On October 25, 2024, during its annual conference at the Dalhousie University, CALE/ACEJ presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Emeritus Professor John Law. The award is for having demonstrated “sustained accomplishments in the field of legal ethics and professionalism”.

John was a professor at the University of Alberta for many years and was appointed as the Thomas Lawlor Professor of Legal Ethics in 2013. In the 1980s and 1990s he played a leading role in the creation of the Alberta Code of Professional Conduct, which was highly influential across Canada due to the guidance it provided.

On October 20, 2023, during the annual conference at the University of Victoria, CALE/ACEJ presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Senator Brent Cotter. The award is for having demonstrated “sustained accomplishments in the field of legal ethics and professionalism”.

Brent is one of the best-known and best-regarded scholars of legal ethics in Canada.  Throughout his career as a law professor, Brent has taught and published in the area of legal ethics.  Indeed, he is one of very few professors who specialized in legal ethics prior to 2000.  He played a fundamental role in increasing the profile of the field in Canadian law schools and legal education and in assisting newer colleagues in developing their own expertise in the field.