BarTalk April 2004
Volume 16, Number 2

New Governor – Linda Parsons
Linda Parsons, a senior partner at Davis and Company in Vancouver, has been appointed to the Board of Governors of the Law Foundation.

Governor Parsons earned her law degree from the University of Toronto. She was called to the B.C. bar in 1980. Ms. Parsons practises corporate and commercial law with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, banking law, and health law. She has been active with CLE as an instructor and is a member of the Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity Committee with the B.C. Reproductive Care Society. She is also the Past President of Big Sisters of the B.C. Lower Mainland. The Law Foundation is pleased to welcome Ms. Parsons.

Departing Governors – Wendy Au and Roopchand Seebaran
Governor Wendy Au and Roopchand Seebaran finished their term as Governors of the Law Foundation in March.

Ms. Au was a lay Governor from Vancouver; appointed by the Attorney General in 1998. She is a Community Project Manager with the City Manager’s Office of the City of Vancouver. Ms. Au also serves on the Board and/or Advisory Committees of the Vancouver Foundation, the College of Licensed Practical Nurses, and the Asian Society for the Intervention of AIDS. During her tenure, Ms. Au served on the Diversity Committee, Policy and Planning Committee and the New Grants Committee.

Mr. Seebaran was a Professor at the School of Social Work, UBC until his recent retirement. Prior to joining the faculty, he spent a number of years in direct practice as a Social Worker and Community Development Worker in agencies in B.C. and Manitoba. He also served on the Multiculturalism Committee of the Law Society and recently chaired the B.C. Council on Multiculturalism. During his tenure, Mr. Seebaran served on the Finance and Administration Committee, the Bursary, Scholarship and Fellowship Committee, the Policy and Planning Committee, the New Grants Committee and was the Chair of the Diversity Committee.

We all share a debt of gratitude to Governor Seebaran and Governor Au for their contributions to the Foundation.

2004 Projects Initiative
We are pleased to announce that we have received nearly 100 letters of intent for the 2004 Project Initiative and the Aboriginal Women and Children’s Justice Issues Project Initiative. The Foundations New Grants Committee will be making recommendations to the Board shortly about projects to be invited to submit full applications for funding. The Law Foundation’s Board of Governors will adjudicate project grants at their meeting on June 26, 2004.

Diversity Profile
The Law Foundation has recently published an updated Diversity Profile which includes 2001 Census data as well as 1996 comparative data about the people of B.C.

The Profile includes information on areas identified in the Law Foundation working definition of Diversity, which is: “Diversity includes age, different abilities, socio-economic level, education, ethnicity, language, family gender, marital/relationship status, race, religion, work experience, geographic size and location, and sexual orientation.”

Anyone interested in more information or in receiving a copy of the profile should contact Veenu Saini at vsaini@tlfbc.org.

The Law Foundation’s Mission Statement: “To use our income for the benefit of the public of the province of B.C. by supporting programs which advance and promote the rule of law and a just society. The Law Foundation recognizes the diversity of the population of B.C. and endeavors to be responsive to the diverse public of B.C. in its workforce, Board and grant making.”

This article was published in the April 2004 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2004, all rights reserved.