Name Changer: UBC Law Receives $30 Million Donation

Peter A. Allard, QC — lawyer, businessman, philanthropist and UBC alumnus (BA 1968, LLB 1971) — donated $30 million to UBC’s Faculty of Law, the largest gift ever to a Canadian law school. In turn, the grateful university renamed the law school the Peter A. Allard School of Law.

Inspired by the generosity, UBC law school launched a $10-million fundraising campaign to encourage alumni and friends to join Allard in supporting the law school.

Allard’s historic donation established permanent endowments to support: faculty recruitment and retention to ensure ‘students learn from some of the world’s greatest legal minds’; student initiatives such as entrance awards, summer employment and enhanced admissions practices; student experiential learning programs and clinical opportunities to learn practical skills.

The donation also enabled the school to continue to promote global human rights and anti-corruption efforts via vehicles such as the Allard Prize for International Integrity.

Allard has long held leadership roles in human rights, environmental advocacy and other philanthropic work such as founding The Highbury Foundation to support medical research and the purchase of medical equipment, and scholarships and buildings for universities and colleges in western Canada.

This is the second time the self-described “proud UBC alumnus” has assisted the law school. In 2011, Allard gave $11.86 million to support the construction of Allard Hall, the faculty’s new home, and the establishment of the Allard Prize for International Integrity and the law school’s History Project, an online archive.

To date, Allard’s commitments to the faculty total approximately $40 million and, with $10 million in donor matching funds, will yield approximately $50 million in total donations for the law school.