Early Degree Conferral Process for Students in the Faculty of Law
JD Students may request early conferral of the JD degree prior to the Spring Convocation date if degree requirements were completed in the previous fall term and if there is a valid and pressing reason to seek the early conferral as an exception to the usual conferral process.
Steps:
Before December 5: Send a request seeking early conferral of the JD degree to Margie Gordon, Director, Student and Academic Services. Margie will notify the LSO about your anticipated early conferral on December 6. In the first week of January, Margie will send a supporting letter to the Registrar's Office confirming completion of degree requirements and the underlying reason for the request. Degree conferrals will take place shortly after grades are released to transcripts on January 12 (standing date). Students will receive an email from the Registrar's Office when their degree has been conferred.
Note: This timeline will be adjusted for students studying on exchange. Degree confirmation will take place after fall term grades have been received from the host university.
- December 1: Complete the application to graduate in SOLUS. Your record will be updated to reflect the early conferral date once your request has been processed in January.
- The Barrister's examination of the Law Society of Ontario is scheduled for February 12, 2026; the Solicitor’s examination is February 25, 2026. The deadline to register is January 6 for Barrister's and January 20 for Solicitor's. It will not be possible to confer your degree before the January 6 deadline. Therefore, we will send a letter in lieu to the LSO.
- If you have debts owing to the University you will need to request an exemption by emailing transcpt@queensu.ca referring to the Senate Policy on Student Debtors, so that a transcript showing the degree conferral may be released to the LSO, notwithstanding the debt.
- After the degree conferred ruling has been added to your official academic record:
- Please enter your official transcript order via SOLUS. Select 'immediate processing', and 'digital’. Enter the email address of the law society (for Ontario: transcripts@lso.ca). You may view your order in SOLUS where you will see the comment added of when the transcript was emailed via secure PDF.
- Ensure that your mailing address is updated in SOLUS. Your diploma parchment will be mailed to that address. If you attend Convocation in the spring you will be presented with a diploma tube, however it will be empty as you should have received your diploma by mail months earlier.