Projects addressing diversity and access-to-justice issues received the bulk of the nearly $200,000 awarded in Law for the Future Fund grants this year.
The LFFF was established in 1984 to provide financial support for research projects of national interest. To date it has funded more than 175 innovative projects and given out more than $3 million in assistance.
Here’s a look at some of the projects which received funding this year:
1. Compensation survey for partners in law firms with more than 50 lawyers, $38,400
This survey, an initiative of the CBA’s Women Lawyers Forum, will provide new information about law firm partner compensation by gender and identify some of the criteria that may affect compensation and contribute to gender differences in compensation.
2. National self-represented litigants project, 29,750
This project, run by the University of Windsor Faculty of Law, will overhaul existing plain-language primers available to self-represented litigants, making them more accessible and visually engaging.
3. Connecting inmates or former inmates with information, training, 27,000
This project by Community Legal Education Ontario aims to provide inmates and former inmates with legal information or related life-skills training that can help them understand their rights and take steps to address their legal problems.
4. Advance-care planning laws and processes, $22,900
The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association plans to use this money to develop a toolkit to increase Canadians’ legal literacy surrounding advance-care planning in their jurisdictions.
5. Access to legal justice for trafficked non-citizens, $18,000
The Canadian Council for Refugees plans to use this money use this money for both training sessions targeted to immigration and refugee lawyers, including a legal case-study hack, as well as for the development of educational tools for immigration lawyers and other actors, such as NGOs, who deal with trafficking victims.
6. Protecting watersheds: Moving from policy to legislation, $15,500
The Conservation Council of New Brunswick project will provide an overview of the impact of current watershed management plans, outline the social and environmental benefits of making watershed plans legally enforceable, and discuss means for giving watershed plans legislative effect.
7. Workplace sexual harassment: Assessing the effectiveness of human rights law, $15,142
This project by the Peter A. Allard School of Law at UBC will carry out a detailed analysis of sexual harassment case law at provincial human rights tribunals, examining the interpretation and application of the law with regard to identifying sexually harassing conduct, requiring complainants to establish that the conduct was unwelcome, and remedies awarded.
8. Blockchain, smart contracts and the future of contracts under Canadian law, $15,112
This University of Ottawa project will explore who law firms and lawyers can leverage smart contracts to provide services and how smart contracts interface with contract law.
9. Strong governance and land-use management on Tsilhqot’in Title Lands, $15,000
The Ecojustice Canada Society project will work with the Tsilhqot’in community to produce: options for expressing Tsilhqot’in law and policy to meet land and resource management objectives; a strategy for implementing this law and policy; strategies for integrating provincial, federal and Tsilhqot’in law; and ongoing legal and strategic advice to Tsihqot’in leadership.
For more information about the fund, or if you have a project that needs funding and might be eligible to receive a grant, please check out the LFFF website for information about applying. The deadline for applications each year is May 1.
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