Interested in working with legal aid?

You can make legal aid a part of your career in many different ways. You can join LAO as a staff lawyer, or, as a private practitioner, apply to join LAO’s certificate and duty counsel panels.

For information on becoming an LAO staff lawyer refer to LAO’s Lawyer Workforce Strategy.

For information on Legal Aid Ontario's panel standards and how to request for panel membership, follow this link.

How to apply to join the LAO certifiate and duty counsel panels

All lawyers who want to do legal aid work and bill to Legal Aid Ontario must complete and submit a Lawyer Empanelment Form (see below) to their local area director. Panel standards have been implemented for family, criminal, refugee, consent and capacity certificate bars, and duty counsel. Application forms for these panels must also be submitted to your local area director. Please refer to the Panel Standards section for more information.

Submission Checklist:

(Required forms are listed below)

• Step 1: Complete Lawyer Empanelment Form (page 1 of 2 pages)

• Step 2: Complete Request for Panel Membership (page 2 of Lawyer Empanelment Form)

• Step 3: Complete Direct Deposit Authorization (for business account)

• Step 4: Complete Tier level increase form if you have 4 or more years of experience

• Step 5: Complete applicable Panel Standard Forms

• Step 6: Return all forms to local area office

FAQ: Here are some of the more commonly asked questions by lawyers interested in certificate work with Legal Aid Ontario.

Once all forms are completed and returned the empanelment process takes about 4 weeks.

Lawyer Empanelment Form(s)

Listed below are the Lawyer Empanement Forms for new lawyers, available in both PDF and DOC formats.

/ Lawyer Empanelment Form Package

/ Empanelment Forms

/ Direct Deposit Authorization

/ Application Form for Tier Level Increase