One situation here at the clinic where we’ve really seen a glaring shortage of lawyers in the region is specifically among lawyers who take on legal aid cases. Take, for example, a client who was eligible for legal aid but could not be represented by a staff lawyer because the other party was already represented by the legal aid office. As a result, the client was eligible for the service but had to be represented by an outside lawyer on a legal aid mandate that was issued. After that, they were given a list with the names and contact information of lawyers who supposedly accepted legal aid mandates in housing law. They called everywhere and was told by everyone that those people did not accept that type of mandate.
I certainly don’t have access to the figures right now—specifically, the ideal number of lawyers versus those currently employed—but what I can say is that there is definitely a shortage of lawyers in the private sector. What we can observe is that there is an exodus from the private sector to the public sector, particularly due to higher salaries. Perhaps working conditions also play a role, as they better support work-life balance. That said, there has been some improvement in the working conditions offered by private law firms in an effort to address this very issue. But it’s clear that over the past few years, it’s been difficult for lawyers, especially during their first five years of practice. We often see lawyers changing jobs after that.
Where I also observed a shortage of lawyers back then—and I believe this is still the case today—is in more rural areas. In the Outaouais region, of course, we tend to think of Gatineau first and foremost, but the Outaouais also includes four large RCMs with more rural areas, smaller towns, villages, and so on. And I think it is more in these areas where people will have difficulty accessing lawyers.
The shortage of lawyers in a region like the Outaouais, for example, can discourage law students from coming to practice in regions like ours. But in my opinion—and this is very personal—it shouldn’t. It shouldn’t because I think it actually opens the door to plenty of opportunities we wouldn’t have in other regions. But when you practice in the Montreal area—in that kind of region—you know there are a lot of lawyers, a lot of professionals, who are often looking for the same opportunities. So it’s harder to find a job, but when you come to a region like this, there’s actually a lack of legal services at certain levels, in certain fields, in certain parts of the territory. I think you have to see that as an opportunity rather than something discouraging. You know, it’s exactly the opportunity to say to yourself, “Well, there’s a part of the market that isn’t being served.” So I’m going to jump in, for example, in tax law, in immigration law, in areas where there are great needs but no professionals offering services.
I’d say that lawyers who tend to start out in big cities rather than in small communities—look, I can’t speak for them, but I can certainly imagine what they might be thinking as they leave school—maybe they feel there are more jobs available in big cities because people are concentrated in one place. Maybe they also feel that the cases are more interesting because there are firms that handle larger-scale contracts or that specialize more in a particular field, or perhaps they think there’s just more money to be made there, which is a shame. In fact, I think that’s a very limited perspective. On the contrary, I believe that in the regions, you know, the problems will remain. They aren’t unique to big cities. There are people with extremely important legal issues in different regions as well, issues that are of paramount importance even for the law. We have cases, for example, that have set legal precedents at the Supreme Court. These weren’t limited to Montreal or Toronto, for instance. The Quebec Bar Association has actually considered several solutions to try to remedy this situation. A committee on the next generation of legal professionals in the regions has been established.
Then, in February 2024, a regional succession action plan was established, which included a number of recommendations made to the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Association. The first priority is to address the challenges of succession in regional areas. Some of the actions considered include launching a campaign to promote the practice of law in regional areas. To achieve this, they created targeted advertising campaigns on social media. They also promoted regional legal practice in collaboration with law schools. This initiative was carried out directly with the Outaouais Bar Association. For example, a partnership was established between the Bar Association and the University of Ottawa to create a fund supporting private practice in the regions. Another initiative by the Barreau du Québec is to ensure that internship opportunities are properly publicized. So we don’t just see front-line internships at major firms in the Montreal metropolitan area. The goal is to also be able to see other internships offered elsewhere. So this includes all the internships offered by legal aid offices in various administrative regions, as well as those offered by the circuit court, and also internships that might be a bit less conventional in the sense that they don’t typically involve law firm practice, for example, litigation work in different regions as well—not necessarily just in major urban centers.
The clinic was launched in September 2025, when our first students entered their third year of the law degree program. And what we decided to do was to launch, as our very first service in September 2025, a housing law advisory service. I think that initiatives like La Fabrique juridique—and more broadly, any university legal clinic—are an excellent opportunity to raise students’ awareness of the realities of legal practice, of law in general, but also, in this case specifically, in regional areas. I think that if I were to say otherwise, I might not be a very good advocate for the project I’m coordinating.
In recent years, law students have been able to provide legal advice to clients at university legal clinics. So, for me, this is the only internship experience where they will truly have the opportunity to meet real people, provide genuine legal services, and gain hands-on experience managing a real client case from start to finish.
