Faculty of Law Celebrates 2026 Teaching Award winners

The Faculty of Law congratulates Dr. Bruce Curran and Mr. Leif Jensen, recipients of the Faculty’s two top teaching awards given annually to recognize one professor and one practicing professional instructor. Curran is the recipient of The Barney Sneiderman Award for Teaching Excellence and Jensen was chosen for the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. The winners were announced at the June 6^th Faculty of Law graduation dinner.

Barney Sneiderman Award

The Barney Sneiderman Award honours a late beloved faculty member who taught Manitoba law students from 1969 until the year of his passing in 2006. Friends and family remember Barney as being eternally curious, confidently irreverent, and passionately interested in connecting with people from all walks of life. He was a devoted educator, in the classroom and beyond, through his writing (of academic texts and op-eds) and his speaking (on the radio and at conferences). He was a devoted husband and father to his wife and three children as well as an ardent educator. He strove for excellence in all he did and would be delighted to know that an award to recognize excellence in teaching was created in his name to foster the dedicated teachers who have followed his example with a love of learning.

Dr. Curran joined the faculty in 2016 and teaches Contracts, Negotiations, and Labour Law at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law. His area of research focus is on using empirical methods to study labour & employment law and dispute resolution.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Western; a Master of Industrial Relations from the University of Toronto; and a Master of Laws in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School. Curran earned a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Curran has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and chapters in the area of labour and employment law and is a member of the national Labour Law Casebook Group, a group of Professors from across Canada who have published the authoritative Canadian casebook for labour and employment law. 

Curran has received a number of awards and honours for his teaching including the 2015 Award of Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (now Ontario Tech University). And the University of Manitoba Merit Award for Teaching Excellence for the Humanities and Social Sciences section. In 2020, he was selected by one of his former students for recognition at UM’s Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning’s Students’ Teacher Recognition Reception.

“Winning [the Barney Sneiderman award] is one of the great honours of my career,” said Curran, who had previously been thrice nominated for the award. “I am very grateful to my nominators and consider myself to have the best job in the world teaching the students of Robson Hall everyday”.  

Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence

The Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence is given in recognition of professional commitment beyond the call of duty to the student experience, innovative teaching methods, development of instructional materials, coaching of students in competitions, or contributions to student development outside the classroom.

Leif Jensen was appointed as the supervising staff lawyer at the University of Manitoba Community Law Centre’s Prison Law Clinic in 2025 and was a staff lawyer with Legal Aid Manitoba until recently accepting an assistant professor position at the Faculty of Law commencing July 1, 2026. Throughout the 2025 – 2026 summer and school term, he supervised students working in the Prison Law Clinic externship.

Called to the Bar in 2015, Leif Jensen has practiced in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba. He has represented clients, including protestors, nonprofits, Indigenous Government, and advocacy organizations, on Charter and constitutions issues at all levels of Court. He has worked with hundreds of inmates on a variety of matters including judicial reviews, grievances, disciplinary matters, gender identity, human rights, civil claims, prerogative writs, and other matters relating to carceral accountability. Jensen has a JD from the University of Saskatchewan (2014) and an LLM from the University of Victoria (2024).

"I am very honoured to receive this award, and to join the excellent company of the past recipients," said Jensen.