FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2010

NIAGARA – Katharine Saunders of Vancouver has been selected the winner of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) 2010 Young Lawyers Pro Bono Award for outstanding legal services benefiting the community.

“Kate navigated uncharted territory when helping to create a firm-wide pro bono policy for her previous employer of four years, Davis LLP in Calgary,” says Marie-Hélène Fandrich, Chair of the Young Lawyers-CBA. “Her hard work involved bringing innovative ideas to the table, reviewing model pro bono policies, and ultimately drafting a comprehensive national pro bono policy for the firm. A key component of the new policy credits up to 50 hours annually to associates who volunteer to do pro bono work.”

Kate’s own pro bono contributions have been many times the fifty hour credit. She has contributed to the Alex Pathways to Housing Project, a Canadian initiative for ending chronic homelessness, where she addressed a plethora of issues that surround the professionals running the project and their constituents.

The Alex Pathways to Housing Project provides 24/7 health and wellness for at risk individuals with chronic issues such as drug addiction or mental disorders. A key element is providing housing, coupled with a broad range of health, psychiatric, social and legal services. The program is growing and achieving a success rate of 85% for those who had been habitualized to the streets for an average of more than eight years.

She practises litigation, health law, and privacy law compliance, and has been active in the CBA’s Privacy Law Section. Ms. Saunders received her LL.B. from the University of British Columbia in 2006. She was called to the British Columbia Bar in 2007, and the Alberta Bar in 2009. Having recently moved from Calgary to her native British Columbia, Ms. Saunders is currently employed with Bull Housser & Tupper LLP in Vancouver.

The CBA Young Lawyers Pro Bono Award recognizes outstanding pro bono publico ("for the public good") legal services to the community by a Canadian lawyer who is younger than 40 years old, or who has been in practice for less than 10 years. It takes the form of a $500 cash prize.

The award will be presented to Ms. Saunders at the Closing Luncheon of the 2010 Canadian Legal Conference and Expo in Niagara, Tuesday, August 17, at 11:45 a.m., at the Sheraton Hotel, Great Room C. The event is open to accredited media. Please contact Hannah Bernstein for accreditation.

The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to support for the rule of law, and improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Hannah Bernstein
The Canadian Bar Association
Aug. 13-17: 905-374-4646
E-mail: hannahb@cba.org