Call for Nominations: CALE/ACEJ Awards

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Nominations are once again open for CALE/ACEJ’s two annual awards, with a due date of August 7, 2026.

The two awards are:

  • the CALE/ACEJ Best Paper Award, which recognizes the best legal ethics and professionalism paper by an emerging scholar; and
  • the CALE/ACEJ Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes sustained accomplishments in legal ethics and professionalism.

Information about the awards, including previous winners and the awards’ terms, is available at https://ethicsincanada.com/cale-awards/. This year’s selection committee is Amy Salyzyn (chair), Andrew Bernstein and Pooja Parmar, and the awards will be presented during CALE/ACEJ’s next annual conference on October 22-24, 2026.

For Best Paper nominations, submit an anonymized version of the paper to basil.alexander@torontomu.ca (can be your or someone else’s paper) by August 7, 2026. While we cannot ensure full blind review given the nature and size of the community, we will do the best we can.

For Lifetime Achievement nominations, complete and submit the nomination form (available on request from Basil Alexander, CALE/ACEJ’s Corporate Secretary) and the required supporting letter(s) to basil.alexander@torontomu.ca by August 7, 2026. The form and the supporting letter(s) may be submitted separately.

If you have questions about the awards, please contact Basil Alexander.

Travel Grants for CALE/ACEJ 2026 Conference

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As a result of assigned royalties from Woolley, Devlin & Cotter, Lawyers’ Ethics and Professional Regulation, 4th ed (2021), CALE/ACEJ is pleased to continue the conference travel grant program that began in 2023. CALE/ACEJ thanks those who made this program possible.

Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the field of legal ethics and professionalism are eligible to apply for a travel grant towards the cost of attending the next annual CALE/ACEJ conference on October 22-24, 2026 hosted by the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. To qualify, an applicant must either be: (i) enrolled or based at a Canadian university; or (ii) a Canadian enrolled or based at a foreign university.

Applications are due by July 17, 2026 via email to Pooja Parmar, CALE/ACEJ’s Vice-President, at parmar@uvic.ca. Applicants must provide sufficient information to establish their eligibility and explain their financial need for the travel grant, including a travel budget. The Vice-President and the Treasurer will assess received applications by July 31, 2026.

Each recipient may receive a maximum of $500 per year, and the program has a cumulative maximum budget of $2000 per year. To receive their grant, each recipient must submit receipts for travel or accommodation expenses to the Treasurer totaling at least the amount awarded, and CALE/ACEJ will then accordingly pay the recipient during or after the conference.

Call for Topic/Paper Proposals – CALE/ACEJ 2026 Conference: Guidance and Accountability Towards a More Just Society

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The Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University is pleased to host the next annual CALE/ACEJ conference in 2026. We look forward to welcoming you in person on October 22-24, 2026, in Toronto, Ontario.

We invite presentation proposals on topics or papers related to: 1) research and scholarship about legal ethics and professionalism, which includes professional and judicial regulation; and 2) teaching legal ethics and professionalism.

We welcome proposals from junior scholars (including graduate students) and from those working on legal ethics outside the academy. The final presentation format will likely be 15-20 minutes plus a Q&A. You are welcome to present a work in progress.

The TMU Law Review is also hoping to publish a special issue of papers presented at this conference. If you think you might be interested and will have a draft paper ready in advance of the conference, please let us know. Revised papers would then be due 2.5-3 months after the conference.

We look forward to receiving your proposal by June 30, 2026, via e-mail.

For research-related proposals and questions, please email both:

For teaching-related proposals and questions, please e-mail:

Please include in your submission:

  • your name (and the names of your co-presenters, if applicable)
  • your bio(s) (100 words max / each)
  • presentation title
  • an abstract (200 words max)
  • whether you are interested in submitting your paper for peer-review and publication by the TMU Law Review.

Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are also encouraged to apply for the CALE/ACEJ Travel Grant to attend the conference. More information about the Travel Grant program can be found at https://ethicsincanada.com/?p=2862.

Response to FLSC Consultation on Draft Amendments to the Duty to Report

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The Standing Committee on the Model Code of Professional Conduct of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada has requested feedback on its proposal for draft Model Code amendments to the duty to report (Rule 7.1-3; further information available here). CALE/ACEJ has responded to this request per the letter below.

CALE_ACEJ Submission to FLSC re Duty to Consult Dec 2025Download

Response to LSO Consultation About Piloting Pro Bono as an Eligible CPD Activity

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The Access to Justice Committee of the Law Society of Ontario has requested feedback on its proposal for a three-year pilot project to count eligible pro bono towards CPD (further information available here). CALE/ACEJ has responded to this request per the letter below.

CALE Submission to LSO re Pro Bono and CPD – 2025.11.26Download

Conference Recap 2025

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The annual conference was held on October 23-25, 2025 at the Fort Garry Hotel, organized by the Faculty of Law of the University of Manitoba. Gillian MacNeil was the conference coordinator. She and her colleagues did a terrific job and made all attendees very welcome.

The conference was generously supported by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the Manitoba Law Foundation, the Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, the Law Society of Manitoba and the University of Manitoba.

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Annual Meeting 2025

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On October 25, 2025, CALE/ACEJ held its annual meeting of members at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In his report, President Stephen Pitel outlined CALE/ACEJ’s activities over the past year, including: continuing its Travel Grant Program to support graduate students and post-doctoral fellows attending the conference; partnering with the CBA and FLSC for the 2025 Ethics Forum; and submissions to the Equity and Indigenous Affairs Committee of the Law Society of Ontario about a proposed Indigenous Cultural Training Course.

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2025 Conference Registration Open

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Thanks to conference coordinator Gillian MacNeil and her team, you can now register for the upcoming CALE/ACEJ conference to be hosted by the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg on October 23-25, 2025.

Register here.

The conference will take place at the Fort Garry Hotel in downtown Winnipeg. At the bottom of the conference page, you will find a link to the hotel website that will allow you to book one of the rooms in our block (conference room rate is $209 per night). Book by September 22, 2025 to obtain the conference rate.

As usual, there will be an informal dinner on Thursday, October 23, 2025 so do plan to arrive so as to be able to attend. The conference program will be shared in advance of the start of the conference. The conference typically concludes in the early afternoon on the Saturday.