McKercher LLP has donated $900,000 to the University of Saskatchewan College of Law.

There will be $500,000 earmarked for developing and teaching a new upper-year land-based learning course where students will spend time out on the land and learn how Indigenous laws flow from the relationship Indigenous peoples have with the land.

One-hundred-25-thousand dollars will be used to make the Robert Emes Award for Clinical Law a permanent, annual award. He received the bronze medal as the student with the third-highest average in his graduating class. He was an associate at McKercher LLP when he passed away suddenly in September 2023.

And $275,000 will be designated for the McKercher Excellence in Legal Education Fund, which will support orientation activities for first-year students, as well as the long-standing McKercher Lecture Series hosted by the college.

McKercher’s donation is in support of USask’s Be What the World Needs campaign, which is set to wrap up later this month.