CREATING AN EXCELLENCE IN LAWYERING PROGRAM TO BE THE CANADIAN BENCHMARK.

GOING GLOBAL WITH RESOURCES, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW.

POSITIONING OUR PROGRAMS AND SKILLS TRAINING AS THE PREMIER IN WESTERN CANADA.

2010–2015

STRATEGIC PLAN

The University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law is Canada’s most ambitious law school of its size, producing graduates who are remarkable for their mix of broad legal education and practical lawyering skills. We are respected worldwide for our specialization in resources, energy and environmental law. Just as Calgary’s entrepreneurial energy companies drive the Canadian economy, so does our law school produce graduates whose foundational learning underpins a robust, creative vision that is helping to shape tomorrow’s legal landscape.

Our small school size means that our graduates benefit from what larger law schools can’t offer; a low student-to-faculty ratio and a network of strong connections that produce powerful lifelong relationships.

And now, we want a stronger relationship with the Calgary legal community.

With the majesty of the Rocky Mountains and the industry of Canada’s booming oil patch minutes away, the University Calgary is ideally situated to be a leader in natural resources, energy and environmental law.

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Calgary Law, University of Calgary

Modern. Intimate. Innovative.

Dear FrienDs,

It’s my sincere delight to introduce you to Energy.Skills. Excellence, our new strategic plan - and through it, to introduce you to today’s University of Calgary Faculty of Law.

Many of you were contributors to the success of our 2004-2009 Strategic Plan. In those five busy years, we renovated our home – Murray Fraser Hall – and we upgraded our technology. It is a source of pride to us all that we now have among the finest facilities of any law school in North America. This has made it possible for us to grow our JD and graduate programs, to expand our research and teaching in the resources, energy and environmental law specialization, and to create a firm foundation for our future. Building on this foundation, Energy.Skills.Excellence will take us into the next half decade as one of Canada’s leading law schools.

A wise person once said that the best way to prepare for the future is to create your own. Our ambition in Energy.Skills.Excellence is to build a future for our law school - a future that embraces our location in Canada’s energy capital, but that also places us at the forefront of legal education throughout the common law world.

Energy.Skills.Excellence contains three broad planks. First, we will continue to enhance our international reputation for excellence in the areas of resources, energy and environmental law. Secondly, our Excellence in Lawyering

program will become the benchmark

against which all other Canadian law

schools judge themselves. And through

the first two, our JD will become

among the highest-regarded ones in

Western Canada.

We have many things going for us as

we begin to implement Energy.Skills.Excellence. At the university level,

we have new leadership that is fully

supportive of our aspirations. The

University of Calgary has adopted its

own strategic plan. Entitled Eyes High, it envisions the University of Calgary

as a global intellectual hub, and it

affirms that by 2016, the year of the

University’s fiftieth anniversary, we will

be one of Canada’s top five research

universities, fully engaged with the

communities we both serve and lead.

In that regard, we are blessed to be

located in Canada’s most dynamic

city. We have strong ties - which

we intend to make even stronger -

with the Calgary legal and business

communities, and we’re beginning

to extend our reach nationally and internationally. Our faculty are among the finest legal scholars in the nation, and their work is cited by academics, judges and governments around the world. Our staff is the epitome of professionalism. And our students continue to be exemplars of the values of leadership and social commitment that have lain at the core of our school’s ethos since our foundation forty-five years ago.

Energy, skills and excellence. Those three words capture the essence of Calgary Law as we stand ready to embrace the future. Why not join us?

Semper sursum!

Ian Holloway, QC Professor and Dean of Law The University of Calgary

FROM

THE

DEA

NOur ambition in Energy.Skills.Excellence is to build a future for

our law school – a future that embraces our location in Canada’s energy capital, but that also places us at the forefront of legal education throughout the common law world.”

- IAN HOLLOWAY

2011PAGE

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Of cOurse, we will cOntinue the day-tO-day business that is Our law schOOl’s backbOne:

• Preparing students for personal success in traditional and non-traditional legal roles

• Engaging in high quality legal research and scholarship

• Undertaking professional and community service in law-related activities.

Our Goals and Mandate. The Faculty of Law will proudly focus on three goals over the next five years.

NATIONALLYTo build a nationally

recognized “Excellence in Lawyering” legal

skills program

INTERNATIONALLYTo sustain our

international reputation for excellence in

resources, energy and environmental law.

LOCALLYTo establish the

Faculty’s JD program as the premier professional law degree program in

Western Canada.

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In simple terms, energy defines the capacity of a physical system to perform work. How well that work is done depends on skill. And all of this takes time and an understanding of where we’ve been as well as where we’re headed. Take a look at the excellence our energy and skills have achieved to date.

