Queen’s Law and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP celebrate 5th research award

Professor Cherie Metcalf, Dean Bill Flanagan and Trisha Simpson, Law '10, at the BLG cocktail reception in the Student Lounge on November 25, 2008.

Professor Cherie Metcalf and Trisha Simpson, Law '10, were joined by students, faculty and lawyers from Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) to celebrate the completion of a $10,000 research award. 

The BLG-sponsored grant allowed Metcalf and Trisha to spend the summer working on a project that examines the influence of constitutional protection for property rights. The project required an examination of economic and legal theory, as well as Canadian-U.S. comparative legal research. This project, which Metcalf described as "extensive and challenging," led to a substantial paper on the subject.

Metcalf presented the paper in October, 2008, at Stanford Law School at the Stanford-Harvard International Junior Faculty Forum, a prestigious conference geared toward identifying and bringing together the next generation of leading legal scholars from across the globe.

At the reception, Metcalf spoke highly of Trisha's work, noting the "near-impossible" requests she made and Trisha's outstanding performance. "A project like this is very difficult to do without a good research assistant," said Metcalf.  "Trisha's help was invaluable."

"The experience was incredible," Trisha said.  "The material was very interesting and it was great working with Professor Metcalf and that BLG encourages this sort of thing to happen.  I'm very grateful to have been given the opportunity."

This is the fifth time since 2004 that BLG has sponsored a research fellowship at Queen's Law.

Next year's award to grow

At the reception, BLG announced it will extend its summer research fellowship and will increase the value of the award from $10,000 to $12,000.  This year's fellowship had marked the end of an initial five-year commitment to sponsor the program.

Trisha Simpson, Law '10; Joanne Silkauskas of BLG; Dean Bill Flanagan, and Halla Elias, Law'00, and Kirk Boyd, Law '97, of BLG.

Joanne Silkauskas, a lawyer and Director of Professional Recruitment at BLG (Ottawa), said the firm has renewed the program until 2013, which amounts to a commitment of $1.2 million. 

"BLG's ongoing financial support for law students and their schools demonstrates its dedication to excellence in the legal profession," said Silkauskas.  "The BLG Research Fellowship program, now valued at more than $2 million over a decade, is one of the largest donations for research at Canadian law schools." 

BLG offers awards to each of the 14 Canadian law schools who participate in the program.  For the next five summers, 20 Canadian law students who have completed their first years will each receive $12,000 to assist a faculty member in a leading-edge research project.

The faculty research project and research assistant are chosen by the participating law schools through internal, competitive processes. 

At the reception, Dean Bill Flanagan thanked BLG for increasing and extending the research fellowship and said, "It demonstrates BLG's wonderful commitment to leadership and legal education."

Queen's students will be able to apply for the 2009 summer research position once the Queen's BLG faculty researcher has been selected.