Legally reviewed by Joseph Mayo, Principal Attorney (Ontario and New York).
A Toronto manufacturer signs a supply agreement with a buyer in Buffalo. New York law governs the contract, the seller is an Ontario corporation, and any dispute would start in a New York court. The company calls its Toronto lawyer, who reads the agreement and then says the part that matters most is outside her licence. That is the moment most businesses discover what a dual licensed lawyer in Ontario and New York actually is, and why the answer is not a matter of experience or confidence but of two separate pieces of paper issued by two separate regulators.
The distinction gets blurred constantly. Firms advertise cross-border capability. Lawyers describe themselves as working on Canada-US files. None of that tells you whether one person can give you binding advice on both sides of the border, or whether your file is quietly being split in two.
Quick answer
A dual licensed lawyer in Ontario and New York holds two separate licences from two separate regulators: the Law Society of Ontario and the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. Each licence is earned on its own terms. Neither one carries across the border, and no permit substitutes for the other.
What is a dual licensed lawyer in Ontario and New York?
Dual licensed means admitted twice, under two independent regulatory regimes, with two sets of ongoing obligations. In Ontario, that means a licence from the Law Society of Ontario, which appears in the Law Society’s public directory with a law society number and a licence start date. In New York, it means admission by order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, which under section 520.1(a) of the Rules of the Court of Appeals is the only way a person is admitted to practise law in the courts of New York.
There is no combined Canada-US licence. There is no reciprocity treaty that converts one into the other. A lawyer who holds both went through both processes, usually years apart, and pays two sets of fees, carries two sets of insurance obligations, and answers to two disciplinary bodies.
The reason this matters to a client is narrow and practical. Legal advice is only worth what the licence behind it is worth. If the person advising you on New York law is not admitted in New York, the advice may still be intelligent, but it is not covered, not insured on that side, and in some circumstances not lawful to give.
Why does an Ontario licence stop at the border?
Both jurisdictions prohibit unlicensed practice by statute, and both wrote the prohibition broadly enough to catch advice, not just courtroom appearances.
In Ontario, section 26.1(1) of the Law Society Act says that, subject to subsection (5), “no person, other than a licensee whose licence is not suspended, shall practise law in Ontario or provide legal services in Ontario.” Section 26.1(2) adds that no such person shall hold themselves out as someone who may do so. Section 26.2(1) makes contravention an offence carrying a fine of not more than $25,000 for a first offence and not more than $50,000 for each subsequent offence.
In New York, section 478 of the Judiciary Law makes it unlawful for a person to practise or appear as an attorney-at-law for another person in a court of record in the state, to furnish attorneys or counsel to render legal services, or to hold themselves out to the public as entitled to practise law, without first being duly and regularly licensed and admitted to practise in the courts of record of the state and having taken the constitutional oath. The section carves out a short list of exceptions, two of which matter here: admission pro hac vice within the limits set by the Court of Appeals rules, and an attorney licensed as a legal consultant under those same rules.
Note the direction of each rule. Ontario’s prohibition is about practising law in Ontario. New York’s is about practising law in New York. Neither is about where the lawyer sits. An Ontario lawyer emailing New York advice from a Toronto desk is not outside section 478 because of geography.
How does an Ontario lawyer get admitted in New York?
The route runs through Rule 520.6 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals, which governs applicants who studied law in a foreign country. It has two tests. The durational test asks whether the program was substantially equivalent in length to an American Bar Association approved program, measured in substantial compliance with a standard of 83 credit hours for graduation, 64 of them earned in regularly scheduled classroom courses, and a minimum of 700 minutes of instruction per credit hour. The substantive test asks whether the country’s jurisprudence is based on the principles of English common law and whether the course of study was the substantial equivalent of an ABA-approved legal education.
Rule 520.6(b)(1)(ii) allows an applicant who fails one test to cure it with an LL.M. from an ABA-approved law school in the United States, subject to detailed conditions including a minimum of 24 credit hours. The cure works for the durational deficiency or the substantive deficiency. It does not work for both.
