Welcome to your path to the Bar
A law degree is only the first step towards becoming a professional lawyer who is ready to be called to the Bar. The Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP) will help you gain practical legal knowledge and gain competencies in lawyer skills, practice management, professional ethics, as well as the personal attributes needed to successfully practice law in Canada.
Today’s lawyers need to do more than understand the law. In order to thrive in a professional legal environment, they must build strong relationships, demonstrate empathy and compassion, communicate effectively, manage their time and their practice, make ethical value-based decisions, and build trust.
Built on best practices from around the world, PREP delivers these practical skills and competencies in a consistent, integrated approach that combines interactive, transactional learning and simulation within four distinct phases:
Foundation Modules
Online modules that combine self-directed study and interactive assessments with multimedia learning to provide a foundation in all the CPLED competencies.
- The Effective Lawyer
- Professional Ethics
- Indigenous Law, Cultures and People
- Client Relationship Management
- Interviewing
- Negotiating
- Advocacy
- Legal research, Fact Gathering and Case Management
- Legal Writing
- Legal Drafting
- Practice Management and Trust Accounting
- Technology Skills and Tools
- Legal Skills in-Action
- Practice Management in-Action
Through these modules, you will have an opportunity to develop and assess your skills, building a strong foundation from which to tackle increasing complexity as you progress through the program.
Foundation Workshops
Here you will come together and interact with each other and your facilitators through interactive workshops that include role-playing in the areas of interviewing, negotiating, and advocacy. You will also participate in simulations and practice management.
The focus is on integrating knowledge and skills development in social environments, getting feedback from peers and experienced lawyers, and applying what you learned in the Foundation Modules. The workshops will prepare you to manage a legal matter during the next phase.
Virtual Law Firm
You will put your foundational training to the test, working as a lawyer in a Virtual Law Firm, you will manage multiple aspects of a legal file throughout its life cycle in an online environment. You will work through three legal matters comprised of four practice areas, business law, criminal law, family law, and real estate.
These transactions include interviewing Simulated Clients within a learning management system to allow Assessors with practice area expertise, and Practice Managers to assess your skills, knowledge, and progress as you complete each task. You will also receive coaching and mentoring from a practice manager for the duration of the practice rotations.
Capstone
In this final assessment, you will demonstrate your skills and competencies in one final simulated transaction. You will complete tasks demonstrating your competence in decision-making, provide your client with ethical and professional representation and use the appropriate case management and technical tools to guide your work. Finally, you will submit a final reflection on the entire program.
The program builds on each prior phase, building in complexity and requiring you to develop competencies through tasks that assess not just your knowledge, but how you apply your lawyer and practice management skills and demonstrate professionalism, ethics, and values.
PREP takes you from just reading about legal activities to carrying them out yourself within the simulations, playing out real-life scenarios and learning from your successes and mistakes.
Combined with articling, and your legal education, PREP prepares you to meet the highest standards of lawyer skills, practice management, professional ethics, and good character.
Information Session
On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, CPLED presenters hosted an information session where they provided an overview of the Practice Readiness Education Program (PREP). Along with information regarding registration for the 2023/2024 program intakes and student services available while enrolled.
You can watch the recording below.
