PDF version: Dressing Down CPLED (Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education)
As the warmth of spring has replaced the cold of winter, so too have our occasionally idiosyncratically attired law students been replaced by suit wearing post-graduates attending the Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED) course. Attendance at CPLED, and successful completion of its various assignments, is a pre-requisite for any person wishing to become a member of the Law Society of Alberta.
So too, it turns out, is donning a suit. The 2008-2009 Handbook for students attending CPLED in Alberta states:
Please wear business attire to class. You may not be allowed into class, and a note may be placed on your Law society [sic] file, if you are not dressed appropriately.
Students attending CPLED are, apparently, further advised that “business attire” means attire appropriate for students working at a large law firm, i.e., suits.