It has been my honour and privilege to serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alberta Law Foundation since mid-December 2025. On behalf of my Board colleagues, I would like to provide an update to you about the work and recent challenges of the Foundation.
Over the past month, the Alberta Law Foundation has undergone dramatic change and overcome significant obstacles. Despite this, I am pleased to share that the Foundation continues to operate as close to normal capacity as possible, and we are focused on continuing to deliver for our vital grantees and stakeholders. All approved grant payments have been disbursed, and we are actively adjudicating a new collection of applications that will expand access to legal services, legal education, and justice for all Albertans. Also, we are on schedule to continue the normal grant intake processes and the Foundation’s financial situation remains strong and healthy. As a Board, our goal has been, and continues to be, to ensure little-to-no impact to the flow of funds to grantees, as we go through this transition period over the next few months.
Following the surprise mass resignation on January 5th of the Executive Director and all staff, with only two weeks’ notice, the Board took immediate action to stabilize the operations of the Foundation and ensure that our grantees were not impacted by this unfortunate situation. With no missed payments, ongoing evaluations of new grantee requests, and no office or grant portal closures, we believe that grantees, while understandably concerned about what has happened, have not had their operations impacted. Further details and background information on this mass resignation will be forthcoming in due course.
I would like to thank my Board colleagues for their stewardship of, and commitment to, the Alberta Law Foundation and its significant impact to the legal profession and access to justice in our great province. I would also like to thank the Law Society of Alberta and the Government of Alberta for their support through the turbulent past few weeks.
I will continue to provide periodic updates about the activities of the Foundation until we have successfully recruited a new Executive Director and team. I thank you for your ongoing interest in the health and integrity of the Foundation and the organizations we support. I also encourage any questions or inquiries to be sent to grants@albertalawfoundation.org.
Shamsher Kothari, K.C.
Chair, Alberta Law Foundation
