Steven Penney, University of Alberta law professor, wins legal scholarship award

Steven Penney, professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, has received the 2021 Law Society of Alberta/Canadian Bar Association Award for Distinguished Service in Legal Scholarship, in recognition of the impacts of his criminal law scholarship.

The law society and bar association, noting that Russell Brown, Supreme Court of Canada justice, has dubbed Penney as one of the most prolific criminal law scholars in the country, recognized Penney’s generosity in devoting his time and knowledge to the legal profession, his insight and analytical ability when writing about complex legal areas and his work’s significant effects on jurisprudence, said a news release.

“It is a tremendous privilege as a law professor to be free to critique and propose reforms to the law as an independent thinker, unencumbered by the mandates of clients, governments, or the intellectual orthodoxies of the moment,” said Penney in the news release.

Penney joined the law school in 2006 and served as its associate dean for graduate studies and research. He has researched, taught and provided consultation in relation to criminal procedure, evidence, substantive criminal law, law and technology and privacy. He is co-author of Criminal Procedure in Canada and co-editor of Evidence: A Canadian Casebook.

Penney has served as advisory board chair of the Centre for Constitutional Studies, as advisory board member of the Alberta Law Review and of the Canadian Journal of Law & Justice, as law clerk to Supreme Court of Canada Justice Gérard La Forest, as visiting professor of the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and as associate professor of the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law. He obtained his LLB from the University of Alberta and his LLM from Harvard Law School.

The Law Society of Alberta has likewise recognized the 2021 recipients of the Viscount Bennett Scholarship: Ngaire Androsoff, Rory Tighe and Rachel Weary.

Androsoff, who serves as legal counsel at LawDepot, has been admitted to the University of Alberta’s LLM program, where she will study the interplay between the control of fake news and freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She holds a JD from Bond University in Australia, received in 2017, and a Certificate of Qualification from the National Committee on Accreditation of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

Tighe, who is pursuing a master’s degree in taxation from Oxford University’s Faculty of Law, acts as counsel with the Department of Justice in Edmonton, where he focuses on litigation matters relating to tax, general civil law and Indigenous law. He earned his JD from Queen’s University in 2017 and his admission to the Alberta bar in 2018.

Weary will be taking the University of Alberta’s LLM program starting in September, where she will be researching on the legal issues relating to the Alberta Guarantees Acknowledgment Act. At a St. Albert-based boutique firm, she practises civil litigation and wills and estates. She obtained her JD from the University of Alberta.

The Viscount Bennett Scholarship, given to those with exceptional academic records and with a commitment to helping their communities through the practice of law, supports those considering law-related postgraduate studies and seeks to promote a better standard of legal education.