People Mentioned
Partner, Disputes, Toronto
Osler is honoured to be named a five-star pro bono firm by Canadian Lawyer magazine’s report which evaluates the contributions of lawyers donating their time to help community organizations.
“We are proud to once again be recognized for the work our Community Law Program does in all of our communities,” says Mary Paterson, partner in the Disputes group and a member of Osler’s Community Law Committee. “The special report from Canadian Lawyer and Pro Bono Ontario provides an excellent look at the great work being done to help people in need.”
Canadian Lawyer’s third annual five-star pro bono firms special report recognizes Canada’s law firms and legal departments that demonstrate pro bono “infrastructure” at an institutional level. The assessment criteria requires evidence of pro bono infrastructure (e.g., pro bono committee, ability to quantify partner participation, etc.), count of pro bono time as billable time/toward targets (for large/national firms only), cost awards/charitable giving to access-to-justice organizations, and a minimum of five hours per lawyer pro bono time or active pro bono programs for in-house legal departments.
Working with Pro Bono Ontario, Canadian Lawyer evaluated all nominated firms examining how each had made a meaningful contribution to the industry — along with benchmarking against the other entries — to determine the 10 five-star pro bono firms and top five legal departments.
In 2024, Osler lawyers contributed to pro bono work in the following ways:
- 14,198 total hours
- >60.7% of lawyers (including students) undertook more than 10 hours of pro bono work
We are proud to be associated with the many enterprises, both public and private, that do important work in the field every day, such as:
- 204 hours at Access Pro Bono of British Columbia
- 212 hours for the Boys and Girls Club of Calgary
- 2,580 hours for Pro Bono Ontario
- 3,155 hours PBO/Income Security Advocacy Centre CERB Clinic
You can read more about Osler’s prop bono work on our website and in the full report on Canadian Lawyer magazine.
People Mentioned
Partner, Disputes, Toronto
