2020 Gold Medalist announced

Abbey Kind, JD'20, has received the William A. McGillvray Gold Medal, for achieving the highest aggregate standing during her three years of study at UCalgary Law.

Prior to law school Abbey completed her Bachelor of Commerce (with Distinction) at the University of Calgary and her Master of Professional Accounting at the University of Saskatchewan.  She obtained her Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) designation and was recognized on the CPA Canada National Honor Roll for exceptional performance (top 1%) on the September 2016 Common Final Exam.

Intending to merge her accounting education and experience with a career in corporate law, and a specific interest in practicing Tax Law, Abbey chose to attend law school at the University of Calgary for the variety of corporate-commercial courses offered and various experiential learning opportunities.

In law school Abbey was involved with the UCalgary Law competitive mooting program, placing as the Top Respondent at the Donald Bowman National Tax Moot Competition in 2019 and competing at the Davies’ Annual Corporate/Securities Law Moot in 2020. She was also active in negotiation competitions, placing first at the Denton’s Negotiation Competition in Calgary (2017) and advanced to compete at the Canadian National Negotiation Competition (2018).

Throughout law school Abbey continued her passion for sports by participating on the UCalgary Faculty of Law’s basketball and volleyball intramural teams and actively using the UofC climbing wall and squash facilities with other law students.

Abbey is currently working as a Research Assistant / TA for Catherine Brown, assisting with the transition of the Basic Tax course to an online format for the Summer 2020 semester. She plans to enjoy some downtime this summer before starting her articles in August at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Calgary where she will be performing rotations in both the Tax and Litigation groups.

About the William A. McGillvray Gold Medal

A gold medal was not available to first graduating class in 1979. The Faculty of Law Gold Medal was first presented in 1980 to the graduating student who received the highest academic standing. In 1985, the Gold Medal became the W.A. McGillvray Gold Medal in Law. It was donated by the friends, family and colleagues of the late W.A. McGillvray who was Chief Justice of Alberta from 1974 to 1984.