1975> Faculty of Law

established

> Founding Dean and Law Librarian appointed

1976> LLB Program commences,

featuring focus on lawyer-ing skills and practicum programs in Business Law, Criminal Justice, Family Law, and Resources Law

> Pioneer skills based LLB course development and instruction

1979> Canadian Institute

of Resources Law established

> Visiting Chair of Natural Resources Law created

1989> Thesis-based LLM Program

in Resources, Energy and Environmental Law established

1993> Murray Fraser Hall

opens

1996> Participation begins in

UofC– Latin American Energy Organization, Energy and Environment Program, delivered in Quito, Ecuador

1999> Joint LLB-MBA (Haskayne

School of Business) and LLB-MEDes (Environmental Design), programs established

2003> 2004-09 Strategic

Plan focuses on Resources, Energy and Environmental Law specialization, expansion of the LLB Program, increased faculty complement, renovation of Murray Fraser Hall, and new graduate programs

> Visiting Chair of Natural Resources Law becomes fulltime permanent

2005-2006> Fundraising for the

2004-09 Strategic Plan produces matchable gifts from 37 donor partners to support Murray Fraser Hall renovation, scholarships and chairs

> External Review Report confirms the Faculty of Law as having “well recognized expertise and considerable renown in the field of natural resources, environment and energy law”

2006-2007> Thesis-based LLM

Program expands from 5 to ten annual admissions

2007> LLB intake increases

from 75 to 100 students

> First PhD students admitted

> Dr. Jack Mintz appointed to the James S. and Barbara J. Palmer Chair in Public Policy

> Course-based LLM commences

2008> LLB curriculum and

program review completed

> Murray Fraser Hall renovation complete

> ABlawg, an online Faculty research initiative, launched

> Thompson Rivers University and University of Calgary Faculty of Law collaborate to establish Canada’s first new law school in more than 30 years

2009> LLB optional curriculum

restructured

2010> Province of Alberta

approved the renaming of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree to that of Juris Doctor (JD) degree at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law.

> 2010-2015 Strategic Plan launches, focusing on the LLB/JD program, the international reputation of the resources, energy and environmental law specialization and the Excellence in Lawyering initiative.

> Our total student population is now approximately 350, including 50 students in post graduate and special case PhD. We have 1,847 LLB and 52 LLM alumni/ae.

Energy.Skills.Excellence. Calgary Law to date.

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Our location in the heart of Canada’s energy industry gives University of Calgary students the practical experience and real-world connections to move onto successful careers in every facet of the energy sector.

GoInG GlobAl WITH REsoURCEs, EnERGy AnD EnvIRonmEnTAl lAW.

En

ER

Gy

L to R: Allan Ingelson,

Arlene Kwasniak,Nigel Bankes,Shaun Fluker,

Michael Ilg

Missing: Alastair Lucas,

Nickie Vlavianos

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The strategic initiatives for realizing our goal of earning and sustaining an international reputation for excellence in resources, energy and environmental law involves fully integrating the Canadian Institute of Resources Law (CIRL) within the Faculty.

In addition to the high-impact research for which it has always been known, CIRL will facilitate cross-pollination of the best ideas and actions in teaching, research and community outreach in the Faculty of Law’s declared specialization.

Recognizing the integrated reality of today’s legal scholarship of legal practice, CIRL takes a broad view of the fields of resources, energy and environmental law to include industry-related business law, trade law, domestic and international law, dispute resolution and both theory and practice.

the following outlines our plan for the next five years and beyond.

teaching

We will offer more courses in resources, energy and environmental law including courses in alternative energy law, environmental impact assessment law, and oil & gas and mining taxation. Some of these courses may be offered by CIRL research and teaching fellows. Hands-on learning will be enhanced through sponsored student participation in competitions in environmental law, international investment or arbitration law

The Faculty will launch a dual degree JD program with the University of Houston, responding to the ever growing demand for lawyers in Calgary law firms and energy corporations with energy practises and in-house appointments. Establishing such a program will also facilitate faculty exchange, joint research and other collaborations.

graduate PrOgramming

The focus of the Graduate Program on resources, energy and environmental law and the resulting expansion of faculty recruitment in this area will enhance opportunities for graduate students studying in these areas due to increased availability of courses,

Working with the already well-established Canadian Institute of Resources Law

(CIRL), we will continue to develop the best ideas and actions in teaching, research and community outreach in the Faculty’s

declared energy, resources and environmental law

specialization.

financially supported internships, post-graduate fellowships and sponsored client research for governments, foundations and others. CIRL aims to provide two fellowships a year over the next five years, growing that number to five fellowships in the next ten years.

research chairs and PrOfessOrshiPs

An integral part of any initiative in a research-intensive academic institution is the building of capacity for quality research and scholarship. In the coming years, the Faculty will work to establish a series of chairs in areas of strategic opportunity. The first of these chairs, the N. Murray Edwards Chair in Jurisdiction and Business Law, has already been funded thanks to the generosity of Murray Edwards, a lawyer and one of Canada’s foremost energy industry entrepreneurs.

