Brian Lamb (September 16)
Brian is Director of Innovation at Thompson Rivers University, where he leads a range of educational technology projects. Presently, he is also co-facilitating an open educational experiment with more that 300 professors at the University of Guadalajara (http://udg.theagoraonline.net/). He’s been a Research Fellow at Utah State University’s Center for Open and Sustainable Learning (COSL), and a Visiting Researcher at Barcelona’s Open University of Catalonia. He mutters ill-tempered observations on his weblog (http://abject.ca/) and on Twitter (@brlamb).
Mitch Kowalski (September 23)
Mitchell Kowalski was recognized as a Fastcase 50 Global Legal Innovator in 2012, and he is the author of the critically acclaimed American Bar Association best-seller, Avoiding Extinction: Reimagining Legal Services for the 21st Century. The ABA will also be publishing his forthcoming book, The Great Legal Reformation, in late 2015. As a former in-house counsel, and partner at one of the world’s largest international law firms, Mitch provides a seasoned and unique perspective on the redesign of legal services delivery – one that is sought-after around the world. As a visiting professor at the University of Calgary Law School, he researches/teaches innovation in the global legal services market. Mitch is also the principal consultant of Cross Pollen Advisory. Follow him on Twitter: @mekowalski or visit his website: www.kowalski.ca
Adam LaFrance (September 30)
Adam’s a lawyer by trade but a builder at heart. A graduate of McGill Law and called to the bar in British Columbia and Québec, his five years of legal domain and professional experience covers a range of legal practice, having worked at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, and as a sole practitioner. This critical insight ensures Knomos’ key features solve systemic problems in the legal industry, and that our platform’s core value is reflected in adoption among key influencers and stakeholders.
website: http://knomos.ca
blog: http://blog.knomos.ca/
twitter: https://twitter.com/theknomos
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theknomos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/knomos/
Sarah Sutherland (September 30)
Sarah Sutherland is the manager of content and partnerships at the Canadian Legal Information Institute based in Vancouver. Previously she worked as the manager of library services for a national law firm, worked for provincial and federal governments, and a law society library. She is interested in exploring enhanced access to legal information through IT applications.
Slaw archive: http://www.slaw.ca/author/ssutherland/
Twitter: @parallaxinfo
Lawrence Alexander (September 30)
Lawrence Alexander is a Victoria lawyer who has been practising and thinking about environmental law for 22 years. For close to ten years he advised deputy ministers to the Premier in the BC Government — on both sides of the political spectrum. He has worked for the national law firm Heenan Blaikie and the environmental advocate West Coast Environmental Law. He has an active interest in the future of the legal profession, serving for three years on an access to justice advisory committee to the Law Society, preparing and co-teaching a course at UBC law school, and advising a legal marketplace start-up.
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/lawrence-alexander/7b/a67/44
Ben Alarie (October 7)
Benjamin Alarie, M.A. (Toronto), J.D. (Toronto), LL.M. (Yale) researches and teaches in taxation law and judicial decision-making. He is also a co-founder of Blue J Legal, which brings advanced AI technology to the field of tax law, with Professors Anthony Niblett and Albert Yoon. Before joining the Faculty of Law, Professor Alarie was a law clerk for Madam Justice Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada. His publications have appeared in numerous academic journals, including the American Business Law Journal, the British Tax Review, the Canadian Business Law Journal, the Canadian Tax Journal, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal and the University of Toronto Law Journal. In 2012, Professor Alarie led the faculty’s adoption of a new JD grading system, in which the law school community decided to replace its legacy grading system with a modified honours-pass-fail system. In 2013, as co-chair of the JD admissions committee, he led reforms to the JD admissions process to make the system more sensitive to differences in the quality of applicant prepration for the study of law and to be more proactively inclusive of students with varied personal experiences. In 2014, as co-chair of the law school’s curriculum committee, he helped lead a successful effort to transform the first year of the JD program. As Associate Dean, First Year Program, Professor Alarie is overseeing the implementation of the new first year curriculum.
