Kanchana Fernando honoured with 2021 Pringle/Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award

Edmonton lawyer Kanchana Fernando has been awarded the 2021 Pringle/Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award for her outstanding work with students at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law.

Fernando, ‘07 LLB, who is deputy regional director and senior counsel at Department of Justice Canada, created the Public Law Advocacy course that she has taught at the Faculty since 2016. It focuses on knowing how to use, frame and counter facts when constructing submissions.

Students consistently call it one of the most useful and practical courses they have encountered in law school and describe Fernando as a caring and empathetic instructor who instils confidence.

In the past, Fernando noticed that while articling students had excellent research skills and had practised their advocacy through moot court competition, they sometimes struggled with framing facts into short submissions.

Using short lectures, in-class exercises and mini moots judged by guest lawyers who deliver oral feedback immediately, she teaches students how to make submissions in various courts and tribunals to ably prepare them for applications they will commonly encounter as articling students and during their early years of practice. Some such examples include contested sentencing, bail and applications for a stay.

Additionally, students praise Fernando’s assistance outside the classroom. “(She) goes above and beyond to support students at the U of A. She is often a speaker at Women’s Law Forum events, she has appeared on the WLF Podcast, and is a familiar face around campus. She is kind, compassionate and driven,” said one student.

“I’m honored to win this award,” said Fernando. “Teaching at the law school has reinvigorated my love of the law and of advocacy, and interacting with the hardworking and talented law students is such a rewarding experience. I’m so proud of this year’s students in particular, for all the resilience that they’ve shown in attending law school during the pandemic.”

The Pringle/Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award is named in honour of Peter Royal, QC, '74 LLB, and the late Alex Pringle, QC, each of whom were longtime instructors at the Faculty. The award is the highest honour that the Faculty bestows on sessional instructors.