The resolution calls on the LSBC to convene a climate advisory committee
On June 2, 2026, a coalition of lawyers and students came together to submit a proposal. We are asking the Law Society of British Columbia to convene a climate advisory committee.
This is not the kind of climate advocacy that is easy to describe, photograph, or display. It happened quietly around 1 pm over a group email chain, and then we all went back to work.
Nonetheless, it is the latest chapter in a dramatic four-year initiative. This year, the initiative has taken on new levels of urgency.
Each year, in advance of the LSBC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), members submit proposed resolutions. Early voting opens about two weeks before the meeting itself, and members will vote to determine which resolutions are adopted. This year, the meeting will be held on July 8, 2026. Voting is currently open through the LSBC members’ portal.
The resolution’s call to action is simple: the LSBC should convene a climate advisory committee. It should study, discuss, and recommend on what it means to be a climate-competent legal practitioner and the role lawyers can play in addressing climate change.
On its face, this seems simple enough. The problem? Resolutions about climate change and legal practice at the LSBC have failed twice before.
In 2022, BC lawyers proposed a broader resolution, calling on the LSBC and its members to address climate change in several ways. The resolution failed, with 58 percent of votes cast against it.
In 2023, a revised version of the 2022 resolution was proposed. Despite a concerted effort by supportive lawyers and academics to rally votes – via op-eds, webinars, and other initiatives– the resolution failed again, this time with 59 percent of votes cast saying “no.”
To this day, the LSBC has neither passed a resolution nor made a public statement on how climate change affects legal work.
So, why is taking climate action so contested at the LSBC?
Part of the answer comes down to the organization’s mandate. Some lawyers wonder whether taking a stance or acting on climate change is within the proper role of the LSBC as the province's legal regulator.
It is a fair question, so let’s look at their mandate. According to section 3 of the Legal Profession Act, the object and duty of the LSBC is to “uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice,” including by ensuring the “competence of lawyers.” This might include establishing standards and programs for the competence and education of legal practitioners.
So, in 2026, the proposed “Resolution on Climate Competent Legal Practice” was drafted with a focus on this mandate. Our coalition of law students and legal practitioners asked: How can the LSBC ensure that BC lawyers are competent and ready to meet the realities of a warming world?
We designed a resolution that asks the LSBC to convene a climate advisory committee – similar to past committees it has convened on access to justice, truth and reconciliation, ethics and lawyer independence, and equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Though the resolution is limited in scope, it is important and urgent for two reasons.
First, climate change is already affecting many areas of law, including business, immigration, insurance, and labour law.
Business lawyers working for major corporate clients need to understand climate reporting requirements and climate-related risks to their clients’ physical assets or business structures.
Immigration and refugee lawyers already assist clients who are experiencing complex situations of displacement, exacerbated by climate insecurity. In the future, climate-related displacement will only increase.
Insurance lawyers work in an industry designed to mitigate financial risk, while climate change is causing more extreme, erratic weather events and making losses less predictable. Traditional approaches to risk assessment and management will have to adapt.
Labour and employment lawyers need to understand how climate change is affecting workers' health and safety, as well as how jobs will change across sectors during the transition to a net-zero economy.
Right now, BC lawyers have no mandatory training on climate-competent legal practice. As a result, many lawyers may lack the professional competencies they need to practise law responsibly and ethically in a warming world.
Second, the 2026 AGM may be one of the last LSBC meetings where members can put forward resolutions.
Right now, the British Columbia government is seeking to change the province’s legal regulator. Instead of the LSBC, the province envisions a new body to regulate lawyers, public notaries, and regulated paralegals.
Under the proposed legislation, there are no provisions guaranteeing that members will be able to raise resolutions at AGMs. Once the new legislation is brought into force, there may be no further opportunities to propose a resolution on climate-competent legal practice. The legislation could take effect imminently over the next few years.
Put simply, the time to act is running out.
Whether lawyers are prepared or not, climate change will impact legal work. Lawyers and law societies who are proactive will be able to adapt to this reality and provide competent, climate-aware legal services.
Those who do not acknowledge the realities of climate change risk being left behind. Increasingly, they will be at risk of providing incomplete, unsatisfactory, and even unethical services.
In 2026, we are calling on all BC lawyers to show up and vote for climate-competent legal practice. Although climate resolutions failed in 2022 and again in 2023, fewer than 20 percent of LSBC members even voted on them.
So, this summer, everyone needs to get out to vote. BC lawyers may not have another chance to do so.
Max Wilkinson is a member of the Climate Competent Lawyering Coalition – a group of lawyers and law students in BC who are championing a Resolution on Climate Competent Legal Practice at the Law Society of British Columbia’s (LSBC) 2026 Annual General Meeting.
