Hellenic Canadian Lawyers' Association
HCLA Scholarship Recipients!

Thank you to all those who applied for the Tsiolis Foundation First Year Law Student Scholarships! The Board of Directors of the HCLA received several competitive and impressive applications this year and following an anonymized review decided to award the scholarships to two deserving applicants. We are pleased to announce that our 2024/2025 scholarship recipients are: 

Congratulations! Despina and Demetre will each receive a scholarship in the amount of $1,750.

HCLA Scholarship Recipients!

Congratulations to Justice Panagiotis Pamel on his appointment to the Federal Court of Appeal and to Justice E. Ria Tzimas on her appointment to Regional Senior Judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario for the Central West Region. The HCLA wishes Justice Pamel and Justice Tzimas continued success!

Judicial Appointments!

Thank you to all those who applied for the Justice Karakatsanis Student Scholarships! The Board of Directors of the HCLA received several competitive and impressive applications this year and following an anonymized review decided to award the scholarships to two deserving applicants. We are pleased to announce that our 2023/2024 scholarship recipients are: 

Congratulations!  Athanasia and Phillip will each receive a scholarship in the amount of $3,500.

HCLA Scholarship Recipients!

Over the past year, the HCLA has been working with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to bring together an important community presentation related to senior and vulnerable investors.  As part of that effort, we are pleased to announce that the OSC has translated their fraud and investor protection materials to Greek. 

These materials include information and resources on protecting against fraud, possible red flags in investment fraud, retirement planning, wills and estate planning, protection from financial elder abuse, etc.  This important information is available on the OSC’s website in both English and Greek. An announcement was also included in the OSC’s most recent Investor News, a monthly newsletter available for free by subscription.  We strongly encourage you to share this important information with your families, friends, colleagues and the Hellenic community.  We will provide information about our upcoming presentation shortly. 

The HCLA extends a special thank you to Judy Man, Investor Office, Investor Engagement Specialist and the OSC for their support with this important initiative.    

Fraud Information in Greek

The HCLA is excited to release its most recent publication: “Τι είπες; You want to be a lawyer – Our Student Guide to Law School”. The HCLA Student Guide was inspired by our experiences mentoring Hellenic undergraduate students, particularly those who were the first in their families to obtain a post-secondary education.  The guide is intended to provide prospective students with information about a law school education and to candidly share the personal and academic experiences of our HCLA law student members.  By doing so, we hope to reduce the barriers to a legal education and allow prospective students to see themselves in others who may have similar personal histories and experiences.  We hope to inspire and encourage the next generation of Hellenic law students! To obtain a copy of the Student Guide, please visit the Student page of our website or email us at hcla.information@gmail.com.

A special thank you to HCLA law student members Gabriella Panayotidis, Philip Paschali, Thalia Petsis, Sotiri Katsuras and Christina Papageorgakopoulos for authoring this guide with HCLA President, Christine Arruda.  Thank you also to Gina Alexandris, HCLA Honourary Director, for her review and invaluable insights.

Student Guide Available

The HCLA is excited to announce that we will be awarding two (2) Justice Andromache Karakatsanis Student Scholarships (each in the amount of $3,500 CAD) for the 2023/2024 academic year! These scholarships are made available by the generous sponsorship of Blaney McMurtry LLP and the Polydor Foundation. The scholarship recognizes students of Hellenic descent who attend law school in Canada and have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement, as well as involvement in and commitment to the Hellenic community. For more information and application criteria, please visit our website at https://www.hcla.ca/students/.  The deadline to apply is March 29, 2024.

*Kindly note that you must be a paid 2024 HCLA member to be considered for the scholarship. 

Calling Scholarship Applicants

The HCLA is excited to announce the release of The Legalese – Winter 2024 edition! You can find this edition on the website under the tab, Legalese. This is the sixth edition of The Legalese since its relaunch in Spring 2020. The Legalese has a long tradition of serving as the HCLA’s newsletter. It has been an important way to share community events, member profiles and news from our local Greek legal community and abroad. The Legalese is published on a semi-annual basis. We encourage all members to contribute or to reach out to us at hcla.information@gmail.com with any ideas, news or feedback for future editions. We hope you enjoy and look forward to your future submissions!

The Legalese Winter Edition

Congratulations to HCLA member Sean Petrou for co-authoring Virtual Advocacy – Litigating from a Distance. Virtual Advocacy is the first comprehensive authority on virtual advocacy in Canada. It tracks every stage of the litigation life cycle so that practitioners are equipped with brief and direct advice on how to handle oneself in our new virtual landscape. While the book covers every level of court in Ontario, it also addresses appeals including at the Supreme Court of Canada, federal court, commercial arbitration, and other topics such as privacy and access to justice considerations. One of the last chapters contains an annotation of key COVID-19 jurisprudence as of publication. For more information, click here.

Virtual Advocacy

Thank you to all those who applied for the Justice Karakatsanis Student Scholarships! The Board of Directors of the HCLA received several competitive and impressive applications this year and following an anonymized review decided to award the scholarships to two deserving applicants. We are pleased to announce that our 2022/2023 scholarship recipients are: 

Congratulations!  Catherine and Sotiri will each receive a scholarship in the amount of $3,500.

HCLA Scholarship Recipients

The HCLA is excited to announce the release of The Legalese – Summer 2023 edition! You can find this edition on the website under the tab, Legalese. This is the fifth edition of The Legalese since its relaunch in Spring 2020. The Legalese has a long tradition of serving as the HCLA’s newsletter. It has been an important way to share community events, member profiles, and news both from our local Greek legal community and abroad. The Legalese is published on a semi-annual basis. We encourage all members to contribute or to reach out to us at hcla.information@gmail.com with any ideas, news or feedback for future editions. We hope that you enjoy and look forward to your future submissions!