Past Recipients

Professor Del Gobbo's research is entitled "Towards a Restorative Approach to Legal Ethics in Canada." It explores the possibility of reorienting legal ethics around restorative justice as the foundation of a more public interest-minded approach to the lawyer’s role in Canadian society. He proposes to ask three questions: (1) What might a restorative approach to legal ethics look like? (2) What are the benefits and drawbacks of taking a restorative approach to legal ethics from lawyer, client, and community perspectives? (3) How should a restorative approach to legal ethics be professionally regulated and enforced?

By way of background, restorative justice is commonly associated with a range of facilitated encounters in which the parties to legal disputes come together to reflect on harmful conduct and how they can move forward productively to address it. Restorative justice is premised on the fact of our interconnectedness and the importance of establishing relationships and communities marked by equal care, concern, and respect for other people. In Canada, restorative justice is most frequently conceived as a feature of the criminal legal system to facilitate pre-charge diversion, sentencing, reintegration plans, and other extrajudicial matters, particularly in the Indigenous and young offending contexts. Less well known is that restorative justice has been theorized and practiced in a wide range of civil and human rights contexts as well. 

Professor Del Gobbo's research explores whether restorative justice can offer more than just an alternative path for lawyers in criminal law settings, but instead support a restorative principle-based approach to legal ethics within communities and across systems that can raise the moral consciousness of lawyers, facilitate collaboration, promote social justice, and redefine the role of lawyers as change agents.

Archana Medhekar, Certified Family Law Specialist

(Barrister and Solicitor, B. Sc., LL.B. LL.M.(DR), CPMed)

Title of the proposed study:

“Harmonizing Ethics, Empathy and Professionalism: A New Paradigm in Trauma-Informed Lawyering”

Statement of proposed study through the OBA Foundation Fellowship:

The study aims to explore the intersectional challenges in family conflict resolution, examine gaps in lawyers' ethical and professional obligations while serving vulnerable diverse populations and to develop strategies for integration of trauma-informed advocacy practices and culture shift within the legal profession for promoting meaningful access to justice.

Intended Work Products:

• A Report to OBA Foundation.
• A virtual dissemination event to present the outcome of the study. 
• An article or comparable contribution to legal scholarship on legal ethics or professionalism with collection of best practices and recommendations, with primary focus on trauma informed lawyering practice tips.
• Presentation of outcome of study at two academic and professional conferences.  
• Podcasts and radio show in English and other languages to educate the public about lawyer’s evolving role in the field of family conflict resolution.

Samantha Peters, Honours B. A., M.A., J.D. (Specialization in Public Law and Dispute Resolution & Professionalism), LL.M. (Political and Legal Thought)

Title of the proposed study:

R. v. Desjourdy: A Black Feminist Rewriting and Reimagining

Statement of proposed study through the OBA Foundation Fellowship:

In 2021, Parliament amended the Criminal Code and Judges Act with Bill c-3 to promote continued judicial education on sexual assault law and social context evidence. Through a critical rewriting of the 2013 trial decision in R. v. Desjourdy, in which an Ottawa police officer was acquitted of sexual assault charges against a Black woman complainant, this research will offer an example of how rewritten judgments could be used to advance judicial education with feminist and critical race perspectives.

Intended Work Products:

• An article or comparable contribution to legal scholarship on legal ethics or professionalism with respect to amendments made to the Criminal Code and Judges Act via Bill c-3; and
• Presentation of research at two academic and professional conferences.  

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.

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 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.

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.

Not Awarded this year due to the Covid-19 Pandemic

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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