SASKATOON — Neesha Persad wants to get kids interested in and willing to access the law.
A school teacher-turned-law student who recently graduated from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Law, Persad has based her student career around working in the community – and has now received some prestigious commendations for it.
Persad is a 2024 recipient of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella Prize. The award is presented to a graduating student at each of Canada’s 24 law schools each year, going to the student who has shown promise as a leader in the areas of social justice and equity.
“I think for me, this award is probably the thing that touches on most of my values,” she said. “Community involvement and making people feel like they have supports through every aspect of their life, that epitomizes why I went to law school, and I think this award stands for that in a lot of ways.”
As Persad describes it, she witnessed many tough family situations for her students while working as a teacher.
Her goal is to address access to legal services comprehensively, by continuing to work and volunteer in the community with access-to-justice initiatives to help people understand how the law can be a tool to help them succeed.
Persad said she wants to help children and families before they reach the point where a lawyer is needed.
“I want to work on how we can support families along the way with a more proactive response,” she said. “I’m pursuing law but also continuing in the community the way I want to be involved.”
Persad was deeply involved in the community while a USask student, as a member of the Law Students’ Association on campus. She also created a mentorship program within one of the first-year law courses to help bridge the gap between upper-year and first-year students. Persad also continued her interest in Access to Justice through an internship with CREATE Justice, a community organization run through the University of Saskatchewan.
She was also instrumental in establishing the Becoming a Lawyer project developed by Pro Bono Students Canada in partnership with the Public Legal Education Association of Saskatchewan (PLEA) and the Law Society of Saskatchewan. The project involves creating and delivering presentations and resources to high school-aged students and classrooms about the legal profession and legal education.
The Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella Prize may be the most prestigious, but it isn’t the first award Persad has received recognizing her strong community efforts. Persad was named the 2023 Cam Partridge Memorial PLEA Volunteer of the Year for her work, as well as the recipient of the Chief Justice Richard Wagner Award through Pro Bono Students Canada.
Now working as an articling student with Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP in Calgary, Persad said while these awards are humbling, they aren’t why she is pursuing this work. In the future, Persad hopes to create more community programs and continue to build her career as a full-time lawyer.
While she now has her Juris Doctor and a prestigious award under her belt, the work is just getting started for Persad.
“If we could work on better preparing kids, families, and everybody, really, to have better knowledge of the supports and systems and the way the law works, we would have a better-working society where people don’t struggle as much,” she said.
— Submitted by USask Media Relations
