Energy - Innovation - Impact

Dear friends,

More than 40 years ago, a group of community leaders began a campaign for a law school that Calgary could call its own. Their efforts paid off, and in the Fall of 1976, the Faculty of Law opened its doors to the first class of students. Since then, we have striven to live up to the ideals that our founders had for us. Their dedication, drive and passion remain at the core of our ethos as we continue to strive to be one of the leading law schools in Canada.

As such, it is with great pleasure that we introduce to you Energy — Innovation — Impact, our new strategic plan. This plan builds on the success of our 2010-2015 strategic plan, and it sets a course for the Faculty of Law as a national leader in legal research and innovation in legal education.

Many of you were contributors to the successes we have seen over the past five years. We launched the Calgary Curriculum, which has changed the way we teach the law and prepare students — and which now represents the model that other schools are emulating. As we often say, our ambition is to prepare students for the profession they will be joining, not the one we joined. The Calgary Curriculum is the embodiment of that ambition. The International Energy Lawyers Program, which we operate in partnership with the University of Houston Law Center, continues to go from strength to strength. We opened the Public Interest Law Clinic, which along with Student Legal Assistance and the Tax Court Assistance Project is helping to make justice more accessible to some of our province’s most vulnerable and voiceless communities. Through our Business Venture Clinic, we are connecting students with entrepreneurs and start-ups. At the same time, we will work with Indigenous communities to develop responses to the report of the Truth and Reconciliation that will make a real and positive contribution to the reconciliation process. We will soon be launching the Family Law Incubator, which will revolutionize the way in which the next generation of family lawyers are trained. At the same time, we have expanded our research and teaching to provide the best legal educational opportunities to our students, and to continue to have an impact on the issues that affect the world around us, locally, nationally, and internationally.

Energy — Innovation — Impact will carry this momentum of accomplishment through the next five years. It contains three broad planks:

1. We will continue to develop our global reach in business, energy, resources and environmental law.
2. We will increase our drive for innovation for student experience and legal education.
3. We will continue to produce high-quality and high-impact research for community impact.

The success of Energy — Innovation — Impact will rely on strong support from our community. At the university level, we are fortunate to have a leadership team that is fully supportive of our goals. We have legal and business communities that are involved in, and that care deeply about, the success of the law school. We have faculty who are among the finest legal scholars in the nation, whose work is cited by academics, judges and governments around the world. Our staff is professional and dedicated to making our school welcoming to everyone. And our students and alumni are making positive impacts on the community every day.

The Faculty of Law has the Energy for Innovation and Impact, at a university that lives in one of Canada’s most dynamic and enterprising cities. We are facing the future head on, and making our mark on the next 40 years of legal education. Won’t you join us?

Semper sursum!

Ian Holloway, PC, QC
Professor and Dean of Law