Law students recognized for service to others

Two recipients—Siddharth Akali and Sarah Fitzpatrick—share the law faculty’s Ann Roberts Humanitarian Award this year. The prestigious accolade honours Ann Roberts, a highly respected alumna and ardent supporter of the law school, who passed away in 2009.

The award, co-sponsored by UVic Law and the Victoria Bar Association, acknowledges students’ outstanding and selfless contribution of time and effort to the well-being of the law school, individuals within the faculty, and the community at-large. The 2013 recipients, who were presented the award by Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin during a visit to Victoria, exemplify the characteristics for which Roberts was known.

Akali, who anticipates graduation from the Juris Doctor program next spring, works hard to ensure all incoming students feel welcome, comfortable and included. He also looks out for the academic well-being of his peers, as a student tutor and dean’s scholar in the law school’s academic and cultural support program.

“UVic Law has been one of the most supportive and inclusive communities I have had the privilege of being part of,” says Akali. “Together as a community we work together and support each other through the challenges that law school and life bring.”

Akali is also the Law Students’ Society Equity Representative on the faculty’s Equity and Diversity Committee, where he is credited with bringing an intelligent, engaged and energetic commitment to articulating the equity concerns of students.

Originally from Bombay, where his family still lives, Akali completed his undergrad studies in the US on a Kofi Anan International Scholarship and was working in Washington DC as an energy and environmental consultant before transferring to his firm’s Toronto office in 2008. He says he enjoyed the “socially progressive, inclusive and laid-back” life in Canada so much he decided to stay and, by 2011, friends advised he try the West Coast. UVic Law caught his attention as he was looking for a community-focused law school.

“I feel deeply honoured and humbled to receive this award,” says Akali. “There are so many students who work tirelessly to make our school better, so it is a real privilege to be singled out for recognition.”

Fitzpatrick’s primary involvements currently are with the yearbook and the group Human Rights through Legal Education (HRLE), a subgroup of the International Human Rights and Law Association.

Fitzpatrick, who anticipates graduating with a bachelor of law degree in 2014, started HRLE in 2011 to raise money for the Mwanza Paralegal Aid Centre, which provides legal aid and education to woman and children in Tanzania. She became involved in the yearbook in 2010 and became chair of the organizing committee the following year.

She was also involved with the 2011 Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Camp and an LSAT Tutor for two years with Law4All, a student-run mentoring program that gives high school students a chance to meet UVic Law students and professors, learn about the law school and think about educational opportunities.

“One of the things that makes UVic Law school so great are the students who organize events and make the school feel like it is a community,” says Fitzpatrick. “I was inspired by the many classmates around me who committed their extra time to causes they believed in and gave back to the school.”

Her nominators indicate that while she flies below the radar at UVic Law, her efforts shouldn’t go unnoticed as she exhibits “exactly those positive qualities that shine on the legal professional as a whole—selflessness, care and compassion for others, a fantastic work ethic, and a desire to make the world a better place.”