After the education question is settled, the rest follows a fixed sequence:
- Pass the bar examination. Since the July 2016 administration, the New York State bar examination has consisted of the Uniform Bar Examination, under Rule 520.8(a).
- Pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, under Rule 520.9(a)(1).
- Complete the New York Law Course and pass the New York Law Examination, under Rule 520.9(a)(2) and (3). A passing New York Law Examination score is valid for three years.
- Complete at least 50 hours of qualifying pro bono service before filing the admission application, under Rule 520.16(a).
- Satisfy the skills competency requirement in Rule 520.18. One of the five available routes, in Rule 520.18(a)(5), is proof of full-time practice for at least one year, or half-time for two years, in another jurisdiction where the applicant was authorised to practise.
- File a complete admission application, with proof of good moral character and general fitness, within three years of sitting for the second day of the Uniform Bar Examination, under Rules 520.12(a) and (d).
One route is closed. Admission without examination under Rule 520.10 requires, at subsection (a)(3), a first degree in law from a law school in the United States that was ABA-approved throughout the applicant’s attendance. A lawyer whose only law degree is Canadian cannot use it, no matter how long they have practised.
How does a New York attorney get licensed in Ontario?
The mirror-image route starts outside the Law Society. Internationally trained lawyers and graduates of international or non-accredited Canadian law schools must first apply to the National Committee on Accreditation, a standing committee of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, to have their credentials evaluated before they can enter the Law Society’s lawyer licensing process.
The Law Society states that the initial NCA assessment typically takes six to eight weeks once the completed application, required documents and the $400 plus HST fee are received. The Law Society and the NCA are Ontario and Canadian bodies charging HST, so these are Canadian dollars. The applicant may then be required to pass exams, complete specific law school courses, or both, within a prescribed time frame. Completing those assignments produces a Certificate of Qualification.
The Certificate is easy to misread. The NCA is explicit that it does not entitle the holder to practise law. It permits an application to a regulator for entry into a bar admission process in a Canadian common law jurisdiction. It is a prerequisite, not a licence.
From there the candidate enters the Law Society process: the barrister and solicitor licensing examinations, both self-study, multiple choice and open book; the experiential training requirement, satisfied through the Articling Program, the Law Practice Program, or a recognised Integrated Practice Curriculum completed during the law degree; and the good character requirement.
Practising lawyers get some relief here. The Law Society allows candidates with at least 10 months of common law practice experience who meet the criteria in its policies to qualify for an exemption from experiential training, and candidates already licensed in another jurisdiction may qualify for an abridgment of the articling term.
What is a foreign legal consultant, and why is it not the same thing?
Both jurisdictions offer a halfway house, and both drew the same line around it.
In Ontario, By-Law 14 requires lawyers licensed outside Canada to obtain a Foreign Legal Consultant permit before giving legal advice in Ontario about the law of a non-Canadian foreign jurisdiction. Section 26.2(2) of the Law Society Act backs the by-law with the same fine structure as unlicensed practice: not more than $25,000 for a first offence, not more than $50,000 for each subsequent offence. Applicants must be authorised to practise in a non-Canadian jurisdiction, free of orders and restrictions, and of good character. The permit runs for up to one year, expires on the same day the required insurance expires, and must be renewed. LAWPRO does not insure foreign legal consultants, so cover has to come from a private carrier. The application fee is $500 plus $65 HST, and renewal is $250 plus $32.50 HST, all in Canadian dollars.
The limit is stated plainly on the Law Society’s own page: an FLC permit does not entitle the holder to provide legal advice or services about the law of Ontario or Canada.
New York’s version sits in Part 521 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals. The Appellate Division may, in its discretion and without examination, license a legal consultant who is a member in good standing of a recognised legal profession in a foreign country, who has practised for at least three of the five years immediately preceding the application, who possesses good moral character, who is over 26 years of age, and who intends to maintain a New York office for that purpose.
