Creating New Pathways to Call

Access Pro Bono has long served witness to an articling system that doesn’t work for everyone in B.C. Tied to the supply and demand dynamics of the private marketplace, it excludes a disproportionate number of Indigenous law school graduates, mature law school graduates and people of colour. It also gives rise to unfair and sometimes exploitative working conditions. Though the Law Society of BC has yet to collect the data needed to show it, systemic discrimination is clearly preventing many racialized graduates—particularly Indigenous graduates—from realizing their dream of practising law in this province.

At the same time, geographic, socioeconomic and racial inequities in access to affordable legal services prevent too many Indigenous people from finding the justice that they seek. B.C. needs more Indigenous lawyers providing more culturally safe legal services in more communities. In 2022, Access Pro Bono launched the Everyone Legal Clinic to help bridge this gap. 

A first-of-its-kind, public interest legal teaching clinic and solo/small firm incubator, the Clinic operates within the Law Society’s Innovation Sandbox as B.C.’s first and only alternative pathway to traditional articling. It also prioritizes Indigenous law school graduates who seek to practice in an underserved B.C. community and have previous clinical experience serving Indigenous people.

The Clinic’s broader mission is to increase access to justice for all British Columbians, regardless of their identity, income or location, and to increase the diversity and legal aid capacity of B.C.’s legal profession. Its first-year cohort of 25 articling students was 20% Indigenous, which helped it to deliver free and low-cost legal services in culturally safe ways to hundreds of clients from underserved communities. The Aboriginal Lawyers Forum was (and continues to be) vital in providing scholarship support for each of the Clinic’s Indigenous students through its Warrior Project.

Since its first year of operations in 2022, the Clinic has committed to ensuring that at least 20% of its articling students are Indigenous. The Clinic scales the size of its articling cohorts based on the funding support it receives year to year, and it couldn’t meet its goal of strong Indigenous inclusion without the Warrior Project’s support. This year, due to no new institutional funding support, the Clinic has limited its incoming cohort to only three students. Thanks to the Warrior Project, one of the three students is an Indigenous graduate of Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia who has extensive experience serving community with the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic.

The Clinic’s Indigenous alumni have also been serving community in various ways. One shining example is Carolyn Belleau who articled with the Clinic in her hometown of Williams Lake, and who is now Legal Counsel, Self-Government and Treaty for Williams Lake First Nation. In her role, Carolyn assists the T’exelcemc to negotiate treaties with the provincial and federal governments. 

Other Indigenous alumni are also serving their communities and bands by working in-house for local social service agencies, providing legal aid in rural and remote areas of the province, and offering low cost and pro bono services through solo and small law firms. Each, in their own way, is committed to providing free or affordable legal services that are welcoming, timely and culturally appropriate.

Access Pro Bono’s partnership with the Aboriginal Lawyers Forum is indispensable to Clinic operations. Together, the organizations are doing what they can to help Indigenous law school graduates overcome systemic discrimination and a general lack of articling opportunities to fulfill the dream of becoming a lawyer. Progress may be slow and non-linear, but it’s happening one new Indigenous lawyer at a time.