Community and Pro Bono Activities

Stikeman Elliott enjoys a long tradition of pro bono and community service work. With the firm's support and encouragement, many of our lawyers make a significant contribution to the community.

Recent Activities

The Calgary office is supporting the "Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids" program, one of the initiatives the office has undertaken as part of its new Community Involvement Program.
Stikeman Elliott has registered with the Canadian Blood Services' Partners for Life program and is participating in its Corporate Challenge event. The challenge encourages organizations to get as many of its firm members involved by donating blood over a two month period. Stikeman Elliott was also on hand to help Canadian Blood Services open the TSX for National Blood Donor Week.
The Montréal office supports the 17th annual edition of "Pedal for Kids" for the Montréal Children's Hospital.
The Calgary office of Stikeman Elliott was recognized by Volunteer Calgary with a Leader in Business Award. Volunteer Calgary's Leadership Awards is Calgary's premier, community-focused volunteer recognition event.
The firm's "Going Green" program launch has included new initiatives designed to encourage Stikeman Elliott's environmental stewardship, including distribution of re-useable shopping bags to employees and a carbon footprint calculation.
As part of the firm's "Going Green" program, our Montréal office has taken on the Défi Climat challenge and invited all firm members to take concrete action on a daily basis to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Every action counts, meet the Défi climat!
Our Montreal office sponsored an event with Environmentalist David Suzuki which rallied more than 300 young professionals from Montreal's business sector. The event was entitled "What Makes Young Professionals Tick?" and focused on the impact of young professionals' social and environmental advocacy on their career path. Mr. Suzuki is seen here with Richard Heneine, from RSM Richter's Young Professionals Club, and Valérie Mac-Seing from Stikeman Elliott's Young Professionals Club.
Our Calgary office, in recognition of their 15th anniversary, has launched "SEeing is believing", a community involvement program to facilitate charitable giving (donations and volunteerism) by the firm and its members. Our Calgary office was recently presented a Best Workplaces 2008 award for Volunteerism & Community Involvement by Alberta Venture Magazine.
Stikeman Elliott is a proud participant in the Give a Day to World AIDS Campaign. Pioneered in 2004 by an Ontario doctor, the Campaign is based on a simple yet compelling idea: if we all donated the equivalent of one day's pay to the global fight against AIDS, think of the positive impact our collective effort would have.
Stikeman Elliott offices participate in week-long campaigns to support the United Way. These events are an annual highlight for our lawyers and staff. In 2007, the firm raised over $750, 000 for United Way in our communities.
Our Ottawa office contributed $100,000 towards the development of the new Ottawa Rotary Home, which provides short-term respite care for severely physically and mentally handicapped children and young adults in the Ottawa community.
Our Toronto office is a corporate partner of the Pathways to Education program, whose mission is to ensure that young people from at-risk and/or economically disadvantaged communities achieve their full potential by getting to school, staying in school, graduating and moving on to post-secondary programs. Stikeman Elliott has provided internship and mentoring opportunities for youth in Toronto's Regent Park community.

Ongoing Pro Bono Services

Provide pro bono services to many organizations, including Foster Parents Plan Canada (Plan Canada), the Sierra Club of Canada - Ontario Chapter; Junior Achievement of Canada, the Venture Management Program at Queen's Business School, Wen-Do Canada, the Sainte-Justine Hospital Foundation; the Entrepreneurship Centre of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), and an organization that provides employment opportunities and leadership development to youths.
Act as pro bono counsel for LUMINATO, a 10-day International Arts Festival in Toronto, which premiered in June 2007 highlighting the best of Canadian and international theatre, opera, art, film, literature, cuisine, wine, dance, fashion, and music at local and regional venues.
Act as directors on several boards, including the Kidney Foundation, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (Ontario and Quebec Chapters), William Osler Health Centre Foundation, the Montréal Children's Hospital Foundation; Défi corporatif Canderel; Glenbow Museum (Calgary); the YWCA Toronto; and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.
Work with the Osgoode Business Clinic, where many of our lawyers partner with law students to provide ongoing legal advice to clients who are implementing new business ideas, or are growing their emerging businesses, but cannot afford necessary legal services.

In addition, we work with Pro Bono Law Ontario to identify initiatives in which we can be involved and have several projects in the development stage.

The firm's lawyers are also active in pro bono litigation, representing various parties at all court levels. Cases include acting on behalf of:

The Canadian Association for Community Living and Community Living Ontario, the intervenors in Wynberg v. Ontario, concerning the constitutionality of a program initiated by the Ministry of Community and Social Services Government of Ontario in 1999 known as the Intensive Early Intervention Program (the IEIP), which provided or funded Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) for children with autism ages two to five, and the absence of such a program in the school system.
The Council for Canadians with Disabilities on Charter intervention in the Supreme Court of Canada in connection with the challenge to the propriety of certain government of Ontario welfare rules which disqualified recipients from receiving social assistance if another adult in the household earned a threshold level of income from a job.

Stikeman Elliott also takes an active role in the community through volunteer involvement and sponsorship. In 2006 we became a professional services firm founding member of Imagine Canada, a nationally recognized organization geared towards promoting programs that encourage corporate giving, volunteering and community support. Imagine Canada challenges corporations to give back 1% of their pre-tax profits to the community as well as to become more involved in their communities through volunteer work.

The following are among the many organizations and events across Canada in which we are involved:

Achilles Track Club
AIDSBeat benefit concert
Bell Walk for Kids Help Phone
Breast Cancer Foundation Awareness Campaign
Camp Oochigeas (for children with cancer)
Canadian Association of New York Foundation
Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life
Children's Aid Society
Governor General's Performing Arts Awards National Committee
Habitat for Humanity
The Humane Society
Junior Achievement of Canada
Maison du père
Order of the Business Hall of Fame Constitution
Ottawa Hospital Foundation
Ottawa Rotary Home Foundation
Pedal For Kids for the Montreal Children's Hospital
Seneca College
Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research in New York City and Toronto
The United Way

Stikeman Elliott "Going Green" Program

We have recently launched an effort to develop market-leading environmental best practices in support of our Stikeman Elliott Going Green Program. This includes efforts to minimize waste, expand comprehensive recycling programs for all office supplies, printer and copier toner cartridges, paper, metal, plastic and food waste across the firm and participate in energy conservation programs to the extent they are available in the properties where our offices are located. Additional initiatives include efforts to reduce paper use through electronic reporting and filing, electronic file management, electronic pay-stub reporting and the production of electronic closing books; using energy efficient equipment in all areas of the firm and encouraging firm members to use video and/or audio conferencing instead of travel where possible. These programs are accompanied by campaigns aimed at maximizing participation and awareness within our offices, including distribution of re-useable shopping bags and carbon footprint calculations.

Individual offices include bins for recyclable waste, in addition to a garbage bin while larger recycling containers for paper, plastic, metal and organic waste are included in each copy room and servery. Unused food from our boardroom services is also donated to local food banks. Our workstations are equipped with TCO-certified energy efficient flat screen computer monitors and power-saving printer/scanners are used throughout our offices. As we are frequently one of the largest tenants in the office buildings we occupy, we actively participate in the additional "green" initiatives of building management.