Reaching Up, Reaching Back: Monica Kowal and Andrew Heal on Gratitude, Community, and Joy in Legal Education

“You only succeed because you’re reaching up for the hands of those that went before you, and you’ve got to reach back at the same time to bring along those who are coming behind you.”

For Monica Kowal (LLB ’87) and Andrew Heal (LLB ‘88), that belief has shaped both their careers and their approach to giving. Together, they see support for the University of Toronto Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law not as obligation, but as continuity: they were lifted up, and now they are extending a hand to those who follow.

Education as Opportunity

For both Heal and Kowal, their decision to support the Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law is rooted in gratitude and the power of education to create opportunity.

Kowal’s parents were immigrants to Canada and neither had a university education. Heal’s parents, who began their lives in Bermuda, built their future here through education. His father was able to attend university in Canada thanks to support from his local community, bursaries, scholarships, and Andrew’s mother, who worked as a teacher and helped put Andrew’s father through the “other” Toronto law school after his U of T undergrad.

“We both saw the opportunities that education provides,” Kowal says. “It’s definitely motivated from a spirit of gratitude and a desire to give back and to pay it forward.”

Joy in the Pursuit of Intellectual Rigour

For Kowal, law school was a formative experience in every sense. She arrived at a young age, and her legal education coincided with a challenging period in her life.

“The law school gave me so much,” she says. “It gave me a community, the joy of intellectual rigour, and some of the most lasting relationships of my life.”

Those relationships have endured for more than 40 years – including six close friends she still connects with regularly, and, ultimately, her husband Andrew.

Heal shares that sentiment. “The joy that law school has brought me is from the pursuit of challenging intellectual problems,” he says. “The intellectual rigour that U of T helped me develop has stayed with me throughout my legal career.”

For both, excellence at U of T was never only about reputation or rankings. It was about the people: faculty who pushed them to think more deeply, classmates who broadened their perspectives and became lifelong friends, and a broader Toronto community that made their work meaningful.

Reaching Back

Today, that experience informs how they think about supporting the next generation.

Heal believes mentorship and time are as important as financial contributions. “One of the most important things is giving your time freely to others – even if it’s just 20 minutes for a coffee chat or some career advice,” he says.

Kowal sees the present moment for students and grads alike – marked by rapid technological and social change – as one of disruption, but also of new opportunity and possibility.

“We’re living through an age of disruption,” she says. “I would encourage students to think about the opportunities that periods of disruption offer to identify what we can lean into and make better. What opportunities does this disruption offer us to have a positive impact and shape what comes next, because it is not foretold.”

Heal advises students to learn and think broadly before specializing. “Breadth, not depth. Don’t go too deep too soon,” he says. He took tax and labour law – but practices in neither of those areas. At the same time, he acknowledges the accelerating role of technology: “We do have to use AI to help us learn more efficiently. AI use is growing exponentially.”

Both also emphasize something simpler.

“Have some fun,” Heal says with a laugh.

He fondly remembers participating in Law Follies, rowing with the varsity team, and the camaraderie of classmates who challenged and inspired him. Law, he notes, “is a jealous master or mistress – the hard work will take as much time and energy as you give it.”

Kowal agrees: “Enjoy yourself is always good advice.”

For both, supporting the Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law is about preserving what mattered most in their own experience: intellectual curiosity, community, opportunity – and yes, joy.