Law Business Essentials

According to the Rules of the Law Society of Alberta, Rule 119.6, before you start your legal practice, you must apply for:

a) designation as a Responsible Lawyer; and
b) authorization to operate, or an exemption from operating, a trust account.

The Law Society, in conjunction with the Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA), has developed three online courses (Trust Safety online courses) that a Responsible Lawyer must complete before being approved. The courses are available for anyone to take free of charge, however, each person will have to register separately. 

You will need to add the following courses to your cart (priced at $0) and follow the registration process:

• Trust Accounting Fundamentals 
• Trust Accounting for Responsible Lawyers
• Client Identification and Verification Rules

The Trust Safety department processes applications two to three weeks from the time the Certificates of Completion for the Trust Safety online courses are received. The processing time may be extended depending on the amount of follow up required. 

All law firms approved to operate a trust account must complete a Start-Up Report within four months from the date of approval (Rule 119.14). It will be reviewed by the Trust Safety department and no longer requires an accountant be retained to complete the report.