It is with profound sadness that we announce that Allan Parker QC- once a founding Executive Director of Access Pro Bono- passed away peacefully on June 13, 2012 in the loving company of his wife Boni and daughter Cassandra. Allan's obituary can be viewed here.

Allan was admired inside and outside of BC's legal community for his relentless passion for law and social justice. He served the public interest in many diverse ways throughout his storied legal career, including as a poverty law lawyer in Nanaimo, as a teacher of the Law Society of BC's Professional Legal Training Course, as the manager of the Legal Services Society of BC's former LawLINE service, as a Provincial Court mediator, and as an architect of the Law Foundation of BC's Legal Advocacy Training Course.

He was best known in BC's pro bono community for having led the Western Canada Society for Access to Justice in the critical years following Dugald Christie's own untimely passing in 2007, and for having steered the organization toward its monumental 2010 merger with Pro Bono Law of BC into Access Pro Bono. Allan was appointed as Queen's Counsel in 2010.

Words cannot convey how much everyone at Access Pro Bono misses Allan. He was a wonderfully dedicated co-worker, mentor and "soldier for access to justice" (as he often described others in our field). But first and foremost, he was a loving and ever-positive friend. Even amidst darkness and struggle, he saw and pursued the good in things.

We miss him dearly.