LESA values all 
our volunteers and your generous contributions of time, talent, and energy! To show how much we appreciate you, we’ll be posting volunteer profile blogs throughout the year as a way to say thank-you and highlight the specific contributions of our outstanding volunteers.
This feature highlights Max Blitt QC, an enthusiastic CPLED volunteer who assists the face-to-face programing as both a Facilitator and Evaluator.
Max is an associate at Speir Harben and practices primarily in family law, real estate, and wills and estates. He also has extensive experience dealing with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abductions. He has assisted clients and legal counsel to recover children abducted within Canada and internationally. In addition to international children’s issues, Max works with counsel in foreign countries on support and property issues involving Canada and foreign jurisdictions.
Max is a member of numerous associations, including Canada Family Mediation and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (International). Since 2006, he has served as a Court Appointed Dispute Resolution Officer with the Court of Queen’s Bench. He has had numerous speaking engagements and has volunteered with many organizations, including his ongoing support for CPLED, Alberta’s bar admission program.
For the past 5 years, Max has volunteered with two of CPLED’s in-person modules: Oral Advocacy and Negotiations. Max has worked both as a Facilitator, helping to facilitate learning and provide feedback to students in preparation for the module’s competency evaluation, and as an Evaluator, evaluating the module’s final competency assessment to determine the student’s level of achievement in demonstrating the lawyer competency targeted in the module.
When asked what caused him to start volunteering with CPLED, Max said that he was motivated to get involved by a “desire to give back” and because he enjoys “working with younger lawyers.” LESA certainly appreciates the wealth of experience he brings from his work assisting with the recovery of abducted children and dealing with support and property issues. And Max says that he’s happy to impart any of the insights he’s gained over the years, especially since “the idea of advocacy transcends any one area of the law.”
We also asked Max what he most enjoys most about volunteering with CPLED. For Max, it’s the “opportunity to work with future lawyers as well as the other lawyers who volunteer with CPLED.” While he certainly values the opportunity to help young lawyers develop the skills they will need to succeed in their future practice, he also emphasizes the value of connecting with colleagues. He says that “it’s key to get to know other lawyers in social settings.”
Max says his advice to fellow lawyers is “volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.” He describes volunteering with CPLED as “one of the most rewarding things you can do, and one of the most meaningful ways to give back.”
One last fun fact about Max, he enjoys using physical fitness to help achieve balance in his busy schedule. He also enjoys travelling and is part of a group who takes bicycle trips around the world. He’s been to many places, including Croatia, Spain, and Italy. And his favorite place to visit: “a place I’ve never been.”
If you would like information about volunteering with CPLED’s online modules, please contact Bronwyn Connolly, LESA’s Assessment and Evaluation Coordinator at [email protected] or at 780-969-3555.
If you are interested in volunteering with CPLED’s face-to-face modules, please contact Janette Sztym, LESA’s Program Coordinator at [email protected] or at 780-969-3553.
