern Ontario."

In the past, Stam didn’t want to take on articling students who didn’t want to stay in Thunder Bay. She said with the new law school, lawyers will be able to take on articling students much easier because the students will have a deeper commitment to the area and region.

Northern Ontario’s first law school will open in 2013 with a first class of 55 students; there will be 170 students in the school when it’s fully operational. The curriculum – approved by the Law Society of Upper Canada in April of this year – will focus on Aboriginal and natural resource-based law and sole-and-small-firm practice law.

Tyler Woods, a criminal defence lawyer, said he’s happy to have a law school in the city and thinks it will benefit both the community and the economy.

"I know when I was applying for law schools I would have stayed in Thunder Bay if we had a school," Woods said. "However, I was compelled to go outside of the city."