Becoming a legal agent

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Justice Act is the authority which provides the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada with the responsibility for the legal affairs of the government as a whole and for providing legal services to individual departments.

The Department of Justice’s mandate derives from the dual role of the "Minister":

• in support of the Minister of Justice, the Department is responsible for providing policy and program advice and direction through the development of the legal content of bills, regulations and guidelines;
• in support of the Attorney General, the Department is responsible for prosecuting federal offences across Canada, including drug offences, litigating civil cases by or on behalf of the federal Crown, and for providing legal advice to federal law enforcement agencies and other government departments and agencies.

To carry out this mandate, the Department of Justice relies on in-house counsel as well as private sector lawyers, both domestic and international, referred to as legal agents. There are two main categories of legal agents:

• standing legal agents, who are appointed for an indefinite period of time to conduct work of a specific nature on an as needed basis; and,
• ad hoc legal agents who are retained to provide services with respect to a specific case/piece of work, or aspect of a case/piece of work.

Generally, engagements in respect of the following types of activities are considered to be "legal services":

• provision of legal advice and opinions;
• conduct of civil litigation and criminal prosecutions;
• dispute resolution;
• legislative and regulatory drafting; and,
• negotiation and drafting of other legal documents such as contracts, agreements, etc.

The Government Contracts Regulations establishes a condition and/or limitations for entering into contracts for legal services. Pursuant to section 3 and 4, the Regulations do not apply to contracts for legal services and contracts for the performance of legal services may be entered into only by or under the authority of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

All legal agents are appointed by the Minister of Justice.