ACCESS
DEC 2014
WINDSOR LAW
INSIDE
WINDSOR TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE:
THIRD WORLD APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL LAW
Read the full story on page 5.
OUR NEWEST CLINIC THROUGH THE EYES OF OUR STUDENTS
THE HUMAN CONTEXT OF BUSINESS LAW
By Shaya Motamed,
J.D. Candidate 2015
By Whitney Miller
J.D. Candidate 2015
I started working at the
Law, Technology and
Entrepreneurship Clinic
during winter of last year. The
experience has been absolutely
invaluable. As a member of
the clinic, I’ve been afforded
countless opportunities to work
directly with small businesses
on entrepreneurial projects. This
has included incorporations,
share capital structuring,
corporate governance work
for a non-profit, patent novelty
searches and trademark
searches. I have also delivered
a number of public legal
education seminars both
to other law students and
members of the community.
More importantly, my experience
with LTEC has put everything
I have been taught about
business law in context, and
it has layered on a human
dimension that I could never
have learned from a book.
There are so many uncertainties
in business law, as in any
other field, and it is incredibly
important to develop the
competency to help clients
navigate them while planning
their businesses. In general,
I have found that business law
concepts are now much easier
to understand and to
communicate to others.
The summer term with LTEC
has been a great experience.
Everything at the clinic is
oriented around the educational
experience. Wissam Aoun
truly cares about students’
growth and he pushes us to
find the answers on our own.
He ensures that we know not
only how to do things, but why
they are done in that way. The
LTEC team is a collaborative
effort, which facilitates learning
and experimental thinking.
The wide range of clients this
summer offered work in both
corporate and IP matters. This
is important for development
as it enables students to
sink their teeth into a bit of
everything before deciding which
fields most interest them. Our
projects allowed for practical,
hands on experience in cases
with complex, multi-layered
issues. We gained knowledge
and skills that will give us a
great start in our professional
lives. For example, I was given
the opportunity to do multiple
patent novelty searches and
draft analysis reports, perform
trademarks searches to see if
potential marks were clear, and
Another aspect of the clinic I
have enjoyed relates to our law
school’s focus on social justice.
Legal education has
a tendency to set social justice
and business law at two ends of
a false dichotomy. I understand
the two, rather, as existing on
a continuum. Our clients are
students who tend to have little
or no income, or non-profit
organizations. Windsor has
a large host of entrepreneurs
with great ideas and we are
allowing them to access legal
services that would otherwise
be far beyond their means.
I would encourage anyone with
an interest in gaining practical
legal experience, and developing
professional competency and
public speaking skills to get
involved with the LTEC clinic.
draft a shareholders’ agreement
for a startup company.
With LTEC, students are also
given access to patent and
trademark databases, giving
them an opportunity to gain
some advanced research
experience. I have really
improved my search strategies,
which will be applicable to
all kinds of research, not just
research on IP matters. LTEC
has been an overwhelmingly
positive clinic experience.
AN EXCEPTIONAL LAW SCHOOL FOR A CHANGING WORLD
ADAM VASEY
RECEIVES LAW FOUNDATION
OF ONTARIO FELLOWSHIP
Pathway to Potential is fighting
poverty while strengthening Windsor
I am truly honoured to be a recipient of the Law Foundation
of Ontario’s (LFO) Community Leadership in Justice Fellowship.
Through this program, the LFO has supported many community
leaders to pursue innovative, justice-oriented projects that bridge
community and academia. I am humbled to be joining that list.
I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Windsor Law’s Dean
Cameron and Associate Dean Bhadi for their deep commitment
to this project. I also want to thank the LFO for their leadership
and insight in making these fellowships available.
As a proud graduate of Windsor Law
and the School of Social Work at the
University of Windsor, it is exciting to
be back on campus – in a part-time
capacity – for the fall and winter terms.
While I thoroughly enjoy the fast-paced
nature of my work as director
of Pathway to Potential (P2P), there
is something exhilarating about the
rush of creative energy and feeling
of renewal that the start of a fall
semester brings.
These are exciting times at Windsor
Law. Just this past summer, Windsor
Law and Pathway to Potential
completed the first phase of the
Poverty and Social Policy Externship
Pilot, which was supported through a
University of Windsor Strategic Priority
JILLIAN ROGIN ‘08
Fund grant. The Pilot came together
through the collaboration and vision of
Windsor Law’s Associate Dean Bhadi
and Professors Mummé, Smit, Smyth
and Tawfik. It allowed P2P to hire four
Windsor Law students over the summer
to engage in local anti-poverty efforts,
and all four students will continue their
work for course credit in the fall term.
