[4] The beginnings of the Quebec Bar go back to 1693 when, as a Royal Province of the French colonial empire, Canadien advocates first tried to obtain official recognition and were refused by Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac, who upheld the 1678 edict by the Sovereign Council denying recognition of the legal profession in New France.
French Canadian advocates would not be recognized for nearly a century, by which time (after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham) they had become British colonial subjects.
In 1765, Governor James Murray of the new British Province of Quebec authorized the creation of the "Community of Lawyers" (Communauté des avocats), which granted commissions to its members allowing them to practise law as advocates, notaries and land surveyors.
[5] In addition, applicants must attend a four- or eight-month course at the École du Barreau (Bar School), and complete a six-month apprenticeship.
Full admission for lawyers from elsewhere in Canada requires, among other things, that the applicant demonstrate adequate proficiency in French and successfully complete examinations on civil law and legislation.