Monique Pongracic-Speier, a BC lawyer who devoted thousands of pro bono hours on the Centre for Family Equity’s constitutional challenge to BC’s family law legal aid system, has received the 2024 Harry Rankin, QC Pro Bono Award! The staff team, CFE board of directors and members express our gratitude for her tireless commitment and contributions to the Legal Aid Test Case on the legal team led by West Coast Leaf for seven years until its conclusion in February 2023. 

CFE’s constitutional challenge argued the Province of BC had failed to guarantee equality for women under the law when escaping abusive relationships.  

In February 2024, the provincial government settled the lawsuit with a collaborative agreement between the Centre for Family Equity, the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Aid BC by announcing $29.1 million in new investments in an innovative family law clinic along that also reduced income barriers for those accessing family law legal aid.  

The Canadian Bar Association BC Branch recently selected Monique for the award and we congratulate and thank her for the many years of legal work that went into the successful outcome of our charter challenge alongside her many other pro bono contributions. We can’t think of anyone more deserving! 

Read more about Monique Pongracic-Speier’s advocacy work here. 

Read about the Centre for Family Advocacy’s charter challenge here.