Roots of Service

Two students earn grants to advocate for people who are wrongfully convicted and to improve access to tenancy law expertise.

Each year, the Gerald L. Gall, OC, Global Community Services Grant is awarded to Faculty of Law students who embark on projects that improve the lives of others, locally and abroad. The award’s namesake, Gerry Gall, was a longtime professor of law with the University of Alberta, a constitutional law expert and a passionate advocate for human rights. The grant aligns with the U of A’s Shape the Future fundraising campaign, which includes enhancing student success through financial support, among other goals. The grant and the campaign open doors for students to become leaders and change-makers. In 2024, Faculty of Law students Kimia Nozadi, ’26 JD, and Kaitlyn Williams, ’26 JD, received the funding to support their community work and develop their skills in the field of law.

Kaitlyn Williams

A champion for wrongfully convicted people

Williams has a passion for advocating on behalf of people who have been wrongly convicted in Canada’s criminal justice system. But addressing wrongful convictions is a highly specialized area of law in which few lawyers in Canada — or around the world — have expertise.

This is why she chose to work with Innocence Canada last summer. The national non-profit organization works to find and exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime and find ways to prevent similar convictions from happening.

Innocence Canada is headquartered in Toronto, so Williams worked for the organization remotely from Edmonton. She attended regular meetings and performed casework — analyzing case files, reviewing disclosures, conducting legal research and learning about the practical side of overturning a wrongful conviction, among other tasks. The Faculty of Law student was also involved in education and reform work, such as curriculum development for law schools and training police on wrongful convictions.

Williams’ passion for this area of law is the reason she earned the Gall community services grant. The grant gave her the opportunity to focus on this work, she says, and surpass her personal and professional goals.

“I am passionate about pursuing a career in criminal law, and I want to learn as much as I can from every angle of our criminal justice system,” Williams says. “I will carry this experience and the skills I gained with me throughout my legal career, and most importantly, I will continue to follow my passions.”

Kimia Nozadi

A landlord-tenant problem-solver

In 2024, Nozadi found herself involved in a landlord-tenant dispute. As a student at the Faculty of Law, she had access to a network of legal professionals and student support as well as her own knowledge in the field of law. 

These resources helped Nozadi navigate the province’s Residential Tenancies Act, and she was able to inform her landlord of her rights and resolve the issue amicably.

Not all Albertans have access to the resources Nozadi has, so they turn to organizations such as the Edmonton Community Legal Centre or Student Legal Services. But these organizations see a huge number of requests and often need to triage cases.

Nozadi set out to bridge this gap and began offering free support to those in the early stages of landlord-tenant disputes. Supported by the Gall community services grant, she was able to get the word out about this service by creating a flyer, engaging on social media and connecting with the ECLC and SLS, as well as other tactics.

Over the summer, she received an average of more than three inquiries a day, reviewed more than 26 leases and referred more than three dozen people to community resources.

“I felt a strong sense of confidence in my passion and determination to lead this project,” Nozadi says.