This is What a Lawyer Looks Like: Meet Bhavan Sodhi

The face of law is changing. According to the Law Society of Ontario, about 43 per cent of lawyers are women. And the final report released in 2016 from the Law Society’s Challenges Faced by Racialized Licensees Working Group noted that the proportion of racialized lawyers in Ontario doubled between 2001 and 2014, from 9 per cent to 18 per cent.In an effort to highlight the diverse range of individuals working across the legal landscape, we are pleased to present our new series, This is What a Lawyer Looks Like. The goal of this series is to put racialized and indigenous women lawyers in the spotlight and amplify their voices in the conversation about gender equality.

Do you know someone we can feature? Send a note to the editor. 

BHAVAN SODHI

Legal Counsel at Innocence Canada

Adjunct Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School 

Instructor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law  

Tell us about yourself.

I graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School and articled with a leading criminal defence firm in Toronto. I later worked as an Assistant Crown Attorney in Toronto and Newmarket.

I am currently a Staff Lawyer and Case Management Counsel at Innocence Canada. I am also an Adjunct Professor and Director of the Innocence Project at Osgoode Hall Law School and a Co-Founder and Instructor for the “Wrongful Conviction Externship” at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.

At Innocence Canada, I am responsible for overseeing the progress and management of all Innocence Canada’s cases nationally. I have worked on a number of s.696.1 Applications for Ministerial Review and matters before the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada. In addition, I supervise many of Innocence Canada’s clinical and externship programs, am a frequent presenter on legal education initiatives regarding wrongful convictions and have written extensively on the subject. 

I am also the Toronto recent-call representative for the Criminal Lawyers’ Association’s Women’s Committee and an Advisor for the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Ryerson’s Law Practice Program.

Why did you choose to become a lawyer?

A career in law represented an opportunity to help people. 

What is your favourite part about being a lawyer?

I love the intellectual challenge. In my role at Innocence Canada, I work on a number of complex homicide files at any given time. Because each case is so unique, I must use my full mental capabilities to formulate strategies in order to pursue and acquire matters of new significance capable of overturning the conviction. Clearly, no one day is like another.

I also love working with students. I find their eagerness and optimism contagious. My sessions at Osgoode and UofT often fuel me for the rest of the week.