Our wall of graduates recognizes every student who has walked through the doors of the Faculty of Law.

The Faculty’s 24 seat conference room is outfitted with the latest in multimedia technology to accommodate meetings, discussion groups and presentations.

Industry-specific designa-tions, collaborative programs and instructors from all areas

of the energy industry give University of Calgary students

the skills necessary to keep up with this constantly changing area of law.

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A 100% increase in

resources, energy and environmental law course offerings since 2003.

Calgary-based companies are

driving more than $75 billion of the $108 billion of major energy-related projects in the province.

Living and working in Calgary allows one to

directly learn and interact with the changes happening in the energy sector. With extensive expertise and courses at the JD and Graduate levels in the areas of energy, resources, international and environmental law, the faculty plans to expand our professorships, clinics and international research to increase our reputation amongst other law schools.”

- ALASTAIR LUCAS, QC Professor and former Dean

We have a solid foundation in the areas of natural

resources and energy law but, new appointments will allow us to add depth and breadth and to ensure that the Faculty continues to take a leadership role in these areas of research and policy– not just this year and next year but long into the future.”

- NIGEL BANKES Professor & Chair of Natural Resources Law

internatiOnal research

The Faculty will aim to establish and continue at least one major international collaborative project every three years, supported by the Academic Advisory Group of the International Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law. Also supporting this endeavour will be a visiting scholars and visiting speakers program, providing opportunities for visitors to interact with students, faculty, the broader university community, the local legal, NGO and business communities, and members of the public.

energy and envirOnmental law clinic

Establishing an Energy and Environmental Law Clinic will facilitate both the student experience and community service by providing legal services on public law environmental and energy-environmental matters. Land owners, public interest groups and other individuals often unrepresented at regulatory hearings could receive legal assistance, enhancing the fairness and balance of the process.

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sK

Ill

s

From libraries to lounges, the Faculty of Law is designed to meet the specific needs of our academic and professional communities.

PosITIonInG oUR PRoGRAms AnD sKIlls TRAInInG As THE PREmIER In WEsTERn CAnADA.

L to R: Greg Hagen,

Jonnette Watson Hamilton, Alice Woolley,

Iwan Saunders

Keeping a program that balances big thinking with smaller class

sizes will continue to provide our students access to skills

training. Building more research and teaching capacity within the Excellence in Lawyering program

will promote well-rounded professionals who have the

academic, practical and ethical know-how to lead in their field.

Our program balances big thinking with smaller class sizes. Students get to know the faculty and staff, their classmates, and learners from other class years. We want this to continue, as do our students.

We will continue to teach a first-year compulsory program that lays down building blocks for advanced and specialized instruction in the second and third years, whenever possible, in small-group settings with experienced faculty members. To achieve this, we need to attract and retain leaders in teaching, research and scholarship.

And we want to inject our JD program with the energy to go international. Offering a joint degree with the University of Houston will give our law graduates a competitive edge, as they will be able to straddle both sides of the border with our largest trading partner.

A $1 million gift from Bennett Jones LLP helped the Faculty

of Law transform its library into a national and world

leader in natural resources, energy and environmental law.

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By focusing on building the Excellence in Lawyering program and by integrating the Canadian Institute of Resources Law within with the Faculty, we can build the teaching and research capacity necessary to promote JD program excellence and to graduate committed, well-rounded

Average first year class sizes range between 25-35 students

professionals who have the academic, practical and ethical know-how to lead in their field. This capacity building will also promote excellence in our graduate programs, including our new Graduate Certificate in Resources, Energy and Environmental Law.

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Forbes magazine ranked Calgary as one of North

America’s fastest growing cities. The Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary must meet the needs of this thriving economic environment and increase its capacity to train highly skilled legal professionals in all areas of business law.”

- JASSMINE GIRGIS Professor

Capacity building will also promote excellence in our graduate programs, including our new Graduate Certificate in Resources, Energy and Environmental law. Creating more access to international partnerships will give our law graduates a competitive edge; making them more knowledgeable, marketable and mobile.

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over $17 million contributed to the Faculty of law

by our community partners since 2003.

by 2015, the Faculty of law intends

to raise an additional $20 million to fulfill its strategic Plan.

