Putting community contributions before billable hours

Howard J. Sniderman (‘81 LLB) was a University of Alberta law student when began using his skills and legal expertise to help the community. During the school year, he volunteered for the U of A’s Student Legal Services and in the summers, when he returned home to Calgary, he helped out at Calgary Legal Guidance.

“That gave me the desire to assist individuals who needed help but didn’t have the means to afford a lawyer,” he says.

Today, Sniderman is a partner and senior litigator at Witten LLP, with a commercial litigation and arbitration practice focusing on commercial lease and contract litigation, builders’ liens, and insolvency litigation. But since his law school days, he’s balanced billable hours and pro bono work.

“I listened to my professors in law school and others who reminded us how lucky we were to be in law school and that we owed something back to the community,” he says.

Sniderman has worked with many charitable and non-profit organizations in his 42-year career. Sometimes, he serves as a board member, chair or president, and other times, as pro bono counsel. Much of the work has involved managing charitable donations, such as bequests (donations made as part of a person’s will) to the ALS Society of Alberta and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He’s also provided pro bono counsel on matters of governance — such as creating or updating constitutional documents and bylaws — for organizations like the Metis Nation of Alberta and the Jewish Federation of Edmonton.

Over the past few years, Sniderman has also been involved with the Civil Claims Duty Counsel (CCDC) Project run by Pro Bono Law Alberta, a nonprofit organization that offers legal support to Albertans of limited means.

Most days, Sniderman spends about one-third of his day on pro bono projects, which can be a big shift from his paid litigation work.

“When you’re in court, you have one job and that’s to win — obviously within the bounds of ethics, professional responsibility, the rules of evidence and the law — but the bottom line is that you’re there to win,” he says. “It can be hard for people to understand how you can go from that kind of focus and mindset to a very different one, which is basically, ‘How can I help?’”

After decades of contributions, Sniderman is the recipient of this year’s Distinguished Service Award for Pro Bono Legal Service awarded by the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) and the Law Society of Alberta. Fellow U of A alumnus Robert McDonald K.C. (‘88 LLB) is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for Service to the Profession.

“The CBA and Law Society of Alberta Distinguished Service Awards recognize the exceptional contributions of Alberta lawyers to the legal community and to the public in ways that go beyond the day-to-day practice of law,” says Faculty of Law Dean Barbara Billingsley. “The University of Alberta Faculty of Law is proud to have many of our alumni and past and present faculty members on the list of award recipients over the years.”

Of course, Sniderman doesn’t do this work for recognition — in fact, he’s quick to point out that giving back to the community is a core value of the legal profession in Alberta.

“From my point of view, we've all got a duty to give back,” he says. “We're not just taught, but we're shown by great exemplars how to do that and why it's important. And the proof is in the pudding. When I look around, I see all of these amazing people doing amazing work, and I'm happy to be part of that.”