Fellowships | Ontario Bar Association

The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism

On behalf of the OBA Foundation, it is my great pleasure to announce and congratulate the recipients of the 2025 - 2026 Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism. These Fellowships celebrate and support outstanding scholarship in legal ethics, professionalism, and the role of lawyers and legal academics in advancing justice.

2025-2026 Recipients

Marina Pavlović, Associate Professor, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Common Law Section

The Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Research

Ethics of Drafting Standard Form Contracts

Statement of Research

Professor Marina Pavlović’s research project, Ethics of Drafting Standard Form Contracts, addresses the growing ethical complexity of legal drafting in non-negotiated, asymmetrical contracting relationships, such as consumer, employment, and small business contexts, where lawyers’ draft contracts that recipients must accept on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Uber v Heller, which called for greater scrutiny of these contracts and urged drafters to make them more accessible and balanced, the project asks whether lawyers’ professional duties extend beyond clients to contract recipients whose rights are shaped by these terms.

The project combines doctrinal and theoretical analysis with an empirical survey of Ontario lawyers, the first of its kind in Canada, focused specifically on contract drafting in asymmetrical settings. The survey will examine how lawyers identify client interests, use precedent, adapt standard terms, integrate AI tools, their views on obligations to non- clients, and whether current ethical rules sufficiently address the risks posed by AI- generated boilerplate. It also considers how generative AI compounds these ethical questions by accelerating the creation and replication of boilerplate terms at scale. By foregrounding the lawyer’s role in shaping the terms of everyday legal relationships, the project seeks to inform both academic debate and the development of professional guidance in an increasingly automated legal landscape.
Archana Medhekar (Certified Family Law Specialist)

The Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Studies

From Ethics to Implementation: Addressing Litigation Recycling and Systemic Barriers in Trauma-Informed Family Lawyering

Statement of Research

This second OBA Foundation Fellowship builds on the 2024–2025 study on trauma- informed lawyering, which engaged more than 90 Ontario family lawyers and surfaced themes of trauma, power, relational harm, incivility, and unprofessional behaviour. That project produced a comprehensive report and launched the Justice With Care series. This new fellowship will take the next step by analyzing the rich qualitative narratives and reflections shared by lawyers, with particular attention to unresolved root causes of conflict and the lived experiences of both clients and practitioners.

The 2025–2026 study shifts from awareness to implementation. It will examine systemic barriers and recurring disputes in family justice, introducing the concepts of litigation recycling and chronic dispute return (CDR) to better understand patterns of repeated court involvement. At its core is the CARE(R) Framework—Competence, Accountability, Relational Ethics, Empathy, and Relational Justice- as a model for embedding trauma- informed ethics into professional conduct, legal practice, and dispute system design.

Intended Work Product

The Fellowship will produce a publishable scholarly article advancing analysis of ethics and professionalism in family law, grounded in the CARE(R) Framework and informed by the study of litigation recycling and CDR, offering accessible tools, infographics that translate research into practice. It will also include at least two conference presentations at professional or academic forums. Public engagement will continue through Peel Briefs series Justice With Care – Phase II. All these outputs aim to support systemic redesign and cultivate a culture of professionalism that prioritizes people-centered justice system.

Background to the Fellowships

In 2010, the Chief Justice of Ontario's Advisory Committee on Professionalism (“Advisory Committee”) completed a seven-year project to promote professionalism in the practice of law, to encourage scholarship in the academic discipline of legal ethics and professionalism, and to develop uniquely Canadian materials about legal ethics and professionalism. The “colloquia project” consisted of thirteen colloquia on the legal profession that took place at the six Ontario law schools and at the premises of the Law Society of Upper Canada. The colloquia project adopted a broad definition of professionalism to include legal ethics, legal history, legal culture, legal literature, and the contribution of the law and of lawyers to society.

The colloquia project responded to the recognized needs of promoting ethical behaviour and professionalism in the legal profession, of enhancing the reputation and the esteem of the profession, of encouraging scholarship in legal ethics and professionalism, and of providing leadership and support to both the academy and the practicing bar in developing professionalism in the practice of law. The Fellowships, which were introduced in 2011, were designed to continue the work and the successes of the colloquia project.

2011 was a propitious time to establish the Fellowships because of the introduction in Ontario of mandatory continuing professional development that includes a legal ethics and professional practice component and because of the recommendation of the Task Force on the Canadian Common Law Degree of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada that law school curricula include a stand-alone course on legal ethics and professionalism. The Fellowships respond to the demand for reference material and educators knowledgeable in the dynamic and emerging discipline of legal ethics and professionalism and will provide keynote speakers for continuing legal education conferences.

In 2013, the Advisory Committee reached an agreement with the OBA Foundation for the assumption and continuation of the Fellowships, to provide stable funding from a charitable fund established by the bar.

The OBA Foundation is proud to support Professor Marina Pavlović and Archana Medhekar as they advance critical scholarship in legal ethics and professionalism. Their work will not only enrich academic discourse but also provide practical guidance to lawyers, educators, and policymakers in building a more ethical, inclusive, and people- centered justice system.

Past Recipients

Chair

Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada

The details of the Fellowships, including any limiting conditions, are available to view through the Terms of Reference.

View terms

OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships

The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowships in Legal Ethics and Professionalism

2025-2026 Recipients

Ethics of Drafting Standard Form Contracts

From Ethics to Implementation: Addressing Litigation Recycling and Systemic Barriers in Trauma-Informed Family Lawyering

Background to the Fellowships