Understanding lawyers’ legal and ethical obligations are

essential for anyone seeking to practice law. Whoever your clients, wherever you practice and in whatever area of law you choose to specialize, there are duties and restrictions imposed on you, the violation of which can result in adverse consequences for you or for your clients.”

- ALICE WOOLLEY Professor

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Students enjoy open and well lit spaces like the Brian & Stephanie Felesky Student Lounge at the Faculty of Law.

CREATInG An ExCEllEnCE In lAWyERInG PRoGRAm To bE THE CAnADIAn bEnCHmARK.

Ex

CE

ll

En

CE

The Excellence in Lawyering program will capitalize on key

facts that predict success: our professional school’s strong

ties to Canada’s practicing legal community; the willingness of this

community to lend their heads and hearts to student success and

the strong tradition of integrated academic legal education at the

University of Calgary.

L to R: Jassmine Girgis,

Anne Stalker Maureen Duffy,

Kathleen Mahoney

Missing: Nicholas Rafferty, Catherine Brown,

Lyndsay Campbell, Jennifer Koshan

maintaining cOre cOmPetencies

The initiatives under the Excellence in Lawyering program will be built on specific competencies in legal substantive knowledge, analytical reasoning and professional skills.

These competencies include legal research writing and advocacy writing; dispute resolution skills; ethics and professional responsibility; access to justice obligations; substantive legal knowledge; the context of law; and legal analysis and reasoning.

To continue strengthening these core competencies, we need to grow our expertise in teaching, research and scholarship in three areas: dispute resolution, advocacy and ethics.

disPute resOlutiOn

From formal judicial processes to informal facilitated or structured negotiation, this area includes the full range of dispute resolution techniques and processes.

In the next five years, the Excellence in Lawyering program will enhance teaching, research, scholarship and professional engagement by expanding instructor and tutorial resources for dispute resolution courses, and by launching practical learning opportunities for students.

The Faculty of Law ensures all students are exposed to

a variety of different dispute resolution techniques to

prepare them for the demands of real-world practice.

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advOcacy

Advocacy is the art of persuasion. Whether advocating in trials, regulatory hearings or within the day to day of a solicitor’s practice, lawyers practise advocacy every day.

Strong advocacy initiatives within the Excellence in Lawyering program will enhance existing programs to become fully sustainable; maintaining the quality and consistency of Calgary Law’s unique legal skills education.

The MacLeod Dixon LLP Moot Court acts as a training ground for our mooting teams who regularly compete in local and national competitions.

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ethics

Ethics and professional responsibility are fundamental to the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law. Enhancements in this area in the next five years will focus on establishing a chair in legal ethics, contributing to teaching, research, scholarship and community engagement within and beyond the legal profession.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION ADVOCACY ETHICS

Pillars for Excellence in Lawyering

FOUNDATION PILLARS

PROPOSED ENHANCEMENTS

Dispute Resolution

Program

Fellowship and/or Chair

Mooting and Debating Program

Energy and Environmental

Law Clinic

In 2008, the Faculty of Law underwent a dramatic expansion and renovation to create an environment that meets the functional, aesthetic and technological needs of its growing student population.

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The Excellence in Lawyering Program is supported by three key pillars: dispute resolution, advocacy and ethics.

Growing our expertise within these pillars or core competencies, is the priority for Calgary law. Encompassed in each of these areas are also teaching, research and scholarship. Calgary law’s Excellence in Lawyering program will focus on initiatives that complement the integrated academic legal education.

40% of students are from out of province– among the highest out of province enrolments in Canada.

60%40%

The city of Calgary is an economic power house.

The Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, has the potential to become the law school for the country leading the way in legal training and research.”

- JACK MINTz Palmer Chair in Public Policy

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From 2009-2011 the Faculty of

law had a 99% Articling placement rate.

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Calgary is one of the top five places to live in the world.

The University of Calgary is the intellectual hub of this city. (The Economist, 2011)

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our goals for the next five years and beyond need the energy, skills and excellence of our campus and Calgary community. We invite you to become a part of our plan. The complete Faculty of law strategic Plan, 2010-2015, can be found on our website: law.ucalgary.ca/home/strategicplan

To learn more about how you can get involved, contact:

dr. ian holloway, Q.c. Dean Faculty of law University of Calgary

Phone: 403.220.5447 email: lawdean@ucalgary.ca

For more information.

karen e. hill-chow, m.a. Director of Development Faculty of law University of Calgary

Phone: 403.220.4637 email: hillk@ucalgary.ca

murray fraser hall 2500 University Drive nW, Calgary, Ab T2n 1n4

law.ucalgary.ca/home/strategicplan