College Diploma - Law Clerk

The Law Clerk diploma is a twelve-month program training students to run the procedural machinery of a law practice — the document preparation, filing and file management that determines whether a legal matter moves or stalls.

The program covers real estate conveyancing and title searching, corporate law and minute book maintenance, civil litigation documentation and court filing procedure, wills and estates administration, family law documentation, legal research and writing, legal accounting and trust rules, and law office technology including document management and e-filing systems. Assessment is procedural and precise — students draft, file and manage real document sets to professional standards.

The distinction from the paralegal diploma matters: law clerks work under lawyer supervision on documentation and procedure, while licensed paralegals represent clients independently in defined forums. Law clerk work is steadier and more transactional, and the real estate and corporate specialisms in particular hire continuously in the GTA.

The field placement is a graded part of the program, so you finish with documented Canadian experience and a referee rather than only a transcript.

Newnham is Seneca’s largest campus, on Finch Avenue East in North York, with its own residence, library, athletic centre and specialised technical labs. It sits on the TTC network with subway connections, and carries the bulk of Seneca’s business, technology and engineering catalogue — which means the widest range of student clubs, services and peers of any Seneca site.

Seneca Polytechnic — formerly Seneca College — is one of Ontario’s largest public colleges and a Designated Learning Institution. Newnham is its biggest campus, on Finch Avenue East in North York, and carries the bulk of Seneca’s business, technology, engineering technology, aviation and applied science catalogue. It has its own residence, a large library and athletic centre, and sits on the TTC network with connections to the subway.

Its field maps to CIP 22.0302 (Legal assistant/paralegal). Important: this is a college credential rather than a degree, so it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s eligible list when you apply. Seneca publishes a PGWP-eligible program list; check it, and confirm with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. IRCC makes the final decision.