At its annual conference in Windsor on October 26, 2019, CALE/ACEJ President Amy Salyzyn presented two important awards.

The first award is the Best Paper Award, which recognizes an outstanding paper written by an emerging scholar in the field of legal ethics. The winner was Jennifer Leitch, an adjunct professor at both Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto, for her paper entitled “A Less Private Practice: Government Lawyers and Legal Ethics”. Looking at a specific case study (the St. Anne’s residential schools settlement adjudication) the paper argues that it is inadequate in many respects to treat government lawyers as identical or highly similar to lawyers in private practice under the rules of professional conduct.

The second award is the Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes sustained accomplishments in the field of legal ethics and professionalism. The winner was Allan Hutchinson, professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Allan has been active as a teacher, scholar and mentor in the field for over 25 years, making him one of the “modern pioneers” of the subject in Canada. He is one of the creators of the first-year ethics course at Osgoode, which he continues to teach. In his research his perspective has been frequently critical but always in the spirit of constructive engagement, challenging the legal profession to live up to its own high expectations. All of his nominators praised his generous support, guidance and advice to other scholars.

Congratulations to Jennifer and Allan!

Nominations for the 2020 awards are expected to open in May 2020.