The Board of Governors of the Law Foundation of B.C. met on November 25, 2006 and approved funding for a number of continuing programs and projects.

Chair Warren Wilson, QC is pleased to announce that funding totalling $4,202,120 was approved for the following 17 continuing programs:

$3,272,500, LEGAL SERVICES SOCIETY, Operating Grant

$136,900, B.C. COALITION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, Advocacy Access Program

$166,920, GREATER VANCOUVER LAW STUDENTS’ LEGAL ADVICE SOCIETY, Operating Grant

$103,300, DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION, Advocacy Services Program

$84,600, LAW FOUNDATION LAY ADVOCACY EDUCATION AND TRAINING FUND, Education and Training for Law Foundation-funded lay advocates

$65,500, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, FACULTY OF LAW, First Nations Clinical Program

$65,000, LAW SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANLII Virtual Law Library

$60,800, LAW COURTS EDUCATION SOCIETY, NORTHERN PUBLIC LEGAL EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITIES

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, FACULTY OF LAW
$60,000 Graduate Fellowships
$29,000 Undergraduate Scholarships
$25,000 Project Grants
$13,500 Entrance Awards

UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA, FACULTY OF LAW
$30,000 Graduate Scholarship Program
$29,000 Entrance and Renewal Scholarships
$25,000 Project Grants

$20,800, B.C. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND PRIVACY ASSOCIATION, Law Reform/Public Legal Education Program

$14,300, DEBATE AND SPEECH ASSOCIATION OF B.C., Law Foundation Cup Debates

Funding totalling $390,000 was approved for the following four new one-time project grants:

$150,000, THE LEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Research and Writing a History of the B.C. Court of Appeal

$100,000, GREATER VANCOUVER LAW STUDENTS’ LEGAL ADVICE SOCIETY, Public Interest Articling Fellowship

$90,000, WESTERN CANADA SOCIETY TO ACCESS JUSTICE, Transitional Grant

$50,000, COMMUNITY LEGAL ASSISTANCE SOCIETY, Public Interest Articling Fellowship

Funding totalling $337,775 was approved for the following three new project grants under the Child Welfare Fund Initiative: Focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution and Aboriginal Children:

$192,775, INSTITUTE FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA, Family Group Conference Research Project

$80,000, OKANAGAN NATION ALLIANCE, Mobile Outreach Family Group Conferencing Project

$65,000, INTERIOR MÉTIS CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES SOCIETY, Alternate Dispute Resolution Project

For full details of the programs and projects that received funding, please visit the Law Foundation of British Columbia website at www.lawfoundationbc.org.

Notice of New Agreement - Bank of Montreal

Law Foundation Chair, Warren Wilson QC, commends the Bank of Montreal for its commitment to paying a competitive rate of return on lawyers’ pooled trust accounts. Recognizing the overall impact of protracted low interest rates on the Law Foundation’s revenues, a new interest rate agreement was recently concluded.

Thanks go to Marie Noel, Commercial Banking and Area Manager, Cash Management, for the leadership shown in making this new agreement possible.

Increased revenues enable the Law Foundation to fund programs that make the justice system accessible to British Columbians, particularly those people who have the greatest access problems as a result of their economic, social, physical or mental special needs. The funded programs include professional legal education, public legal education, law reform, legal research, legal aid and law libraries.

The Canadian Bar Association (B.C. Branch), the Law Foundation, and the Law Society encourage lawyers to consider which financial institutions provide the best support to the Law Foundation when deciding where to place their trust accounts.

This article was published in the February 2007 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2007, all rights reserved.