BC: trial over Legal Professions Act
The Law Society of British Columbia (LSBC) is challenging BC’s 2024 Legal Professions Act in court, arguing that certain provisions of the law undermine the independence of the legal profession by concentrating control in a state-appointed regulatory structure. At trial, the LSBC emphasized that it does not oppose modernization or oversight per se but seeks “appropriate distance from the state” to preserve self-governance, contending that imposing a governing board with fewer lawyer-elected seats threatens constitutional protections for bar independence. The case hinges on whether the bar’s independence is an unwritten constitutional principle, whether BC exceeded its powers in enacting the statute, and how legal regulation should balance government accountability with professional autonomy.