She spoke on the CL Talk podcast about her government's legal regulation changes
Transforming how justice is delivered – from courtroom operations to legal regulation – is central to Niki Sharma’s agenda as British Columbia’s attorney general and deputy premier. In a recent episode of CL Talk, Canadian Lawyer’s podcast, she outlined her priorities and the principles guiding her work.
Below is a summary of the conversation:
Niki Sharma built her legal career by advocating for Indigenous communities – representing residential school survivors, fighting for land rights, and navigating governance negotiations on behalf of First Nations. “I worked at a firm that's essentially now First Peoples Law,” she said. “Representing Indigenous people and rights and title issues, negotiations on projects, and representing residential school survivors.” That work, rooted in justice rather than prestige, defined more than a decade of her practice.
She wasn't just practising law – she was up against institutions, often interacting with the government through lawsuits. What that work revealed, time and again, were gaps too significant to solve through litigation alone. “I got to see where there were gaps in systems.”
As British Columbia’s attorney general and deputy premier, Sharma can now address those systemic failures from within. “The thing that really excites me about being in this role is we can think about system changes,” she said. “To increase access to justice... change the laws in a way that helps everybody.”
Since becoming attorney general in 2022, she has pushed reforms to make the legal system more responsive and inclusive. That includes expanding family law legal aid, implementing a province-wide virtual bail system, and opening 15 Indigenous justice centres to provide free legal resources. “We’ve had some real, directed interventions... particularly in the criminal justice system,” she said.
Sharma’s focus is functional, not rhetorical. She cites investments in “every courtroom... having the right technology... helping with people scheduling, how people file it in the court registry,” she said. Her modernization push includes AI, which she sees as a tool to streamline court operations, not replace human judgment. “We are doing some work on this... using [AI] for better transcripts or faster transcripts,” she said.
Project permitting reform is also on her list. Sharma is candid about inefficiencies that hurt economic and community development. “Sometimes it’s a faster decision on a no... sometimes it may be yes... but that length of time... affects the ability of investment to stay,” she said.
But the transition from lawyer to political leader has had its frustrations. “In politics... sometimes you can convince people of things... that are just not true,” she said. “As a lawyer, you have this integrity of your arguments... and this independent arbiter that’s going to decide the truth.” That loss of evidentiary clarity is one part of public life she still finds difficult.
Judicial appointments have been another battleground. At the provincial level, appointments are keeping pace. At the federal level, she fought against a history of delays. “It would just make me so frustrated... to hear, ‘Oh, sorry. It’s being moved because there’s no justice available,’” she said. Sharma says that has changed. The province is now closer to a full judicial complement than it has been in decades.
One of Sharma’s most ambitious – and controversial – initiatives is Bill 21, the Legal Professions Act. The legislation replaces self-regulation of only lawyers with a single regulator for lawyers, notaries, and paralegals. The Law Society of British Columbia and the Canadian Bar Association BC Branch have sharply opposed it, arguing it threatens lawyer independence.
Sharma disputes that claim. “If anybody takes a look... it has a principle [that] the regulator... protect[s] the independence of legal professionals,” she said. The regulator’s new board will have 14 legal professionals out of 17 members, with only three appointed by the government. “I have not touched it or looked at it or even been involved with it at all,” she said of the transition board now implementing the legislation.
The law opens the door for expanded licensing of paralegals and allows for more flexible business models. Sharma says the reforms are not about control but about meeting demand. “Eight out of 10 people that need legal services and have a legal issue do not seek out a lawyer,” she said. “There’s so many ways that the legal profession is shifting on the ground.”
She describes the new regulatory model as a long-overdue update. “Around 2012 there was a start of a discussion of a single regulator... and that work... has been progressing,” she said. “The legislation gives them tools to modernize... and especially... access to justice.”
For Sharma, changing the justice system isn’t just a professional mandate. It’s personal. She’s spent her career inside that system – first advocating, now reforming. But she also thinks about what it means to those just entering the profession.
She doesn’t advise young lawyers to follow titles or status. Her advice is simpler and sharper. “You’re always going to be learning new things... a different legal issue... a client with different needs,” she said. The key is to follow what excites you and work with people who challenge you. “Being around people that you can learn from is the way to go about it.”
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The episode can also be found on our CL Talk podcast homepage, which includes links to follow CL Talk on all the major podcast providers.