Law Foundation of Ontario

Law Foundation of Ontario

The Law Foundation of Ontario was established under the Law Society Act in 1974. The Foundation funds access-to-justice initiatives across Ontario and Canada, operating with a governance structure that ties it directly to the province's legal establishment — three of its five trustees are appointed by the Law Society of Ontario, the remaining two by the Attorney General. The Foundation's capital base is a statutory carve-out: interest earned on lawyers' and paralegals' mixed trust accounts held in Ontario financial institutions. This funding mechanism makes it a perennial, non-taxpayer source of legal-aid financing. Under Ontario law, Legal Aid Ontario automatically receives 75% of the Foundation's annual net income from those trust accounts. The remaining 25% is deployed through grant programs supporting legal education, public legal research, and law libraries. The Foundation also administers two named pools: the Class Proceedings Fund, which finances complex litigation, and the Access to Justice Fund. Governance sits with a five-member board. In 2025, Gerald Chan, a partner at Toronto litigation boutique Stockwoods LLP, became Board Chair. Lisa Cirillo serves as Chief Executive Officer, responsible for day-to-day grantmaking and administration. The Foundation operates from a single office in Toronto and maintains a professional membership in Philanthropic Foundations Canada. The Foundation is the founding partner and primary funder of the Law Commission of Ontario. What distinguishes the Law Foundation of Ontario is its statutory funding model and mandatory allocation. Unlike most foundations, it neither fundraises nor manages a discretionary endowment — its revenue is set by the flow of pooled trust-account interest, and the majority of its annual distributions are legally prescribed rather than board-directed. This makes it a permanent, formula-driven conduit between the practice of law in Ontario and the public legal-aid infrastructure.