NSBS historical timeline
1700s
| 1749 | Bar of Nova Scotia founded; attorney oath rolls commence |
| 1788 | First suspensions of lawyers from practice in Supreme Court |
| 1797 | Retiring Chief Justice Thomas A.L. Strange gifts his law library to the Province; the beginning of the Barristers’ Library |
1800s
| 1808 | First, unsuccessful attempt to enact a legal profession bill |
| 1811 | Legal Profession Act passed; supersedes and replaces Rule of Court. Existing attorneys become “barristers” |
| 1817 | King’s counsel (Crown attorneys) appointed |
| 1818 | Legal Profession Act renewed for seven years |
| 1825 | Legal Profession Act lapses; Society of Nova Scotia Barristers formed as provincial law society; The Law Society (England) founded |
| 1826 | New barristers’ and attorneys’ rolls opened and new Rule of Court enacted |
| 1836 | Legal Profession Act restored |
| 1844 | Failed attempt to incorporate Society |
| 1846 | Legal Profession Act renewed for 10 years |
| 1851 | Legal Profession Act made permanent |
| 1858 | Society of Nova Scotia Barristers incorporated and renamed Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society |
| 1860 | Society reconstituted with Council and President; first Society President is John W. Ritchie; preliminary law examination introduced; Law Students Society formed |
| 1872 | Bill to give Society standing in relation to the Bar fails to pass; formal law student examinations introduced |
| 1874 | Stillborn Halifax school of law incorporated |
| 1875 | President of Society, William Alexander Henry, appointed puisne justice of the new Supreme Court of Canada |
| 1880 | Attorney General John S.D. Thompson, later Premier of Nova Scotia (1882) and Prime Minister of Canada (1892-94), becomes Society President; Society authorized to initiate calls to the Bar in open court. |
| 1881 | Faculty of Law established at Dalhousie University |
| 1883 | Dalhousie Law School opens |
| 1885 | Legal Profession Act amended to give Council regulatory control of the Bar; Attorney General becomes ex officio member of Council |
| 1887 | Provincial Barristers’ Association established to advocate for Bar reform |
| 1891 | Council recognizes Dalhousie’s LLB course as counting towards Bar admission |
| 1895 | Robert Laird Borden, later Prime Minister of Canada (1911-1920), becomes President of the Society |
| 1896 | Earliest Society records survive |
| 1897 | Bill to open the Bar to women fails to pass |
| 1898 | James Robinson Johnston is the first African Nova Scotian lawyer called to the Bar in Nova Scotia |
| 1899 | Modern Barristers and Solicitors Act passed; Society entrenched as law society in which membership is compulsory for all lawyers |
1900s
| 1904 | County representatives outside Halifax added to Council |
| 1910 | Chief Justice added to Council |
| 1915 | First woman articled clerk admitted: Emeyln MacKenzie |
| 1917 | Barristers and Solicitors Act amended to confirm that women articled clerks may be called to the Bar |
| 1918 | Frances Lilian Fish of Newcastle, NB, is the first woman called to the Bar in Nova Scotia (September 10) |
| 1929 | Chief Justice removed from Council |
| 1935 | Society publishes catalogue of books in Barristers’ Library |
| 1936 | Society begins publishing Annual Reports |
| 1939 | Barristers and Solicitors Act revised and consolidated |
| 1941 | Discipline Committee is established; Society plaques bust of Prime Minister Sir John S.D. Thompson in robes as Imperial Privy Councillor, donated to the Society by Lady Thompson after her husband’s death in 1894 |
| 1946 | Dean of Dalhousie Law School added to Council; posts of Secretary and Treasurer combined |
| 1947 | Post of Second Vice-President established |
| 1949 | Knowledge of Latin dropped as a requirement for Bar admission |
| 1951 | First Annual Meeting takes place outside Halifax; Society establishes Legal Aid Committee |
| 1952 | Barristers and Solicitors Act further revised and consolidated |
| 1954 | Society introduces annual refresher course for practising lawyers |
| 1956 | First woman elected to Council: Barbara Hughes QC |
| 1957 | Society establishes Lawyers’ Fund for Client Compensation |
| 1959 | Post of Honorary President created |
| 1969 | Provincial director of legal aid appointed; Attorney General’s Committee on Legal Aid established; Council districts created |
| 1970 | Barristers and Solicitors Act amended to authorize establishment of Professional Liability Claims Fund |
| 1972 | Professional liability insurance becomes mandatory for all practising lawyers |
| 1974 | Council adopts Canadian Bar Association Code of Professional Conduct; Nova Scotia Law News commences publication; Society relinquishes responsibility for legal aid |
| 1975 | Bar Admission Course introduced |
| 1976 | Law Foundation of Nova Scotia established |
| 1977 | Continuing Legal Education Society of Nova Scotia incorporated; Nova Scotia Legal Aid Commission established |
| 1978 | Society publishes The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and its Judges, 1754-1978 |
| 1979 | The Society Record commences publication |
| 1986 | Lay persons appointed to Council (now called Public Representatives) |
| 1987 | Council readopts revised Canadian Bar Association Code of Professional Conduct |
| 1988 | Society publishes Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct: A Handbook for Lawyers in Nova Scotia, which replaces the CBA Code of Professional Conduct |
| 1989 | Doane Raymond conducts administrative review of Society; Executive Director position created to replace Secretary-Treasurer |
| 1990 | Darrel Pink becomes first Executive Director of Society; Society responds to Report of the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution; Society publishes revised and enlarged edition of Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct: A Handbook for Lawyers in Nova Scotia; Nova Scotia Barristers’ Liability Claims Fund incorporated |
| 1991 | Society issues report of review of conduct of members criticized in the Marshall Inquiry Report |
| 1993 | James A. Michael of Shubenacadie is the first Mi’kmaq lawyer called to the Bar in Nova Scotia (June 18); Jill Hamilton QC is elected the Society’s first woman President; Gender Equity Committee established; Committee to Review Society Programs issues final report |
| 1996 | Barristers and Solicitors Act amended to permit law practices to incorporate |
| 1997 | Society appoints first Equity Officer: Catherine Meade |
2000s
| 2000 | Society establishes Race Relations Committee (now Racial Equity Committee) |
| 2002 | “Discussion Paper Regarding a Proposed Legal Profession Act in Nova Scotia” released |
| 2004 | Barristers and Solicitors Act repealed and replaced by Legal Profession Act |
| 2005 | Legal Profession Act comes into force; barristers and solicitors become “lawyers”; Nova Scotia Barristers’ Liability Claims Fund Inc. renamed Lawyers’ Insurance Association of Nova Scotia (LIANS) |
| 2008 | Society publishes online Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules |
| 2010 | Legal Profession Act amended to clarify Society’s purpose; allow for a reduction in Council’s composition; authorize Fitness to Practise Program; and clarify privilege associated with information in the Society’s possession |
| 2011 | Council reduced to 21 members from 33; Fitness to Practise Program introduced; Professional Standards for the Practice of Family Law introduced |
| 2012 | Society’s new Code of Professional Conduct comes into force on January 1, replacing the Legal Ethics Handbook |
