The team at Stewart McKelvey does a lot for the community they serve. In 2015, they were the first Atlantic Canadian law firm to win the Your Honour Award, an accolade bestowed by the Legal Marketing Association, an industry trade group with four thousand members across eight regions of North America. The award recognizes firms that support the non-profit sector.

Atlantic Canada’s first and largest regional law firm supports healthcare, education, the arts and more, viewing corporate social responsibility as simply “contributing to the charities and organizations that help to make Atlantic Canada a better place to live.” They provide financial support, of course, but the staff donate their time in volunteer hours as part of the firm’s philanthropic culture.

In 2019, the Nova Scotia Nature Trust became a beneficiary of Stewart McKelvey’s charitable ways when the company provided the highest level of support as a “Conservation Champion” for our Connecting with Nature series of events, hikes and other outings.

Connecting with Nature is one of those programs that require significant staff time and resources. There are serious logistics, too, as outings take place across the province. In other words, it would be a challenge to maintain on our own. But when companies like Stewart McKelvey step up and help out, Connecting with Nature can really hit its stride and be what it can be. This year—it’s been a hit!

Several Connecting with Nature events this year were hitting capacity within days of being announced, while our various events around the province drew enthusiastic crowds. And as every Connecting with Nature outing is an education (try going on a hike with a conservation scientist, it’s awesome!) our partnership is that much more of a good fit given Stewart McKelvey’s long history of supporting education.

For decades, Stewart McKelvey has supported (and created) scholarship programs at law schools in the Atlantic provinces. Lawyers volunteer their time to teach classes. Partners are stewards and chairs on university boards.

With Stewart McKelvey creating opportunities to help young people stay in Nova Scotia, the Nature Trust will ensure that, when they do stay, they’ll have more than a hundred (114 to be precise) Nature Trust conservation lands where they can walk, paddle and swim after a long day at work or in class.

The Nature Trust’s mission is to protect Nova Scotia’s natural legacy and to create protected, ecologically significant areas. These special places will never be developed. They will always be here for everyone to enjoy. We’d like to thank Stewart McKelvey for joining us on this great mission for nature.