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| Norm Bowley |
But that makes me no carpenter. While I can do credible work around the house and property, nobody in their right mind would hire me for a project. Owning tools doesn’t qualify me as a carpenter. Being expert at how to use them would.
Knowing the law doesn’t make you a lawyer. In fact, I would argue, having a law society certificate on the wall doesn’t make you a lawyer. It’s not the head knowledge, or the credentialing, which make the professional; it’s the gifting, the ability to solve client problems, that makes the lawyer.
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It’s not your toolkit but your aptitude that matters. Too many professions, mine foremost, get this backwards. We train and test only for subject-matter expertise and hope for the best after the call to the bar or its equivalent.
It’s as if we trained our Olympic swimming hopefuls exclusively by classroom lectures on buoyancy, physiology, pool design and hydraulics — we shouldn’t be shocked if they drown the first time they’re thrown into the pool.
When I was in law school, there was one course on trial tactics. One. And only room for 30 students, so there was a lottery. In other words, over two-thirds of us graduated without having an opportunity to study trial tactics. That said, we learned about dower (by then already abolished) and the Estate Tax Act (abolished the day before the exam, to nobody’s surprise). We spent weeks learning the applicable law of trees growing on property lines (I’ve yet to see an active case), but no time on the appeal process and no mandatory course on appellate advocacy.
One can article in a criminal defence firm, be called to the bar and begin practising real estate law the next morning never having seen a real estate file. Or conversely show up in youth court having articled in a patent firm.
I’m picking on lawyers, because I am one, and I know my profession. But we’re not doing a particularly good job with many other professions, either. Just ask the millions of Canadians waiting to get a family doctor.
For historical reasons, we’ve limited entry to the professions to those with enough money and time to get undergraduate degrees, mostly unrelated to your profession, then submitted them to another half decade or more of “professional training,” which could readily be condensed into half that.
And the best part? Aptitude exams are geared essentially to see if you have exam writing skills.
We wonder why young professionals often fade away before entry or quit soon after beginning, or why we read horrific stories of ineptitude. Should we be surprised when in so many of our professions we train, test and certify solely on the basis of head knowledge?
This artificial method of rearing young professionals harms not only the consuming public but the professions themselves.
But more sadly, nothing could be more tragic than the young person who, having invested a decade of their lives, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, getting a head full of subject matter, only to discover that the reality is nowhere close to the dream, and they simply were not born to do this. After a few years of struggling to learn an art for which they are not personally suited, they walk away to make pottery or sell insurance or something else more satisfying.
Norm Bowley practised law in Ottawa for 37 years. Before retiring, his practice focused on high-net-worth individuals and families, particularly entrepreneurs and professionals. In “retirement,” Norm writes extensively, speaks, coaches and consults, and if there’s any spare time, maintains a bit of acreage on the Tay River. His upcoming book, The Lawyer and the Dropouts: Stunning insights about professional success and happiness, is expected later in 2026.
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