Past Recipients

2023-2024 WINNERS

The Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Research (Fellowship in Research) is awarded to Gideon Christian PhD, Assistant Professor (AI and Law), Faculty of Law University of Calgary.

Ethical Framework for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Legal Profession

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have revolutionized numerous sectors, including the legal profession. AI is now increasingly being used in various aspects of legal practice, such as legal research, eDiscovery document review, and case law analysis. Among the notable transformations in AI usage, the emergence of generative AI, popularized by ChatGPT, stands out.

The research titled “Ethical Framework for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Legal Profession” aims to develop ethical rules to regulate the use of Generative AI in the legal profession. Regulating the use of generative AI in the legal profession is one of the biggest professionalism issues faced by the profession today.

The need for this regulation has been evident in recent cases where the use of the technology has led to the filing of bogus legal materials before the court, thus undermining the judicial and public trust in the use of generative AI technologies in the profession. This problem will grow as more sophisticated versions of generative AI develop.

Ethical guidelines for using the technology in the legal profession will enhance technological advancement in the profession and build judicial and public trust in the use of the technology before the courts.

The research will seek to, among others, identify the ethical challenges associated with the use of generative AI in the legal profession, analyze the existing legal and ethical frameworks relevant to AI and their applicability to generative AI in the legal practice, identify relevant regulatory framework and guidelines in other jurisdictions such as the United States and Europe, and develop a comprehensive ethical framework specifically tailored to address the unique challenges and concerns of using generative AI in the legal profession.

The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies (Fellowship in studies) is awarded to Neha Chugh.

In this research, I hope to explore access to justice gaps in rural Ontario.  I want to ask the following questions:  What access to justice gaps exist in rural Ontario? Are we understanding these gaps in comparison to their urban counterparts or as distinct issues? What is our professional and ethical obligation to Ontarians to ensure that rural communities are achieving their access to justice needs? What are potential solutions to the access to justice crisis are being contemplated, especially considering innovations in technology in our justice system?

Over the course of the year, I hope to produce the following deliverables: A research report that provides insights from rural Ontario: I propose to meet with Law Associations executives from rural communities across Ontario, to conduct qualitative interviews that will cover the issues that stakeholders have identified. An academic article in a peer reviewed journal that reports the outcomes of these qualitative interviews, with a socio-legal lens. This research will be presented at academic conferences, but mostly presented back to the Ontario Bar Association, the Federation of Law Associations, and the Law Society of Ontario.

2022-2023 WINNER

The OBA Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2022-23 Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies will be awarded to Leslie Walden, an ethics and professionalism practitioner and part-time professor in the Faculty of Common Law at the University of Ottawa. 

Mr. Walden has a long history promoting the study of ethical behaviour and professionalism in the legal profession. During his Fellowship year, he hopes to develop new Canadian materials on legal ethics and professionalism in the practice of law in the form of an Ethics and Professionalism Guide.  The Guide is intended to provide a practical reference and teaching tool that incorporates government lawyering into current ethics and professionalism resources.  It aims to provide law students and lawyers with the tools to understand the ethics and professionalism duties and obligations that apply to government lawyers – i.e., to develop their ability to identify and respond professionally to ethical dilemmas they may encounter in practice. The Fellowship was established to promote ethical behaviour and professionalism in the legal profession, to enhance the reputation and the esteem of the profession, and to provide leadership and support for the Academy and the practicing bar, this project is indeed inline with the Fellowships vision.

2021-22 WINNERS

 Prof. Andrew Flavelle Martin of Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University (Fellowship in Research) and Daniel Del Gobbo (Fellowship in Studies).

Prof. Martin will be researching the meaning of the professional duty to encourage respect for the administration of justice.  Mr. Del Gobbo will be studying the professional duty to promote respect for human rights law and equality.

2020-2021 WINNERS

Not Awarded this year due to the Covid-19 Pandemic

2019-2020 WINNERS

The fellows for the 2019-20 year are Prof. Sam Singer of Thomson Rivers University (Fellowship in Research) and Deanne Swoter, a research fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School (Fellowship in Studies).

Prof. Sam Singer will study the ethical and professional skills required of lawyers and judicial officers in providing access to justice to members of the trans community.  Among the most vulnerable and misunderstood minorities, trans people have been marginalized even by leading thinkers and other beneficiaries of Canada’s liberal society.  To help this group –  often stranded without allies in a legal landscape shaped by the forces of glacial retreat – Prof. Singer’s work aims to provide lawyers with the competencies to be those allies and judges with the sensitivity to trans clients’ life experience.  Ms. Sowter will be studying the question whether psychological or coercive harm should be included in the professional rules exempting physical violence or harm from duties of confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege.  Both projects promise to advance the law’s understanding of emergent and important topics that affect the practice of law in Canada.

