About the Benchers

The Law Society is governed by a 24-member Board, also known as Benchers. Of the Benchers, 20 are lawyers either elected by the profession every three years and/or appointed by the Benchers when a vacancy arrives (through the Bencher Vacancy Policy), and four are public representatives appointed by the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General. The Benchers provide strategic direction, focusing on goals that demonstrate our values and help achieve our vision and mission.

Candidate Eligibility

Eligibility to stand for election is set out in section 13 of the Legal Profession Act and Rule 10 of the Rules of the Law Society of Alberta. All candidates will be assessed for each of the noted items upon receipt of a nomination.

Becoming a Candidate

Nomination

The 2026 Bencher Election nomination process will be conducted entirely online. The nomination form will open on Sept. 29, 2026 in the Lawyer Portal.

All candidates must comply with Rule 10 and 10.1 of the Rules of the Law Society of Alberta when submitting their nomination.

Each candidate must provide the following information via the online webform:

• Legal name
• Preferred name, if different from legal name
• Member ID
• Firm, organization or practice setting name
• Location of practice
• Location of residence
• Year of call
• Practice area(s)
• Photograph (to be used on Bencher Election website), in jpg, png or gif format
• Candidate Statement, no more than 500 words in length

Endorsements

Candidates must have their nomination endorsed by two active members (endorsers). Once the prospective candidate has completed their nomination form, the lawyers identified as the active members who will endorse the nomination will receive an email from no-reply@memberpro.net with instructions.

To endorse the nomination of a candidate, the completion of the Candidate for Bencher Election application on the Lawyer Portal is required.

1. Log in to the Lawyer Portal. Your Login ID is your Member ID number. If you are unable to remember your password or your password has expired, click on the Forgot your Password? link and follow the prompts.
2. After logging in, click on your name in the top right-hand menu and select MY APPLICATIONS.
3. On the Current Applications screen, under the Options column, choose to Accept or Decline the Endorsement of Candidate Application.
4. On the following screen, click Submit to complete your endorsement of the nomination.

Nominations must be complete by 4:30 p.m. MT  on Oct. 13, 2026 to be eligible for the election.

Nomination Assessment

An assessment will be made to ensure that the nomination information does not breach the Law Society of Alberta election rules.

Specifically, the candidate statement cannot constitute a campaign promise or similar comment, or is libellous, in breach of the Code of Conduct or in bad taste.

The professional photograph submitted is proper and does not bring the profession into disrepute.

The decision of the Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director is final.

A candidate whose statement of interest or photograph is found to be impermissible may submit a new statement or photograph for assessment before the nomination deadline.

The Law Society is not responsible for any candidate’s failure to meet the publication deadline for any reason and once the deadline has passed and candidate information is formatted for online publication, no additions, deletions or amendments may be made.

Important: Please note that it is the sole responsibility of the candidate to ensure that the endorsers have submitted their information within the deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted and will remove a candidate’s application from consideration.

Communicating to the Profession

Per the Rules of the Law Society, candidates may begin communicating their candidacy to the profession starting Oct. 20, 2026, providing that they have received notification from the Law Society that their nomination has been approved.

The Law Society provides the Bencher Election website to serve as a single platform that will give each candidate a place for their information, including their biographical details, photo and candidate statement of the interest collected during the nomination process.

Other forms of communication, including additional websites, emails, social media and letter-writing are at the sole discretion of the candidate and will not be supported by the Law Society directly. However, all other forms of communication must comply with the election Rules in terms of content and what is and isn’t permissible.

Districts

In accordance with the Rules, there are five districts in Alberta:

1. Northern District: That part of Alberta lying north of the 53rd parallel of latitude but excluding the City of Edmonton;
2. Central District: That part of Alberta lying between the 51st and 53rd parallels of latitude but excluding the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton;
3. Southern District: That part of Alberta lying south of the 51st parallel of latitude but excluding the City of Calgary;
4. City of Edmonton; and,
5. City of Calgary.

To ensure Benchers are elected from outside the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton, a minimum of one Bencher will be elected from each of the Northern, Central and Southern Districts when at least one candidate has been nominated in the district.