In his regular Slaw.ca column, Access Pro Bono Executive Director Jamie Maclaren proposes a new lawyer-funded model for promoting the work of provincial legal aid organizations and other non-profit direct legal service providers.  Labeled "Pay or Play for A2J", the model is summarized as follows:

"As part of his or her annual professional membership fees, a lawyer pays a $300 “A2J Contribution” (an amount roughly equivalent to the average hourly rate among Canadian lawyers) that is earmarked for direct funding of the province’s legal aid and public interest legal organizations. If a lawyer provided and recorded one or more hours of legal aid, pro bono or public legal education service in the previous year— as administered and verified by specific organizations— then his or her A2J Contribution is waived. Thus lawyers “pay or play” to promote access to justice."

Read the full Slaw column here.