With a global search underway, the inaugural holder of the Stephen Sigurdson Professorship in Corporate Law and Finance is expected to join the faculty in July 2018. “This will be a great boost for our business law program,” says Dean Bill Flanagan.
The professorship was named in tribute to Stephen Sigurdson, LLB’84, who died last year unexpectedly at age 56. He was Vice-Chair of the Dean’s Council at Queen’s Law, one of Canada’s most celebrated figures in corporate law, and a top executive at Manulife. With an outpouring of donor support, along with a Faculty match of funds, $1.5 million was raised in record time in support of the Sigurdson Professorship.
“It’s a pivotal time for business law here,” notes Flanagan. “Not many Canadian law schools have two privately funded professorships in this field” (the other being the David Allgood Professorship in Business Law, with its inaugural professor appointed last year). “This positions Queen’s as a clear leader of business law teaching and scholarship in Canada.”
The Dean is aiming high; he envisions the first Sigurdson Professor as a global leader in corporate law and finance who will make a major contribution to the Faculty’s business law program, including teaching, graduate supervision and research. The appointment will broaden and deepen Queen’s business law expertise, building on the success of the Bader International Study Centre program in international business law, the Queen’s Business Law Clinic, and the Law’80 Visiting Scholar in Business Law.
Donor support for the memorial was unprecedented, says Flanagan, expressing the Faculty’s gratitude to the Sigurdson family, to the 400-plus donors who stepped forward, and to Betty DelBianco, Law’84 – Sigurdson’s dear friend, classmate and fellow Dean’s Council member – who spearheaded the fundraising campaign.
DelBianco smiles about the initial idea for a “simple” memorial that came from Stephen’s wife, Leslie (Black) Sigurdson, Law’84, and their four daughters. “That the fund has been such a success and that so much money was raised in only five months is a testament to the high regard in which Steve was held,” she says.
Sigurdson spent the first two decades of his distinguished career at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, joining Manulife in 2010 and holding positions as Executive VP and General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer for Manulife globally.
Donald Guloien, Manulife’s CEO, met Sigurdson 16 years ago while working on a Japanese acquisition. “I soon came to know he had a brilliant mind and great sense of humour, and that he was friendly, collaborative, and morally and ethically as straight as an arrow. His passing left a big hole in the lives of many people, and we all miss him dearly.”
Leslie Sigurdson says she and the girls “miss Steve every minute of every day, too, but knowing this professorship has been created and will continue in perpetuity gives us comfort. The generosity of friends, family, classmates, colleagues, business and the law school has been tremendous. We thank everyone involved.”
The Sigurdson Professorship was officially announced in April at “Celebrate Queen’s Law,” an annual alumni event in Toronto, where Steve’s family accepted the school’s highest alumni honour, the H.R.S. Ryan Law Alumni Award of Distinction, conferred posthumously. On June 15, the Canadian General Counsel Awards (CGCA) also paid him tribute with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Stephen will have many legacies. It’s through the new professorship that those who esteemed Stephen have ensured him a legacy that will benefit students for decades to come.
By Kirsteen MacLeod