Andrew Pilliar is a teacher and researcher whose work focuses on improving access to justice. His doctoral research examines the structure of the market for personal legal services to sustainably improve access to justice. His prior LLM research explored the twin problems of access to civil justice and lawyer career dissatisfaction, suggesting an innovative practice model to alleviate both.
Before returning to graduate studies, Andrew practiced in the litigation and insolvency fields at a national law firm and at a Vancouver boutique, and clerked for the BC Supreme Court. In addition to his current research, Andrew has investigated pro bono work patterns among BC lawyers, the business/profession dichotomy in law, and the contours of graduate legal education in Canada. He is also a founder of the Access to Justice Research Network. His interest in access to justice extends both to how people find and obtain legal services, and also how legal service providers can deliver services in more accessible ways. Andrew practices in the areas of family law, civil litigation, and corporate commercial.
Andrew holds law degrees from UBC and the University of Toronto, and a degree in biology and physics from Queen’s University. He has been a Junior Fellow of Massey College, an Action Canada Fellow, and is a recipient of UBC’s Public Scholar Award. His articles have appeared in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice and the Journal of Law and Equality, and his TEDx talk on access to justice has been viewed several thousand times online.
