Law Society of Ontario CPD: The Monthly Rule, Accredited Professionalism and the Solo Practice Course

Ontario's CPD requirement is usually quoted as twelve hours a year including three professionalism hours. That is the right answer for a lawyer who practises all twelve months, and it is not what the binding instrument says. The By-Law sets a monthly obligation with a percentage attached, and the difference matters to anyone who practises for part of a year.

This guide works through By-Law 6.1 of the Law Society of Ontario, whose Part I came into force on 1 January 2014, alongside the Law Society's published guidance. It covers lawyers and paralegals, since the By-Law applies to both.

What the By-Law actually requires

Section 2(2) is the operative provision. A licensee must complete one hour of eligible activities for each calendar month in the year during which, for any amount of time, the licensee practises law or provides legal services — and of that total, at least twenty-five percent must consist of eligible activities "that are accredited by the Society covering ethics, professionalism or practice management topics".

Read that carefully, because three consequences follow that the twelve-and-three shorthand hides:

• The obligation pro-rates automatically. A licensee who practises six months of the year owes six hours, not twelve — and does not need to apply for an exemption to get there. The reduction is built into the arithmetic
• "For any amount of time" is a low threshold. A single day of practice in a month makes that month count in full
• The professionalism element is a percentage, not a fixed three. At six hours it is 1.5 hours, not three

Section 2(3) applies the same monthly logic in the year of licensing, counting "beginning with the calendar month immediately following the day on which the licensee is licensed". So a lawyer called in September owes three hours — October, November, December — if they practise in each of those months.

Section 1 defines an "eligible activity" broadly: an activity "that serves to maintain or enhance a licensee's professional knowledge, skills, attitudes or ethics, as determined by the Society".

Who it applies to

Section 2(1) catches three groups: a licensee required to pay the full annual fee under By-Law 5; a licensee exempted from that fee under section 5(2) of By-Law 5 who practises law; and a licensee mentioned in section 4 of By-Law 5. Fee exemption does not by itself remove the CPD obligation where the licensee is practising.

The Law Society's published framing, and the accreditation point

The Law Society's guidance states the full-year position as 12 CPD hours comprising a minimum of 3 Professionalism Hours "on topics related to professional responsibility, ethics and/or practice management" and up to 9 Substantive Hours.

The accreditation rule is the one to get right: only Professionalism Hours must be accredited by the Law Society. The 9 Substantive Hours need not be. Substantive Hours may address substantive or procedural law and related skills, and non-legal subjects can qualify where they are relevant to practice.

That asymmetry has a practical effect on buying training. Any competent provider can supply Substantive Hours. Professionalism Hours only count if the Society has accredited the content, so a programme marketed as covering ethics is worthless for the professionalism element unless it appears as accredited.

The EDI hour

Since 1 January 2018 there has been an equality, diversity and inclusion requirement sitting inside the professionalism element. Licensees had to complete 3 Professionalism Hours focused on advancing equality, diversity and inclusion between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2020, and each year thereafter must complete 1 Professionalism Hour addressing issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.

These count toward the 3 Professionalism Hours rather than being additional. So the annual full-year picture is 12 hours, of which 3 are accredited professionalism, of which 1 must be EDI.

No carry-over, and the reporting deadline that is not 31 December

Section 2(5) is unambiguous: a licensee "may not carry over from one year to any other year any hours of eligible activities". There is no banking of surplus in Ontario, unlike the limited three-unit carry-forward Australia allows.

Section 3(1) requires an annual report of eligible activities completed, in the form and electronic format specified by the Society and filed electronically.

Section 3(3) then sets the default date, and it is later than most people assume. For the purposes of clause 47(1)(a) of the Law Society Act, a licensee is in default "if the requirement is not met by March 31 of the year following the year to which the requirement relates". The hours must be completed in the calendar year; the reporting default bites at the end of the following March.

Records: a short retention period and a ten-day clock

Section 4(1) requires a licensee to keep all documents substantiating completion of the activities reported "until December 31 of the year following the year in which the activities were reported", and section 4(2) requires them to be provided to the Society on request.

That is a notably short retention period — roughly two years from the activity — against Australia's three years and the six years common in UK financial services.

The request mechanism in section 5 is where the pressure sits. The Society may require a licensee to provide specific information about completion; it notifies the licensee in writing with a detailed list of what is wanted; and the licensee must provide it not later than ten days after the date specified on the notice. An extension is available but must be requested in writing by that deadline, not after it. Ten days is not enough time to reconstruct a year of CPD from memory.

Section 5(6) confirms this authority is additional to, and does not limit, the Society's other powers to require information under the By-Laws or the Act.

The requirement almost nobody outside Ontario knows about

Part II of By-Law 6.1 creates a separate Professional Business Foundations Requirement, and it is not a CPD hours rule at all.

Under section 9(1), a licensee who for the first time since licensure practises law or provides legal services through a professional business solely owned by them, and is the sole licensee practising through that business, must complete a professional business foundations course provided by the Society. Section 8 calls that year the "solo practice year".

The timelines in section 9(2) are generous but specific:

• Starting in 2025 — between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2026
• From 2026, starting between 1 January and 31 May of the solo practice year — from 1 January of the preceding year to 31 December of the solo practice year
• From 2026, starting between 1 June and 31 December of the solo practice year — from 1 June of the preceding year to 31 December of the year after the solo practice year

Section 9(3) excludes, for greater certainty, a licensee practising through a professional corporation where that arrangement means the business is not solely owned by them and has other licensees practising through it. Section 9(4) allows an application to modify the timeline before it expires.

Anyone advising a lawyer or paralegal about to go out on their own in Ontario should have this on the checklist. It is a one-off course requirement attached to the moment of going solo, enforced through section 49(1) of the Act, and it is easy to miss because it sits in a part of the By-Law that nothing about "CPD hours" would lead you to read.

Three things to check

First, whether anyone in your firm has been told they owe twelve hours for a year in which they practised for part of it. Under section 2(2) they owe one hour per month of practice.

Second, whether the ethics training you bought is accredited by the Law Society. If it is not, it is Substantive Hours at best and cannot satisfy the professionalism element or the EDI hour.

Third, whether a licensee moving to solo practice has the Part II course in their plan, with the right timeline branch for the month they start.

Ontario's model — a monthly accrual, a percentage for accredited professionalism, no carry-over and a ten-day production deadline — is a third distinct architecture alongside Australia's ten units across four mandatory fields and the state-by-state fragmentation of US CLE. A firm with lawyers in more than one of them cannot run a single compliance calendar, and the accreditation rules differ even where the hours look similar. Structured CPD programmes need mapping against each regime's accreditation requirement rather than its headline number.

Sources and limits: written from By-Law 6.1 of the Law Society of Ontario and the Law Society's Continuing Professional Development Requirement guidance, read in October 2026. By-Law 5, the Law Society Act, the accredited provider framework, the list of accredited providers and the Law Society's FAQs were not read in full and may qualify points above — in particular the detailed rules on eligible activity types, any caps on teaching, writing or self-study, and the administrative suspension process, which are not in Part I of the By-Law. General information about a published regime, not legal advice.