Recipients of Borrin Foundation Individual Funding announced – Women Leaders in Law Fellowships and Travel and Learning Awards

Borrin Foundation Women Leaders in Law Fellowship

The Borrin Foundation Women Leaders in Law Fellowship supports women who are on a journey to becoming leaders in the legal world in Aotearoa New Zealand with up to $50,000 in funding. This year the foundation decided to support two individuals.

• Christina Pikiuha-Billing is currently Senior Legal Counsel at the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner. She has been selected to receive $28,500 to pursue a Postgraduate Diploma in Bioethics and Health Law (PGDipBHL), and a Master of Bioethics and Health Law degree (MBHL), through the University of Otago.
• Lili Song is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Otago University. Her primary research and teaching area is refugee law. She has been selected to receive $24,800 to examine two aspects of Aotearoa New Zealand’s refugee law: (1) cancellation of refugee status; and (2) the good faith requirement in refugee status determination.

Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Awards

Travel and Learning Awards are available to support individual members of the New Zealand legal community to take up opportunities to learn from others, build networks and relationships, and investigate innovative ideas. 12 awards of up to $10,000 each are available per year.

In the last funding round four individuals were selected to receive Travel and Learning Awards:

• Anna Marie Brennan – $10,000 To travel to Holland to spend six weeks’ conducting research at the TMC Asser Institute for International Law and The Peace Palace Library.
• Helen Mackay – $9,732 To conduct a study tour of Australia and the UK, to explore leading practice NewLaw developments and to bring these insights back to New Zealand to share them widely with other legal services providers, academia and the wider legal profession.
• Mihiata Pirini – $9,988 To learn about indigenous law research, method, and practice in Canada and share her learnings with Māori law academics across Aotearoa through online and in-person wānanga and kōrero.
• Natasha Lewis – $7,685 To attend Global Ageing Conference 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland, a Social Care Workforce Symposium, and meet policymakers and researchers on ageing policy in the UK and Italy.

From 2024 onwards, applications for the Borrin Foundation Community Law Fellowship, the Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship and the Women Leaders in Law Fellowship will be invited annually in March. Applications for the Travel and Learning Awards will continue to be invited twice a year.

Dates for Current round

The current round of applications for the Borrin Foundation Justice Fellowship, the Borrin Foundation Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga postgraduate Scholarship and Travel and Learning Awards will close at 12pm September 4, 2023.

Information on eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found here: https://www.borrinfoundation.nz/fellowshipsawards/

ENDS

MORE INFORMATION

The Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation was established in 2018 through a $38 million bequest by the late Judge Ian Borrin. It is a philanthropic organisation which supports legal research, education, and scholarship. The Foundation’s current strategic areas of focus are the criminal justice system, family law and access to civil justice.

Media Contact

Oli Malthus

T: 02108044110

E: oli@borrinfoundation.nz