Real advice.
Real privilege.

Counsel is Binder’s legal advice service. When you refer a matter to Counsel, a licensed Alberta barrister and solicitor considers the question and responds with a written memo — scoped to the question asked, informed by what’s already in your own Record. Counsel is not a chatbot, not a legal research tool, and not a lookup service. It is qualified legal advice from a real lawyer, delivered through Binder itself.

Yes. Counsel is supervised by a licensed, insured Alberta barrister and solicitor. The moment you refer a matter to Counsel, a solicitor-client relationship is established — the same relationship you would have with any lawyer. The memo you receive is a lawyer’s considered advice on the question you asked. Nothing about the advice being delivered through a platform changes its character as legal advice.

Solicitor-client privilege is a legal protection that shields confidential communications between a client and their lawyer from disclosure in litigation, regulatory proceedings, and investigations. In Counsel’s case, privilege attaches from the moment you refer the matter — your first message in. This is not automatic with every legal service. It requires a genuine solicitor-client relationship with a licensed lawyer, which Counsel establishes by design. What it means in practice is that the other side cannot compel you to produce Counsel’s memos, or your communications with Counsel, without your consent.

No. Counsel is advisory only. It considers the question in front of it and gives you a written view. It does not arrange, obtain, file, send, serve, negotiate, or act on your behalf in any forum. Action remains with you — with the benefit of a lawyer’s considered advice in hand. If what you need is representation rather than advice, Counsel will say so, and you will seek that elsewhere.

Counsel works across Canada on a limited, temporary basis, under the mobility framework the Law Society of Alberta has adopted. Two interjurisdictional agreements apply. The National Mobility Agreement (NMA) governs temporary practice between Alberta and the other common-law provinces — British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, and Prince Edward Island — and permits a lawyer in good standing to provide legal services in another NMA jurisdiction for up to 100 days per calendar year without an inter-jurisdictional practice permit. The Interjurisdictional Practice Protocol (IJP) governs temporary practice involving Quebec, and permits up to 10 legal matters for no more than 20 days within any 12-month period. In each case, the visiting lawyer remains subject to the rules of the host law society. That framework is what allows Counsel — supervised by a licensed Alberta barrister and solicitor — to advise clients elsewhere in Canada on a limited-scope, temporary basis. For matters that require substantive local representation, court appearances, filings, or an ongoing presence in another province, Counsel will say so and recommend you retain locally licensed counsel for that work. The agreements and their scope are published by the Law Society of Alberta.

The qualification is the same — a licensed, insured Alberta barrister and solicitor, bound by the same professional obligations. The delivery is different. Counsel comes to you in writing, on the matter in front of it, inside Binder where your Record already lives. There is no intake call, no new retainer file, no client-onboarding friction. The first memo attaches privilege and establishes the relationship. For matters where a written considered view is what you need, Counsel is faster, cleaner, and less expensive than a conventional retainer. For matters that require advocacy, court appearances, or filings, Counsel will say so — and you will retain outside counsel for that work.