By Kevin J. Sabo
An Ottawa lawyer with deep ties to Ponoka is giving back to the community he grew up in.
Kyle Morrow grew up in Ponoka and graduated from St. Augustine School in 2009. After high school, he went on to law school and was called to the bar in 2017. Since then, he’s been working in Ottawa, however he stills feels that Alberta is home.
To give back to the community, Morrow is establishing four-$500 scholarships for high school students carrying on into post-secondary education. The scholarships will be split, with two going to St. Augustine, and two going to Ponoka Secondary Campus.
“It’s a way to give back to the community and hopefully help Ponoka students in their post-secondary journey,” said Morrow.
He plans to offer the scholarships annually and wants to build the program up, allowing him to help more kids.
“It will be an annual thing,” said Morrow.
“I want to build the program up and grow it.”
As for returning to the province he grew up, he hopes to at some point.
“Maybe one day. My goal is to come back to Alberta, but that will depend on the legal market, and transferring within the firm,” said Morrow. “You get practising, and you kind of get tied down to a community.”
Morrow has had a successful tenure in the four years he has been practising law. Best Lawyers, an international organization that ranks lawyers in different areas of law in over 100 countries, awarded Morrow with an award called “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.”
While the Best Lawyers awards typically go to senior lawyers, the Ones to Watch award is a newly established award for lawyers who have been practising between three and eight years.
“This year they created a new award,” said Morrow. “You are nominated by peers in the profession, then a panel of lawyers that work for this organization make the decision.”
Morrow’s One to Watch award is in the category of administrative and public law.
In addition to his work at the Ottawa-based law firm, Morrow will also begin teaching at Carlton University this fall. He will be teaching a law course called “Political Management and the Law” under the Clayton H. Riddell Masters of Political Management program.