McKercher LLP recognized for $900,000 gift to USask Law

It was a celebratory mood when more than 25 lawyers and staff from McKercher LLP were welcomed to the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Law as it officially said thank you for the firm’s nearly $1 million gift.  

“For nearly 40 years, McKercher LLP has been a dedicated partner to the College of Law, supporting student groups, contributing to major campaigns, and investing in the future of legal education in Saskatchewan,” USask President Vince Bruni-Bossio told faculty, students, USask leadership and McKercher representatives who gathered on March 2.

“We have this bond, this incredible connection – that’s really something special,” Bruni-Bossio said of USask’s relationship with McKercher.  

The law firm made the $900,000 donation to the college in June 2025, as part of USask’s Be What the World Needs fund-raising campaign, in which more than $570 million was donated to the university.

The law firm’s gift includes $500,000 to help the College of Law develop and teach a new upper-year land-based learning course, with plans to offer it in fall 2026. Students will spend time out on the land and learn how Indigenous laws flow from the relationship Indigenous peoples have with the land, upholding their traditional responsibilities to care for and protect it. 

“We see this as an important contribution to innovative legal education and to reconciliation through learning,” Collin Hirschfeld, KC, chair of McKercher LLP’s executive committee, said at the event.

“We're grateful that McKercher shares our commitment to reconciliation and is demonstrating that through its support of the new land-based learning course. It's an innovative and absolutely essential addition to our curriculum,” said USask Law Dean Martin Phillipson.   

“We know how important it is that everyone in the legal system – lawyers, law firms, students, deans, and professors – take responsibility to push reconciliation forward. Gifts such as this help the College equip students and future lawyers with foundational knowledge that will help them discharge this responsibility.”

Chris Lafleur, director of the Indigenous Law Centre at USask Law, is helping to develop the land-based learning class. He said that learning the basics of Indigenous law will help students build authentic relationships in Indigenous communities.

“To be a lawyer, the first thing you have to work on is the relationship. And if you're going to be working with Indigenous people, then you need to work on the relationship first,” he told the event.

He outlined some of the immersive experiences students will take part in, including a canoe trek, sweat lodges, round dances, and songs.

“You are enhancing the legal education of these students, and that will impact their future practice,” he said. “They're going to be able to go into the community, with an understanding of the proper protocol and be able to build relationship and progress toward reconciliation.”

McKercher LLP is also donating $125,000 to make the Robert Emes Award for Clinical Law a permanent, annual award. Emes (JD’19) received the bronze medal as the student with the third-highest average in his graduating class. He was an associate at McKercher LLP when he passed away suddenly in September 2023.

The gift also includes $275,000 for the McKercher Excellence in Legal Education Fund, which will support orientation activities for first-year students, as well as the long-standing McKercher Lecture Series hosted by the college.