PBSC recently reported that we earned a 2011 Lexpert Zenith Award for the Tax Court of Canada Advocacy Project we launched with Fraser Milner Casgrain.  Since that time, we’ve received word that one of our chapters and two of our key supporters have also been honoured for their work with PBSC.  This got us thinking it would be nice to do a story on the many awards we – and our partners – have earned over the last few years.  Here’s the complete list:

• PBSC and FMC earned a 2011 Lexpert Zenith Award for our Tax Court of Canada Advocacy Project.  The project was the highest-level winner in the“Law Firm Contribution to Legal Education” category. PBSC and FMC developed the project at the suggestion of the Chief Justice of the Tax Court.
• PBSC lawyer supervisor Charmaine Panko earned a 2011 Lexpert Zenith Award as “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year”, for her work with children and for her supervision of students at the PBSC – University of Saskatchewan chapter.  Ms. Panko is an associate in Miller Thomson’s Saskatoon office.
• Université Laval law students awarded their 2011 Grand Maillet Award for Innovative Student Program to the PBSC-Laval chapter, which officially launched in January of 2011 and quickly became one of the most sought-after extra-curricular programs at the law school.
• Pro Bono Law Alberta ED Gillian Marriott has just earned the 2011 Women in Law Leadership Award, presented by Alberta’s Association of Women Lawyers, for helping PBSC to provide educational opportunities to hundreds of law students entering the profession, in Alberta and beyond.  PBSC, along with Bruce Churchill-Smith, Chair of Pro Bono Law Alberta and a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais, nominated Ms. Marriott for the award.
• For the last three years running, University of Toronto Arbor Awards have gone to PBSC supporters for their outstanding support of our  program, including Joseph Colangelo (2009), for working with PBSC to start the HPARB Advocacy Project, Gordon Baird (2010), a partner at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Toronto, for his tremendous support of PBSC as Chair of his Firm’s Pro Bono Committee, and most recently David Spiro (2011), a partner at Fraser Milner Casgrain, for his efforts to help found the PBSC Tax Court of Canada Advocacy Project.
• The University of Waterloo awarded its 2011 Young Alumni Award to former PBSC-McGill Program Coordinator Tanya De Mello, for her public service, and particularly for her work to expand and strengthen the PBSC chapter at McGill University.
• The 2010 Canadian Pro Bono Awards selected PBSC’s Family Law Project, which we operate in nine law schools and five provinces in Canada, as the winner of its National Pro Bono Program Award.
• The 2010 Lexpert Zenith Awards chose Kathy Moulton, a PBSC Program Coordinator from the University of New Brunswick, as the Platinum winner in the category “Pro Bono by a Law Student”, for creating PBSC’s Family Law Legal Information Project for women survivors of domestic violence in Fredericton.
• The Medico-Legal Society of Toronto awarded PBSC partner Joseph Colangelo the 2010 Medico-Legal Society Award, for helping PBSC found the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (HPARB) Advocacy Project. The award honours members of the Medical, Legal or Scientific community who have made a significant contribution to their profession.