The LFO Fellowship will support
research into the development of
a unique social justice externship
model that can complement the
existing clinical programs for which
Windsor Law is highly regarded. The
research will be undertaken in the
spirit of true community-university
partnership; it will focus on creating
experiential learning opportunities that
This is a unique opportunity to draw on,
and deepen, my academic and work
experience in both law and social work.
It will not only allow me to explore how
social work principles and practices
can be used to inform lawyers’
responses to poverty and other social
justice issues, but also to build capacity
and connections within and across
Windsor Law, the School of Social
Work and a wide network of community
organizations.
If you are interested in connecting
about this project, I would love
to hear from you! I can be reached
at avasey@uwindsor.ca or
519-253-3000 ext. 3968.
TAKES ON NEW ROLE
AS CLA REVIEW COUNSEL
I attended law school with the intention of working
towards systemic change within the Canadian legal
system for marginalized people and I believe law
school clinics have the potential to be catalysts
for change.
After accepting the position as review counsel
at Community Legal Aid and moving to Windsor
from Toronto in June of 2014, I realized that I was
‘coming home’ in more ways than one. I was born
and raised in Windsor and still have lots of family
and friends here, I am an alumna of Windsor Law,
2
are equally beneficial to students and
community organizations.
and I was a CLA student volunteer in all three
years of law school. I am thrilled to be working
at CLA and am honoured to be learning so much
from colleagues, students, and most importantly,
from the clients we serve. What an absolutely
exciting place for me to be; at the forefront of
social justice legal work, working with and learning
from students, and being immersed in the law
school community. In so many ways, I am thrilled
to be home!
MEET OUR NEWEST FACULTY
Professor Sara Wharton
Professor Sara Wharton
completed her Ph.D. at the
University of Cambridge and has
joined the University of Windsor
most recently from the National
University of Singapore where
she was a postdoctoral fellow.
In 2013, she was awarded an
Endeavour Research Fellowship
from the Government of
Australia which she held as a
Visiting Fellow at the University
of New South Wales Faculty of
Law in Sydney, Australia.
Professor Wharton is teaching
Criminal Law and Access to
Justice in the first year law
curriculum this year. Her
research is in the field of
international criminal law and
transnational criminal law and
she is also interested in public
international law, international
humanitarian law, and Canadian
criminal law.
She has welcomed the
opportunity to study, research,
and work in international law
in seven countries on four
different continents including
Canada, the United States,
Denmark, the United Kingdom,
the Netherlands, Australia,
and Singapore. This has also
enabled her to enjoy three of her
passions, travelling, learning
about different regions of the
world, and trying new foods.
However, she is excited to return
back home to Canada and to join
the Law Faculty at the University
of Windsor.
Professor Pascale Chapdelaine
Professor Pascale Chapdelaine’s
current research looks at the
intersection between copyright,
property and contracts, and at
various aspects of copyright
users’ rights. Her research
interests expand to broader
consumer protection issues, as
they relate to new technologies
and new business offerings. She
teaches contracts, intellectual
property, and consumer law.
After practising law for more
than fourteen years in corporate,
commercial and intellectual
property law at the Montrealbased law firm Lavery de Billy,
and then as corporate counsel at
Bell Canada and BCE Inc., what
drew her to academia is her love
for learning, researching, and
contributing to ongoing debates
about pressing legal issues.
Interacting with students in and
outside the classroom, pushing
their thinking, supporting them
in their academic endeavours, is
a constant source of inspiration
that gives her great pride in her
work.
Professor Chapdelaine
volunteered for many years
on the parent council of the
school of her children, always
with a particular attention
for the children who were left
behind. She looks forward to
being actively involved in the
community life of the University
and City of Windsor. In her free
time, she enjoys hiking, cycling,
and cross-country skiing with
her family and friends. She
has a passion for history, food
and travelling, and is fluent in
French, English and Dutch.
Professor Noel Semple
Professor Noel Semple is
delighted to join Windsor Law,
where he is teaching Access to
Justice and Civil Procedure. In
addition to those two fields, his
research interests include legal
ethics and professionalism as
well as family law. He received
his J.D. degree from the
University of Toronto Faculty
of Law, and his LL.M and Ph.D
from Osgoode Hall Law School.
3
Windsor Law’s focus on
access to justice makes it an
excellent fit for Noel. He enjoyed
mentoring first year students
in the Professional Identity and
Legal Skills intensive week, and
is looking forward to continuing
his collaboration with Professor
Julie Macfarlane’s National SelfRepresented Litigants Research
Project.
Noel’s wife Angelique Moss
practises law at Devries
Litigation LLP, an estate
litigation boutique firm.