2017-2018 Winners

The winners for the 2017-18 year are Ms. Brooke MacKenzie of MacKenzie Barristers Professional Corporation in the Fellowship in Studies category and Professor Cristina Toteda of McGill University in the Fellowship in Research category. Ms. MacKenzie will be studying motions for disqualification of counsel on the basis of conflicts of interest. Professor Toteda will develop an immersive one-week module in legal ethics and professionalism for students that will serve as a catalyst towards more practical and experienced-based legal ethics and professionalism in the Canadian context.

2016-2017 Winners

The winners for the 2016-17 year are Mr. Paul Michell of Lax O’Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP in the Fellowship in Studies category and Professor Alain Roussy of the University of Ottawa in the Fellowship in Research category. Mr. Michell will writing on Ethical Consequences of Disaggregation in Legal Practice and Professor Roussy will be conducting research on the History and Adequacy of Rules 3.2-2A and 3.2-2B (Language Rights) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

2015-2016 Winners

A grant of $5,000 was awarded to Deanne Sowter, an Associate with Birenbaum Steinberg Landau Savin and Colraine LLP, Toronto, recipient of the Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies.  Her project will look at the links between research and practice, as shaped by the academic research and codes that govern ethics and professionalism in family law ADR.

PAPER - Deanne M. Sowter, Professionalism and Ethics in Family Law:  The Other 90%

Not Awarded this year – Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research

2014-2015 Winners

The 2014-15 OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism have been awarded to Windsor Law’s Professor Noel Semple (Fellowship in Research) and City of Oshawa staff lawyer Kelly Gravelle (Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies).  The fellowships promote and fund academic and practical research into the role of lawyers in society.  In the wider community, the work of the fellows fosters principled, evidence-based improvements in lawyers’ service to their clients and constituents.

The 2014-15 Fellow in Research, Prof. Semple, will be engaged in conducting interviews and collecting data on the practical, economic and institutional impediments of private practice lawyers in delivering access to justice for “personal plight” clients.  Semple joined the University of Windsor Faculty of Law after completing a term as Post-Doctorate Fellow and Scholar in Residence at the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Legal Profession.   “Lawyers in private practice are an essential portal between people with legal problems and the just resolutions,” Semple stated in his proposal.  “Is there anything that the legal profession and its regulators can do to increase the accessibility of this segment of the bar?”

Kelly Gravelle’s project as the 2014-15 Fellow in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies will examine the often misunderstood role of in-house counsel employed by municipalities and their counterparts in aboriginal communities.  Drawing on her experience in private practice and as staff counsel in municipal and aboriginal law, Gravelle will delve into the unique role of the local government lawyer in balancing public and private interests and obligations, demarcating the boundaries between political and regulatory functions, and ensuring government accountability.

PAPER - Professor Noel Semple, Personal Plight Legal Practice and Tomorrow's Lawyers

PAPER - Professor Noel Semple, Cost of Seeking Civil Justice in Canada

PAPER - Kelly A. Gravelle, The View from the Cheap Seats

2013-2014 Winners

A grant of $15,000 was awarded to Professor Alice Woolley of the University of Calgary, recipient of the Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research.   Professor Woolley’s research project will consider the significance of the lawyer’s status as a fiduciary in defining the lawyer’s duties, in particular duties of loyalty and confidentiality.

A grant of $5,000 was awarded to Amy Salyzyn, a graduate student, Yale University Law School, recipient of the Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies.  Her project will study the ethical implications of lawyers’ pre-litigation demand letters.

PAPER - Professor Alice Woolley, The Lawyer as Fiduciary:  Defining Private Law Duties in Public Law Relations

PAPER - Amy Salyzyn, Zealous Advoacy or Exploitive Shakedown?  The Ethics of Shoplifting Civil Recovery Letters

2012-2013 Winners

A grant of $15,000 was awarded to Professor Brent Cotter of the University of Saskatchewan and Professors Richard Devlin and Jocelyn Downie of Dalhousie University, recipients of the Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research. Their project is “Video Vignettes in Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility (Confidentiality, Conflicts of Interest, Competence and Quality of Service, Civility and Professionalism and Access to Justice / Pro Bono).”

A grant of $5,000 was awarded to Ms. Hannah Askew, student, Osgoode Hall Law School, recipient of the Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies. Her project is “Educational Strategies to Foster Inter-cultural Understanding of Aboriginal Legal Perspectives among New Legal Professionals.”

PAPER - Professor Brent Cotter, Professor Richard Devlin and Professor Jocelyn Downie, Legal Ethics in Canada An Instructor's Guide

PAPER - Hannah Askew, Indigenous Legal Traditions and the Challenge of Intercultural Legal Education in Canadian Law Schools