Professors and students at Osgoode Hall Law School will benefit from a new national research fellowship program established by the legal firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. The research fellowships were announced on Feb. 25 by Sean Weir, national managing partner of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.
Left: The foyer of Osgoode Hall Law School
The firm has established a $1 million national research fellowship program to support legal research in Canada over the next five years. BLG Research Fellowships will be awarded to law students at fourteen law schools across the country as they undertake specific legal research initiatives under the direction of prominent faculty members.
The BLG Research Fellowships will allow three Osgoode professors, and their student assistants, to pursue exciting research projects. Professor Poonam Puri will study Canadian corporate governance in the context of global capital markets. In particular, she will analyze important issues in relation to international competition for capital raising, international convergence of corporate governance and securities rules, and loss of Canadian regulatory autonomy and independence.
Professors Mary Condon and Lisa Philipps will examine emerging interdisciplinary concepts of economic citizenship and democracy and will apply them to two key areas of financial law and policy, namely government budgets and the formation of fiscal policy, and the governance and regulation of mutual funds.
A total of 20 grants worth $10,000 each year will be awarded to law students who have completed their first year. Fellowship recipients will be chosen by the individual law schools based upon their academic achievements.
Right: Norman Letalik
“The Fellowships represent BLG’s commitment to legal research in Canada and to academic freedom to undertake necessary research,” explained Norm Letalik, managing director of professional excellence at BLG. “We believe that legal research in Canada is under funded and BLG would like to do its part to support such research.”
“This million dollar program ranks amongst the largest gifts that have been made to Canadian legal education by any Canadian law firm,” explained Patrick Monahan, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School. “This is a tribute to BLG’s commitment to promoting excellence in Canadian legal research and will make a great difference to our faculty and students.”
Left: Patrick Monahan