Rule 521.3 then lists what the licence does not reach. A legal consultant may not appear as attorney for another person in any New York court other than on pro hac vice admission, may not prepare instruments transferring title to United States real estate, may not prepare wills or trust instruments disposing of United States property owned by a resident, may not prepare instruments about marital or parental relations for a United States resident, may not hold out as a member of the New York bar, and, most importantly for commercial work, may not render professional legal advice on the law of New York or of the United States except on the basis of advice from a person duly qualified to give it.
That last restriction is the whole point. A foreign legal consultant is licensed to bring foreign law into the jurisdiction, not to practise the local law. On both sides of the border, the permit that looks like a shortcut expressly excludes the advice the client usually wants.
Rule 521.4 is worth knowing too, because it works in the client’s favour. A New York legal consultant is treated as a lawyer affiliated with the bar of the state for purposes including attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege, and may partner with or employ members of the New York bar.
What can one dual licensed lawyer do that two lawyers cannot?
Two competent lawyers in two firms can cover the same ground, and plenty of good work gets done that way, including much of what a corporate lawyer in Toronto handles for companies with US exposure. Sometimes that is the right structure, particularly where the file is large enough to need specialists on each side. The difference is narrower than marketing suggests, and it is worth being precise about it.
One licence-holder can give a single opinion that runs across both bodies of law without a handoff. On a cross-border share purchase, the question is rarely “what does Ontario law say” or “what does New York law say” in isolation. It is how a representation drafted to a New York standard interacts with an Ontario corporation’s constating documents, or whether an indemnity survives under the governing law chosen in the agreement. Splitting that question in two produces two partial answers that someone still has to reconcile.
Privilege is cleaner. Communications stay inside one solicitor-client relationship rather than moving between two firms, which reduces the number of points at which a waiver argument can be built.
Cost and time change in a specific way. There is no second retainer, no second conflicts check, no second onboarding, and no coordination overhead between counsel. That does not automatically make it cheaper, since a lawyer with two licences carries the cost of maintaining both. It removes a category of work rather than a category of expense.
The honest limits matter as much. Two licences are not two specialisations. A lawyer admitted in Ontario and New York is not qualified in the other 49 states, is not a tax adviser in either country, cannot answer every question that arises when starting a business in both Canada and the United States, and cannot appear in a Canadian province outside Ontario without going through mobility rules. Ask what the licences cover, not just how many there are.
How do you check that a lawyer really holds both licences?
Do not take the claim on faith, and do not rely on a biography page. Both regulators publish verification tools.
For Ontario, the Law Society of Ontario’s Lawyer and Paralegal Directory returns the licensee’s class of licence, law society number, licence start date, current practice conditions or restrictions, and any regulatory proceedings. A record showing no conditions and no proceedings means exactly that, as of the date you look.
For New York, the Unified Court System maintains an attorney registration search covering every attorney admitted in the state, showing registration status, the year of admission and the judicial department that admitted them. It is a search tool rather than a set of fixed pages, so ask for the registration number and look it up yourself.
Two searches, two results. If a lawyer holds both licences, both searches will show it, and neither will take more than a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Is a dual licensed lawyer the same as a cross-border lawyer?
No. “Cross-border lawyer” describes the work, and any lawyer can use it. “Dual licensed” describes the credentials, and it is verifiable. A cross-border practice can be built entirely on referral relationships with counsel in the other country, which is a legitimate model, but it is a different arrangement from one person holding both licences. Ask which one you are being offered.
Can my Ontario lawyer advise me on New York law if a New York lawyer supervises?
Not as a general matter. Section 478 of the New York Judiciary Law does not turn on supervision. The narrow supervision concept in New York’s rules appears in Rule 521.3(e), and it applies to a licensed legal consultant, who may render advice on New York or United States law only on the basis of advice from a person duly qualified to give it. That is a licensed status with its own application process, not an informal arrangement between two firms.
Does a New York attorney need anything to give New York law advice to a client in Ontario?
If the advice is given in Ontario, By-Law 14 requires a Foreign Legal Consultant permit from the Law Society of Ontario, and section 26.2(2) of the Law Society Act makes giving foreign legal advice contrary to the by-laws an offence. The permit covers advice about the law of the non-Canadian jurisdiction where the lawyer is authorised to practise. It does not extend to Ontario or Canadian law.