They are proud parents of
six-year-old Madeleine and
two-year-old Malcolm. Noel’s
interests include running and
cycling, often along Windsor’s
spectacular Riverside Trail.
Roy McMurtry’s Memoirs and
Reflections is on his bedside
table. Bojack Horseman and
the BBC’s Sherlock are at
the top of his Netflix recent
activity screen.
AN EXCEPTIONAL LAW SCHOOL FOR A CHANGING WORLD
FACULTY NEWS
AND ACCOLADES
CONKLIN JOINS FELLOWSHIP
OF ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA
RECENT
RETIREMENTS
Professor Bill Conklin has been elected
to the Fellowship of the Royal Society
of Canada.
We would like to acknowledge the
retirement of the following faculty
members and wish them the very
best in their next adventures!
Every year, distinguished scholars and
artists are elected to the Fellowship
of the Royal Society of Canada on the
basis of their exceptional contributions
to Canadian intellectual life. Professor
Conklin was elected as a Fellow by his
peers in the Social Sciences Division
of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Julio Menezes
Leigh West
Chris Wydrzynski
Emily Carasco
Professor Conklin’s Fellowship is a great
honour for him, and also for Windsor
Law School and the University of Windsor.
It is a testament to his outstanding
scholarship and his standing as an
academic. We are all very proud of
him and of his accomplishments.
SEMPLE WINS OBA FOUNDATION
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
Accessible Professionalism
for Tomorrow’s Lawyers
or confronting non-state parties such as
insurance companies and ex-spouses?
What impediments do these private law
“personal plight” lawyers encounter in
their efforts to provide services to people
of modest means? Is there anything that
the legal profession and its regulators
can do to increase the accessibility of this
segment of the bar?
Lawyers in private practice offer an
essential portal between people with
legal problems and the just resolutions
which law promises. How, and to what
extent, do lawyers create access to
justice for individuals negotiating with
4
These research questions animate
Accessible Professionalism, a research
project being launched by Prof. Noel
Semple. The project continues his recent
research focus on access to justice and
the legal profession. In Personal Plight
Legal Practice and Tomorrow’s Lawyers
(forthcoming in the Journal of the Legal
Profession), he argues that lawyers who
provide litigation and dispute resolution
Moira McCarney
services for individuals will be largely
sheltered from the computerization and
off-shoring threats which are threatening
other legal careers in North America.
Semple has also written a monograph,
which will be published by Edward Elgar
Press in spring, 2015. Legal Services
Regulation at the Crossroads: Justitia’s
Legions is both a comparative study of
legal services regulation in the common
law world, and an agenda for regulatory
reform. The relationship between
regulation and access to justice is a
major theme of the book, and one that
is particularly relevant in Ontario given
the ongoing debates about the paralegal
scope of practice and alternative business
structures for law firms.
VALARIE WABOOSE
Valarie graduated from Windsor in
1993 and was called to the Bar in
1995. She practiced law within her
community of Walpole Island First
Nation for five years as In-House Legal
Counsel. While working full-time she
completed an LL.M. in Alternative
Dispute Resolution (1999) at Osgoode
Hall Law School and obtained
certification as a Life Skills Coach.
In 2002 she completed the Program
on Negotiation at Harvard University.
She then established a consulting
business specializing in policy
development, strategic planning,
program planning and evaluation,
pre-employment training and life skills
coaching. She is presently completing
her PhD at Trent University. Her
APPOINTED RON IANNI
SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE
doctoral thesis examines the
compensation processes utilized
by residential school survivors.
As a member of the Three Fires
Midewiwin Society, Valarie’s teaching
philosophy includes introducing
both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
students to Anishinabe (Ojibway)
culture and traditions. She believes
that non-Aboriginal students need to
learn the basic tenets of an Aboriginal
worldview before they can represent
Aboriginal clients effectively.
Valarie’s appointment as Ron Ianni
Scholar-in-Residence includes
coaching the Aboriginal Moot team,
recruiting Aboriginal students,
coordinating a speaker’s series and
reviewing the services that Windsor
Law clinics provide to Aboriginal
people. She will also offer courses in
indigenous law and legal traditions.
Valarie loves the work that she
has undertaken. She believes that
to attract more Aboriginal students
into the law program, it is essential
to offer Aboriginal courses and
culturally appropriate programming
and services for students of Aboriginal
ancestry. As a proud alumnus of
Windsor Law, she feels that her
experience, her familiarity with the
Windsor-Essex area,her work ethic
and dedication can help the law
program to achieve its Aboriginal
recruiting and programming goals.
WINDSOR TO HOST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Third World Approaches to International Law
York University), Usha Natarajan
(American University in Cairo) and
John Reynolds (National University
of Ireland-Maynooth).
