Part of the gift will be earmarked for the Hope Hyslop Legacy Community Legal Clinic Fund
Thompson Rivers University’s faculty of law has received a $1.4 million investment in the form of a watershed legacy gift honoring the late Hope Hyslop, a former Supreme Court of British Columbia judge and TRU judge-in-residence.
Part of the gift will be devoted to the Hope Hyslop Legacy Community Legal Clinic Fund’s establishment. The fund is intended to expand the university’s community legal clinic, which helps people within the province’s interior with family law and human rights matters.
It will be used to grow headcount and capacity to improve supervision, bolster student participation, and enhance legal service delivery to underserved and marginalized communities while providing opportunities for students to gain practical experience. The fund honors Hyslop’s dedication to access to justice; she had launched the first legal aid clinic in Kamloops and served as volunteer supervising lawyer at the CLC.
Moreover, the gift will be used to set up the Hope Hyslop Legacy Law Retention Awards, which will financially back students focusing on family law. The awards honor academic focus as well as plans to practise in Northern B.C., Thompson-Okanagan, the Cariboo, and the Kootenays.
Four returning third-year students will be selected each year to receive $10,000.
“These awards are more than financial support — they are a statement of purpose, encouraging emerging lawyers to pursue careers in family law and to serve communities where legal expertise is in high demand,” said Daleen Millard, dean of TRU’s law faculty, in a statement. “Justice Hyslop understood those needs intimately. Over decades of practice, she saw firsthand how access to skilled legal representation can change lives, particularly in family law where the stakes are deeply personal. Through these awards, she is helping ensure that future generations of lawyers carry that work forward.”
Hyslop had died on December 7, 2025. She had been one of just three women to graduate from University of British Columbia Law School in 1966 and the only female lawyer in Kamloops for a time. She was called to the bar in 1967.
After a stint practising with law firms as a family law specialist, she established her own practice before joining the bench in 2003. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2009.
Hyslop retired from court in 2017 and commenced with the TRU faculty of law, where she remained until 2023. She mentored young lawyers and future judges. In June, she was awarded a posthumous doctor of law.
“We remember justice Hyslop with respect and gratitude. Her legacy gift will have an enduring impact on the lives of TRU law students as well as all those who utilize the TRU Community Legal Clinic (CLC) and the broader community,” said Dr. Airini, TRU’s president and vice-chancellor.
