Law360 Canada (November 2, 2026, 3:45 PM EST) -- Limited licence legal practitioners can “lighten the load” for lawyers — and in doing so allow for more people to access assistance, participants heard during a recent Law Society of Saskatchewan (LSS) webinar.
On Oct. 28, the LSS presented “Lightening the Load: How Limited Licensees Can Provide Access to Legal Services While Driving Firm Growth” — a free webinar examining how limited licensees can “complement” lawyers, widen the reach of law firms and connect with those unable to access a lawyer.
“Limited licensees can play an important role in providing access to legal services in under-serviced geographic and practice areas,” states an LSS webpage describing the event. “While working together in a firm setting, lawyers and limited licensees can focus their time to effectively deliver legal services within their practice areas.”
In 2025, Saskatchewan’s government made legislative
changes allowing for non-lawyer legal professionals working in the sector to offer limited legal services.
With this, the LSS issued its first limited licences in January of this year. As of June, there were 34 limited licensees operating in the province.
Jesse Baron, Shawn Patenaude Law
Webinar co-presenter Jesse Baron, a lawyer with Shawn Patenaude Law, started out as a legal assistant before going to law school and becoming partner at the firm.
Lawyers, he said, must recognize that not everyone has the opportunity or ability — as he did — to attend law school but that there are other professionals working in the sector who have the skills to attain limited licences.
“There are people out there who might be capable of meeting legal needs [but not] currently licensed or authorized to meet them,” Baron told participants. “But at the same time, I also recognize that for a lot of those people, going to law school is not necessarily an option. … There are some who might have all the skills, [but] they might not be able to get the kind of marks you would need on an LSAT to get into law school. … There is currently an underutilized supply of people who could be meeting the demand for legal services to a greater degree than they are right now.”
Chad Eggerman, Procido LLP
Fellow presenter Chad Eggerman, of Procido LLP, spoke of the need to develop talent from within a firm. Currently, Procido has two limited licensees — both of whom were “experienced people” working at the firm before becoming licensed.
“We’ve pursued two different approaches to limited licensees,” said Eggerman. “We’ve developed experienced people that are already within Procido, and we’ve also explored collaboration with an external limited licensee.”
One of Procido’s in-house limited licensees, who currently works in corporate services, had been operating at the firm as a paralegal. The other already had “years of practical experience” working as an assistant to one of the firm’s senior lawyers, Eggerman said. Now, as a limited licensee, she handles matters involving wills, powers of attorney, guardianship and small estates.
“The lesson I think we learned at … that early stage was that what you should be doing … is [building] on existing expertise internally and then organize the work around that specific individual’s actual licence scope,” he said.
Baron spoke of limited licensees being able to create time so lawyers are able to tend to other tasks — and thus enable a firm to take on a greater number of clients.
“I think most people entered this profession because they want to help people — all of the people — and it bothers us when there’s somebody we can’t help because we’re busy helping [others]. And so here is where limited licensees can help lighten the load for lawyers — not only quantitatively, just by reducing the stack of work that lawyers might have at any given time, but also qualitatively, in allowing lawyers to focus their efforts on the kind of work that only lawyers can do.”
According to the LSS, a limited licensee is a non-lawyer legal professional who is granted the ability to deliver legal services within a certain scope and work in areas of practice reflecting their education, training and experience.
Someone wanting to carry a limited licence must meet certain requirements: a degree in justice-related studies; a certificate or “targeted courses” relating to their scope of practice; a law degree or “certificate of qualification”; or a high school diploma and five years of “related substantive legal experience.”
They must also complete a course, submit “relevant application documents” and be able to practise under LSS rules.
With this, they can take on tasks such as court matters involving small claims or traffic matters. They can also handle matters involving wills, powers of attorney, guardianship, estates and limited corporate services.
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