The first ever TWAIL conference in
the global South will be held in Cairo
in February 2015. This conference
will be followed by two workshops
at the University of Windsor (June
2015) and the National University of
Ireland, Maynooth (September 2015).
The conference is co-organised by
Professors Sujith Xavier (University
of Windsor, Faculty of Law), Amar
Bhatia (Osgoode Hall Law School,
5
The TWAIL Cairo conference and
workshops arise from a worldwide
network of established and emerging
scholars, practitioners, and graduate
students of international law and
relations engaged with the evolving
and complex relationships between
the global North (e.g. Western Europe,
North America, Australia) and the
global South (e.g. Latin America, Asia,
and Africa). This fast-growing network
continues to meet regularly, with
the goals of researching the mutual
constitution of international law with
colonialism and assessing
the prospects for reforming
international law pedagogy,
scholarship, and practice.
The TWAIL Cairo conference call
for papers garnered tremendous
interest from international law and
other disciplines, with over 150 paper
submissions by eminent academics,
junior scholars, and graduate
students from 33 countries. The Cairo
conference will connect the existing
TWAIL network, largely based in the
global North, with like-minded scholars
and practitioners in the global South.
To this end, this will be the first TWAIL
conference to be held in the global
South. The TWAIL network has strong
ties to Canada, with senior Canadabased academics being amongst the
founders of TWAIL, and a growing
number of young scholars at Canadian
institutions playing important roles
in TWAIL’s recent evolution.
The conference organizers have raised
approximately $25,000 from various
institutional sources, including a grant
from Harvard Law School’s Institute for
Global Law and Policy. They have also
been successful, in a very competitive
process, in securing a $25,000 Insight
Grant from the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Windsor Law congratulates Professor
Xavier and his co-organisers for their
SSHRC success and looks forward
to welcoming the TWAIL scholars
and practitioners to Windsor for the
conference workshop in June 2015.
AN EXCEPTIONAL LAW SCHOOL FOR A CHANGING WORLD
THE BYSTANDER INITIATIVE
COMES TO WINDSOR LAW
O
P
F
Starting in September 2014, Windsor Law
is offering workshops to inform students
about the role they can play in preventing
sexual violence on and off campus. In
doing so, we became one of the first law
schools in the country to train our students
in sexual violence prevention techniques.
The initiative is funded by the University of
Windsor’s Strategic Priority Fund and is a
collaboration of the Law, Arts and Business
faculties.
At the heart of the Bystander Initiative is the
idea that bystanders have the potential to
prevent sexual assault. More often than not,
when sexual violence occurs a bystander
was present who could have prevented it or
interrupted it while it was happening.
During three-hour workshops, known as
Bringing in the Bystander, law students
become more aware of sexual violence
that occurs around them which may have
previously gone unnoticed. Students learn
effective strategies to intervene effectively.
The Bystander Initiative has been developed
around a model of peer education. Many
of the students who participate in these
workshops will be peer educators in
the future.
MAKE AN
ANNUAL GIFT
uwindsor.ca/donate
MADAM JUSTICE MARY JO NOLAN
HONOURED WITH AWARD IN FAMILY LAW
Jo Nolan Award in Family Law was created to
recognize her retirement from the Ontario
Superior Court of Justice in July 2014.
The Honourable Madam Justice Mary Jo
Nolan ’81 was honoured by her friends,
colleagues and family with a new Windsor
Law School award. The Madam Justice Mary
6
Madam Justice Nolan was called to the
Bar in 1983 and after a period in private
practice took up a position in the Ministry
of Community and Social Services working
on children’s Legislation. In 1990, she
moved to Courts Administration in the
Attorney General’s Department. In 1995,
she was appointed Regional Counsel for the
Southwest Region in the office of the Public
Guardian and Trustee and in 1997 she was
appointed Case Management Master in
Windsor. She was appointed as a Justice of
the Superior Court for Ontario in April 2005.
She was the first female case management
Master in Ontario and the first female
Superior Court Justice in Windsor.
Madam Justice Nolan was honoured in 2012
with the University of Windsor Clark Award
for University and Community Service for
her devotion and dedication to the University
of Windsor and its Faculty of Law. She has
been a sessional lecturer, has served on two
Dean Search Committees as the Alumni
representative, has also been a member
of the Advisory Board of the Canadian and
American Dual JD Program, and served as
a Justice for the Zuber Moot Competition
finals in November 2014.
Windsor Law is pleased to honour Mary
Jo with this award and we look forward to
her continued contributions to the life of
Windsor Law School and the University of
Windsor.
AN EXCEPTIONAL LAW SCHOOL FOR A CHANGING WORLD