Prof. Steven Penney receives LSA/CBA Award for Distinguished Service in Legal Scholarship

Professor Steven Penney of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law has been named the 2021 recipient of the Law Society of Alberta / Canadian Bar Association Award for Distinguished Service in Legal Scholarship.

The awards recognize outstanding members of Alberta’s legal community for their service to the profession, service to the community, service to legal scholarship and pro bono legal service.

Announcing Penney’s honour, the LSA/CBA noted that Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown names him “among two or three (of the) most prolific criminal law scholars in Canada.” They also emphasized his unfailing generosity in contributing his time and expertise to the legal profession.

“Steven’s writing has had a significant impact on jurisprudence, having been cited at courts across Canada including the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in R v Burlingham on the right to counsel under section 10 (b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Those who know Steven also remark upon his insight and ability to analyze and write about complex areas of law that impact Canadians now, and will do so in the future.”

In addition to researching, teaching and consulting in the areas of criminal procedure, evidence, substantive criminal law, privacy, and law and technology, Penney is co-author of Criminal Procedure in Canada, now in its second edition and recognized as a leading authoritative source on the topic. He is co-editor of Evidence: A Canadian Casebook and is a member of the advisory boards of the Alberta Law Review and Canadian Journal of Law & Justice.

Faculty of Law alumnus

A member of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law since 2006, he has served as Associate Dean (Graduate Studies & Research). Previously, he was Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario; Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick, and law clerk to Mr. Justice Gérard V. La Forest of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Penney is a University of Alberta alumnus, ’90 BA (Anthropology) and ‘94 LLB. He received a master of laws from Harvard Law School in 1996.

“I am extremely grateful to the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta for fostering such a supportive scholarly community,” said Penney. “I extend particular thanks to (former) Dean David Percy for recruiting me back to my hometown and alma mater 15 years ago, as well as to Dean Barbara Billingsley, Vice Dean Eric Adams, and Associate Deans Peter Sankoff and James Muir for supporting my nomination for this award.

“It is a tremendous privilege as a law professor to be free to critique and propose reforms to the law as an independent thinker, unencumbered by the mandates of clients, governments, or the intellectual orthodoxies of the moment.

“I am also very grateful to the many members of the bar and bench, in Alberta and elsewhere, who have enriched my understanding of the law and justice system over the years. And I would like to thank the talented student research assistants that I've worked with as well as the many students who sparked discussions in and outside of the classroom that have helped me think about the law in new ways.”