ARCTIC OBITER
March/April 2012 - Law Society of the Northwest Territories
March/April 2012 - Law Society of the Northwest Territories
- No tags were found...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
14 | <strong>ARCTIC</strong> <strong>OBITER</strong><br />
TRUST MONEY<br />
The Well-Kept Secrets of the Law Foundation<br />
by Karen Lajoie, Director, NWT Law Foundation<br />
The Law Foundation was created 30 years ago pursuant to<br />
Part VII of the Legal Profession Act to encourage research and<br />
initiatives that enhance access to justice and the public’s<br />
understanding of our legal system, including law reform<br />
research, maintaining law libraries, contributing to legal<br />
education, and work on PLEI initiatives.<br />
The Foundation achieves these goals largely through<br />
financial contributions to outside organizations. Since 1982,<br />
the Foundation has awarded grants totaling $2,769,107 to<br />
hundreds of worthy recipients who have made a real<br />
difference in the North. It has also awarded scholarships<br />
totaling $212,000 to nearly four<br />
dozen Northerners attending<br />
law school, many of whom<br />
have returned to practice<br />
North of 60. I am fortunate<br />
to say that I am one of those<br />
scholarship recipients, and I<br />
can tell you first-hand what a<br />
d i f f e r e n c e r e c e i v i n g<br />
scholarship money made<br />
during my legal education,<br />
so it is a particular honour<br />
for me to now be a twoterm<br />
Director of the<br />
Foundation, participating<br />
in the decision-making<br />
process for a new generation<br />
of applicants.<br />
All of the money the Foundation<br />
administers comes from you; more<br />
specifically, from your trust<br />
accounts. By law, any interest<br />
generated by a trust account must<br />
be paid by your bank to the<br />
Foundation twice annually. With the current economic<br />
climate showing interest rates hovering around zero percent,<br />
it might not seem like much, but last year, just over $46,000<br />
was paid to the Foundation in trust interest.<br />
That, coupled with interest generated on Foundation<br />
investments, allowed us to make annual grants in the<br />
$130,000 range, and award thousands of dollars in<br />
scholarships.<br />
In 2010-11, the Foundation awarded grants in five areas:<br />
$10,000 to the Law Society of the NWT to assist in defraying<br />
registration fees for NWT students<br />
doing their bar admissions<br />
courses;<br />
$13,624 to the Canadian<br />
Legal Information Institute<br />
(CanLII) to continue<br />
building the virtual law<br />
library that makes access to<br />
court cases, legislation, and<br />
tribunal decisions available<br />
online, free of charge, to the<br />
public;<br />
$70,000 to the Yellowknives<br />
Dene First Nation to assist<br />
with a Community Justice<br />
Initiatives Program serving<br />
t h r e e N o r t h S l a v e<br />
communities. The money is<br />
used for diversion and restorative<br />
justice programs, family violence<br />
workshops, drug/alcohol support<br />
programs, and a host of alternative<br />
approaches to court.