This year’s winner of the CBA Young Lawyers Pro Bono Award is Ranjan K. Agarwal, a partner with Bennett Jones in Toronto.
Recognized by Canadian Lawyer Magazine in 2016 as one of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Young Lawyers, and singled out by Lexpert magazine and Benchmark Litigation as a future star in the profession, Agarwal has a litigation practice focusing on class action, commercial, constitutional and employment disputes, and in addition to that he is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto.
But it appears that his heart might be in pro bono work, putting in countless hours on some of Canada’s most high-profile public interest litigation, as well as working on cases that will never make the headlines.
“Ranjan not only does pro bono, work, but he is an evangelist for others to do pro bono work,” says a letter nominating him for the award. “Ranjan is also a thought leader when it comes to a lawyer's duty to advance the cause of access to justice: he actively distinguishes between public interest pro bono litigation and ‘on the ground’ access to justice work that can and does impact people's daily lives.”
Agarwal is also an innovator in the pro bono field, developing programs that help self-represented litigants navigate the system, and the cases he has litigated have played a role in developing the law around pro bono services.
Agarwal has donated the $500 Pro Bono Award prize to Pro Bono Ontario, and has made a matching donation.