How long does it take to become licensed in both Ontario and New York?
There is no single published figure, because the timeline depends on which direction the lawyer is travelling and what relief applies. The verifiable checkpoints are these: the New York route requires the Uniform Bar Examination, the MPRE, the New York Law Course and Examination, 50 hours of pro bono service and the skills competency requirement, with the admission application due within three years of the second bar examination day. The Ontario route requires an NCA assessment that the Law Society says typically takes six to eight weeks for the initial stage, then any assigned exams or courses, then the barrister and solicitor examinations and experiential training. Anyone quoting a fixed number of months for either route is estimating.
Can a lawyer admitted in New York appear in an Ontario court, or the reverse?
Not on the strength of the foreign licence alone. Rule 521.3(a) of the New York rules bars a legal consultant from appearing for another person in any New York court except on pro hac vice admission, and Rule 520.11(c) requires an attorney admitted pro hac vice to be associated with a New York bar member who acts as attorney of record for pre-trial and trial proceedings. On the Ontario side, section 26.1(1) of the Law Society Act reserves the practice of law in Ontario to licensees. Court appearances are the most tightly held part of both licences.
Does dual licensing help with immigration matters?
United States immigration law is federal, so an attorney admitted in any state may handle it. State admission is not the constraint, which is why a US-Canada immigration lawyer does not need an Ontario licence to file a US petition. What the second licence changes is the surrounding work, since business immigration files usually sit alongside corporate structuring, employment terms and tax questions that are jurisdiction-specific on both sides.
What does a Certificate of Qualification from the NCA allow?
It allows an application. The NCA states that a Certificate of Qualification does not entitle an individual to practise law, and that it permits the applicant to apply to a regulator for entry into the bar admission process in a Canadian common law jurisdiction. Canadian law societies in common law provinces and territories require the Certificate for entry into their bar admission processes.
Is the New York bar examination the same test everywhere?
The examination component is shared. Since the July 2016 administration, the New York State bar examination has consisted of the Uniform Bar Examination developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which is used in many jurisdictions. What is specific to New York is the rest of the package under Rule 520.9: the MPRE, the New York Law Course and the New York Law Examination, plus the pro bono and skills competency requirements in Rules 520.16 and 520.18.
Conclusion
The phrase carries more weight than most marketing language because it is checkable. Two regulators, two public records, two sets of rules that both say the same thing in different words: the licence defines the advice. A foreign legal consultant permit in either direction is useful and legitimate, and it is expressly not a substitute, because both By-Law 14 and Rule 521.3(e) exclude local-law advice from what the permit covers.
For a business with operations, contracts or people on both sides of the Ontario-New York border, the practical question is not whether a firm describes itself as cross-border. It is whether the person signing the advice is admitted where the advice lands, and whether you have verified it.
How Mayo Law Can Help
Mayo Law is a cross-border firm with offices in Toronto and New York. Joseph Mayo, the firm’s principal attorney, is licensed in Ontario and in New York. His Ontario licence appears in the Law Society of Ontario’s directory under law society number 91581S, and his New York attorney registration number is 6092845. Both are verifiable through the regulators described above.
The firm’s work sits where the two systems meet: cross-border corporate and commercial matters for small and medium-sized businesses, business immigration with an emphasis on the E-2 treaty investor visa, white collar defence, and compliance. Services in Ontario are provided through Mayo Law Professional Corporation and services in New York through Joseph Mayo PLLC. If you are working out which side of the border a question belongs to, that is usually a short conversation rather than a long engagement, and you can contact the firm to have it.
Disclaimer
This article is provided for general information only. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create a solicitor-client or attorney-client relationship with Mayo Law, Mayo Law Professional Corporation, or Joseph Mayo PLLC. Rules of professional regulation change, and the fees, timelines and requirements described here are stated as of August 2026 based on the sources named. Anyone relying on these rules for a licensing decision should confirm the current position with the Law Society of Ontario, the National Committee on Accreditation, or the New York State Board of Law Examiners as applicable, and anyone with a cross-border legal question should obtain advice on their own circumstances.
