Akitsiraq Law School is a legal education program designed to increase the number of lawyers in Nunavut and the Canadian Arctic, including a program leading to a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B.) in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The Law School has no permanent classrooms, employees or assets, and the admissions process has no formal education requirements. The Akitsiraq Law School focuses on the practical abilities of potential students based on life experience and work history. The program is strongly supported by legal professionals and by members of the Nunavut Judiciary through in-kind and volunteer services, developing effective programs and bringing legal resources from across Canada to teach each Akitsiraq cohort. Akitsiraq programs have provided legal training to residents of Nunavut and the surrounding Arctic region, leading to professional and para-professional legal qualifications. The Akitsiraq Law School Society is a not-for-profit organization incorporated in Nunavut. Its board of directors and membership are drawn from the Nunavut judiciary, legal profession and supporting members of the public, along with nominees of supporting agencies. The cohort-based, culture-enhancing, learning-in-Nunavut format of the Akitsiraq Law Program has frequently been promoted as a prototype for training in other professions including accounting and education administration. History Despite the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement specifying that employment in the newly created Nunavut should be representative of the territory's demographics, people of Inuit descent were absent from the legal field. In the mid-1990s, six Inuit law students who had gone to the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law had all dropped out, isolated and short of money so far south. A program to train law students in the north gained support. A University of Victoria student working in Iqaluit on a co-op program, persuaded her school join Akitsiraq as its law school partner. Critics opposed spending a million dollars per year on eleven law students when the territory was also short on other professionals such as doctors and teachers. Critics also questioned if southern legal culture would disrupt cultural harmony in the north and if the graduates would even stay in the north. Recruitment was done via newspaper and radio ads, drawing 108 applications. Applicants did not have to write the Law School Admission Test, deemed unsuitable for screening this pool of applicants. Instead the admissions committee tested each candidate to assess their competence and work history. Each successful applicant was given an allowance of $50,000 from sponsors; in return the students would