Wolfe Goodman Award

The Wolfe Goodman Award (the “Award”) is a $250 cash award established by Joel Nitikman through the OBA Foundation from contributions made by numerous lawyers and law firms across Canada.  The Award was established by Joel in honour of the late Wolfe Goodman's many accomplishments and contributions to Estates and Trusts law. 

The Award will recognize annually the best article or case comment published in the Estates, Trusts and Pensions Journal by a Canadian lawyer who has been called to the Bar for six years or less.  The Award criteria are as follows:

  1. The Award is presented at the year-end dinner of the OBA Trusts and Estates Section (the “Section”).
  2. At the year-end dinner the Award is presented to the author(s) of the best, previously unpublished, article or case comment (“Article”) published in that year’s volume of the Estates Trusts & Pensions Journal (the “Journal”).
  3. Each year’s winning Article is chosen by a rotating panel of three lawyers (the “Selection Committee”).  The members of the Selection Committee shall be appointed annually by Joel Nitikman or by any person Joel Nitikman shall appoint in writing in this regard (the “Alternate Appointer”), or failing Joel Nitikman being alive and capable of making such appointments and appointing an Alternate Appointer, the Chair of the Section shall appoint the members of the Selection Committee and shall have the power to appoint an Alternate Appointer.
  4. In selecting an Article for the Award the Selection Committee will focus on the Article’s:
    1. originality;
    2. scope;
    3. technical merit, including depth of research, legal analysis, writing quality and the articulation of presented ideas; and
    4. creativity, including original thought and contribution to the body of law.
  5. To receive the Award the author(s) of the Article must have been called to the bar or otherwise qualified to practice in his or her field for less than six years as of the date the Article was submitted to the Journal for publication. 
  1. Each year the Journal’s Editor-in-Chief will forward to the Chair of the Selection Committee all Articles that meet the criterion in (5).
  2. Notwithstanding (1), (2), (3), (9) and (10), if in a particular year the Selection Committee determines that no Article is suitable for the Award because no article meets all of the above criteria, then the Award will not be presented that year and the Chair of the Selection Committee will so notify the Chair of the Section.
  3. Current members of the Selection Committee are not eligible for the Award.Every year the Chair of the Section will invite Wolfe Goodman’s daughters to present the Award.  If they do not accept the invitation, then the Chair of the Section or a person selected by the Chair will present it. 
  4. After the Award is presented, the Selection Committee, through the OBA Foundation, will arrange for a cheque to be issued to the author (or if there is more than one, then cheques for $250 divided by the number of authors) and a Certificate commemorating the Award. 

The OBA Foundation thanks the following initial donors for their generous contributions which made this award possible:  Joel Nitikman, Doris Bonora, Howard Carr, Cy Fien, Elena Hoffstein, Ian Hull, Fiona Hunter, Albert Oosterhoff, Suzana Popovic-Montag, Archie Rabinowitz, Martin Rochwerg, Elie Roth, Marilyn Piccini Roy, Crystal Taylor, Carmen Thériault, Janine Thomas, Thorsteinssons LLP, WEL Partners, and Ian Worland.

Award Recipients

Congratulations to the past Award Recipients:

2024 - Baruch Wise

2023 - Calvin Hancock and Ryan Mulders

2022 - Frankie Young

2021 - Rami Pandher and Channing Brown

2020 - Calvin Hancock

2019 - Calvin Hancock

2018 - Peter Cotton-O’Brien

2017 - Katerina Svozilkova

2017 - Olivia Holzapfel

2017 - Sheena Lessard