Call for OBA Foundation fellowship applications

The Ontario Bar Association (OBA) Foundation is currently accepting applications for two fellowships for the 2016-17 term, says Toronto business lawyer and OBA Foundation Trustee Anton Katz.

In addition to his trustee work with the OBA Foundation, Katz is the lead administrator of the fellowship program, which includes the OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Research and the OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies.

Established in 1987, the OBA Foundation is the charitable arm of the OBA and works to promote legal education and advance innovative research with the goal of improving the justice system.

The purpose of the fellowships, Katz says, is to:

• encourage scholarship in the academic discipline of legal ethics and professionalism in Canadian universities and colleges;
• continue the development of Canadian materials on legal ethics and professionalism in the practice of law;
• promulgate the principles of professionalism to the practicing bar at continuing education conferences; and
• commission keynote speakers for continuing education conferences on legalethics and professionalism.

“As the terms indicate, the Fellowship in Research is open to full-time faculty teaching at a Canadian university or college, while the Fellowship in Studies is open to all OBA members who do not otherwise qualify for the fellowship open to full-time faculty,” Katz says.

The term of each fellowship runs from September 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.

Katz encourages those who are eligible and interested to review the fellowship criteria and get their applications in before the July 4, 2016 deadline.

“We have a meeting at the end of July to review the applications as a committee, where we discuss and debate the summaries of the proposed papers,” he tells AdvocateDaily.com. “We will select a winner in each category and plan to announce the winners in early August.”

The fellowship program is just one of the fantastic initiatives of the OBA Foundation, says Katz, who has been a trustee since April 2014.

“I’m part of the OBA Council, and through that work you receive invitations to join various committees. I received an email which noted there were a couple of vacancies on the OBA Foundation and I was invited to submit a CV,” he says.

“I was selected as one of the trustees to come on board. It’s something that I’ve been doing for a couple of years now. I think it’s a great cause and I fully support the objectives of the Foundation,” Katz says.

“I’ve also enjoyed contributing to the OBA Foundation — it allows me to give back to the OBA and to the profession at large,” he adds.