Oct 16, 2025 in Lettres du président, Nouvelles by DIACC

Letter from our President

In an era when identity fraud is evolving rapidly, our collective efforts to defend the integrity of client-lawyer relationships have never been more vital. Today, I’m proud to reflect on a significant step forward: the launch of the PCTF Legal Professionals Profile Final Recommendation V1.1, the first industry-specific profile under the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF). diacc.ca

This development is more than a technical standard; it’s a symbol of what’s possible when regulators, legal professionals, and technology providers protect clients, preserve trust, and reduce risk on the front lines of legal practice.

Why This Profile Matters

The PCTF Legal Professionals Profile establishes Conformance Criteria for how lawyers and their agents expect services to conduct client identity verification (IDV) in a manner that is auditable and consistent. 

Here’s what it does:

  • Reduces variability and risk by requiring that third-party agents meet minimum assurance criteria when verifying client identity. 
  • Clarifies expectations for service providers, helping them design identity solutions that align with law society requirements, avoid duplication of effort, and reduce uncertainty. 
  • Bridges practice and regulation by creating a pathway supporting compliance, enabling lawyers to rely on trusted, certified identity services rather than reinventing idiosyncratic internal solutions. diacc.ca

In short, this profile turns what was once discretionary or opaque into something auditable, transparent, and scalable.

The Challenge We Face: Rising Fraud, Rapid Change

The timing of this launch is critical. Fraud and identity theft remain persistent threats in Canada’s digital era:

  • In 2023, the police-reported rate of general fraud increased by 12% compared to 2022, despite a decline in incidents of identity fraud and identity theft. Statistics Canada 
  • In 2024 alone, Canadians lost $638 million to fraud. Canada.ca 
  • A 2025 Equifax study found that 48% of Canadians personally know someone who was a victim of identity theft. equifax.ca

These numbers reflect only a fraction of what’s really happening; many victims don’t report fraud, and many attacks go undetected for long periods.

The legal sector: lawyers have fiduciary responsibilities, handle funds, and often deal with clients remotely. The accuracy and trustworthiness of identity verification are crucial to maintaining legal integrity.

A Shifting Regulatory Landscape

Law societies and regulatory bodies are recalibrating in response to shifting norms and evolving risks:

  • Jurisdictions have rescinded the pandemic-era relaxations that allowed remote client verification via video calls alone. diacc.ca
  • The updated Client Identification and Verification (CIV) Rules now require that virtual verification utilize authentication technology capable of confirming the authenticity of government-issued IDs, rather than merely displaying them over video. Law Society of Alberta 
  • The use of third-party agents is now more explicitly permitted, provided the agent complies with the regulatory criteria, allowing lawyers to exercise controlled flexibility in how they operationalize identity checks. Law Society of Alberta | Law Society of British Columbia 

These changes place greater demands on vendors, law firms, and regulators, but also create openings for innovation, standardization, and certainty.

Progress Through Collaboration

What makes the release of the DIACC PCTF Legal Professionals Profile especially meaningful is that it represents progress through collaboration:

  1. Information was sought from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada to assist in creating the Legal Professionals Profile, enabling the tailoring of verification requirements to real-world legal workflows.
  2. Identity technology providers, such as Treefort Technologies, one of the first services to earn PCTF certification under the DIACC program, now have visible, auditable pathways to align with the legal sector’s expectations. Treefort’s early certification signals to lawyers and law societies that robust verification solutions are market-ready. Treeforttech 
  3. Legal professionals and firms now have a more straightforward path to choosing verification services that conform, not just on paper, but in practice. The DIACC Member Services Directory and the Trusted List of certified services are ready reference points. diacc.ca

By stepping into a coordination role, neither vendor nor regulator, DIACC has helped create common ground. Such neutral convening is rare, but essential in domains where trust, regulation, and technology must intersect.

What This Means for Canadian Lawyers on the Front Lines

For lawyers, especially those serving clients remotely or handling high-risk transactions, the implications are real:

  • Less friction in onboarding new clients, because lawyers can confidently outsource identity checks to trusted services.
  • Reduced liability and regulatory risk, because the verification process is auditable and traceable.
  • More consistency in expectations across jurisdictions would reduce the burden of navigating different local rules.
  • Improved client confidence, clients increasingly expect digital convenience without compromising security.

Consider the example of remote identity verification in real estate law. Lawyers like “Jamie” can now verify client identity using vendor services that combine document authentication, facial matching, liveness checks, and risk assessments, without requiring clients to come into the office. diacc.ca

It’s a tangible shift: trust, remote convenience, and compliance can coexist.

The Road Ahead: Opportunities & Challenges

This milestone is a launch point, not a finish line. Here’s what remains:

  • Broad adoption: The value of the Profile grows only when law societies, large firms, small practices, and vendors all adopt it.
  • Ongoing certification rigour: As bad-actor fraud techniques advance (e.g., AI-assisted deepfakes, synthetic identity attacks), the conformance criteria must evolve.
  • Education and support: Many lawyers will require help in selecting, integrating, and monitoring identity verification services.
  • Interoperability across sectors: Legal identity verification must increasingly interoperate with banking, government, and other trust ecosystems.
  • Monitoring outcomes and feedback loops: We need to measure how this framework reduces fraud, speeds onboarding, builds confidence and iterates.

In Gratitude and in Resolve

To everyone who has supported this effort, from regulators to identity solution providers and legal professionals, thank you. This profile is stronger because of your feedback, engagement, and dedication.

Our work is far from done. As fraudsters refine their tactics, we must continue to refine, adapt, and collaborate. That is the spirit of digital trust: not static defence, but evolving resilience.

DIACC remains committed to serving as a neutral, trusted enabler in this journey. We will continue to expand resources, convene stakeholders, monitor real-world outcomes, and raise the bar as threats evolve.

May this milestone mark what we’ve collectively accomplished and catalyze what comes next, a legal sector where client verification is seamless, fraud is harder to commit, and trust is foundational to every digital legal interaction.

Joni Brennan
President, DIACC

Further Reading:

DIACC is Where Digital Trust Means Business

Contact us to be a part of the change you want to see, stay informed about developments in digital trust and identity verification, and learn how you can contribute to discussion drafts or become a member.

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