Davis LLP and Irwin Davis make a $1 million donation to UBC
by Doug Buchanan, QC

In December 2007, Davis LLP and Irwin Davis, grandson of the firm’s founder Edward Pease Davis K.C., announced a $1 million donation to the new UBC Faculty of Law building.

From time to time circumstances arise which force a law firm to reflect on matters outside of the day-to-day business of the practice of law. The need for the UBC law school was one of those circumstances.

It is easy to forget how truly fortunate we are to be in a profession like law, working in an environment like the Davis firm and living in a country like Canada.

We recently had a book published on the history of the firm which gave the current generation of Davis lawyers some insight into the firm’s roots.

Since its inception in 1892 in Vancouver, the Davis firm has not only been a leader in the legal profession, but also a leader in the community. The firm has a history of “doing its duty” and “doing the right thing” regardless of risk, popular opinion and financial gain. Many Davis lawyers fought for Canada in both World Wars. E.P. Davis lost his son in WWI and seven Davis lawyers went to fight in WWII with five not coming home. After WWII, when the Japanese had few friends, the firm defended the Japanese Canadian citizens from the federal government’s attempts to deport them, and then later sued the federal government for recovery of property confiscated when the Japanese Canadian citizens were sent to the interior camps.

The firm later took on the cause of Canada’s aboriginal people and was successful at the Supreme Court of Canada in two landmark cases, the Guerin case and the Sparrow case, which first established and later expanded the principle that the Crown has a fiduciary duty to aboriginal people.

Our lawyers have a tradition of public and community service from holding high political office, to serving in the courts, to serving in other positions such as Chancellor of UBC and Chief Treaty Commissioner for the Province.

It is clear that our profession and community need a new law school. Helping this happen is nothing more than being true to the firm’s tradition and simply doing the right thing.

The new law building, set for completion in late 2010, will be a combination of classrooms and lecture halls and will highlight a new UBC Law Library designed to meet the needs of future generations of law students and legal professionals. In total, the facility will provide space for more than 50 faculty members, 600 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students.

In commemoration of Davis’ contribution to the project, the profession and the community, the building will also house a state-of-the-art student lounge in the Davis name.

Our relationship with UBC dates back many decades. And while UBC Law has certainly built a reputation for consistent excellence, producing some of the country’s most outstanding leaders, Davis hopes this donation will ensure future generations of law students will continue to prosper in a broad range of disciplines with access to a world-class facility.

Doug Buchanan, QC, Former National Managing Partner of Davis LLP

This article was published in the April 2008 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2008, all rights reserved.