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/balarie
Faculty page: http://www.law.utoronto.ca/faculty/alarie
Blue J Legal:
http://www.bluejlegal.com
https://twitter.com/bluejlegal
https://www.facebook.com/bluejlegal
Hersh Perlis (October 7)
Hersh Perlis is the Director of the Legal Innovation Zone at Ryerson University. Prior to coming to Ryerson he spent almost 5 years at Queens Park as a Senior Advisor to several ministers. While at Queens Park he helped create, expand and oversee a number of key initiatives on behalf of the government. These included the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games as well as other initiatives such as the Industrial Electricity Incentive Program and the Right to Play program for rural and remote First Nation communities. Prior to his time in government he was Director of Development for a national not-for-profit organization.
Sports, politics and the lake are his passion and he enjoys them with his wife and two sons.
Website: http://www.legalinnovationzone.ca/
Chris Bentley (October 7)
Chris practiced criminal defence and labour law for 23 years at every level of court. While teaching part-time for 10 of those years at Western’s law school, he set up the Careers Office and was recognized for his teaching. He was a founder and the first chairperson of Neighbourhood Legal Services of London and Middlesex, established to help those who could not afford legal services. Chris was elected as the MPP for London West in 2003, and was a Minister in the Ontario Government for 10 years, including Labour, Training, Colleges and Universities, Energy, Aboriginal Affairs and Attorney General for 4 years.
Chris is an agent of change – determined to improve what he finds. While in government, Chris lead change initiatives such as Justice on Target, that reduced appearances and time to trial in criminal cases for the first time in 18 years (nationally recognized and twice internationally nominated), a health and safety initiative that reduced injuries by 20%, the 4 Pillars of Family Reform, Civil Justice Reform, the largest funding increase in Legal Aid’s history, and was part of a new approach to Aboriginal relations recognized by the United Nations.
After politics he joined Ryerson University and helped obtain and set up the Law Practice Program, a modern approach to transition year training for lawyers. He recently helped establish the Legal Innovation Zone, Canada’s first, to help build an accessible 21st century justice system.
U of T law and Cambridge U grad, Chris is also an author. He enjoys life with his Wife, Wendy, and 2 daughters. He also runs – unfortunately, that has not improved.
Website: http://www.legalinnovationzone.ca/
Fred Headon (October 14)
Fred Headon, Assistant General Counsel, Labour and Employment Law, at Montreal-based Air Canada, was the first in-house counsel to serve as President of the Canadian Bar Association and continues to serve as Chair of the CBA’s Legal Futures Initiative.
At Air Canada he leads a team of lawyers, paralegals and support staff who are responsible for all aspects of labour and employment law. He also represents Air Canada in proceedings before various courts and tribunals and advises on matters ranging from collective bargaining to strategic corporate initiatives.
Prior to joining Air Canada, Mr. Headon worked in private practice in Montreal in the areas of labour, employment, human rights, privacy, and administrative law, as well as civil litigation. He has also taught Social Law and Administrative Law at the Law Faculty of the National University of Rwanda.
His work with the CBA, and, in particular, its Legal Futures Initiative, were cited by Canadian Lawyer magazine when it included him in its 2013 and 2015 lists of Canada’s 25 most influential lawyers. His contributions to the profession were also recognized by the Barreau du Québec (Québec Law Society) which awarded him the distinction Avocat émérite (or Lawyer Emeritus) in 2015.
Mr. Headon earned his LL. B. and B.C.L. degrees from McGill University in 1996 and earned his B.A. from the University of Winnipeg in 1992. He has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1997.
Hon. Thomas Crabtree (October 28)
Tom Crabtree is the Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of British Columbia. Born in London and raised in British Columbia, he became a lawyer in 1984 and was a partner at a law firm in the Fraser Valley where he helped a wide range of people with criminal and civil litigation matters. He was appointed as a judge of the Provincial Court in February 1999. In April 2010 Judge Crabtree was appointed Chief Judge of the Provincial Court and Chair of Judicial Council. Chief Judge Crabtree is involved with judicial education. He chaired the Provincial Court Education Committee for a number of years and the Education Review Committee which assessed the delivery of education for the Court. He frequently speaks to community organizations about the Provincial Court and the justice system. In July 2013 Chief Judge Crabtree was appointed to the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute.
Richard Devlin (October 28)
Richard Devlin is a Professor of Law at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. In 2005, he was appointed a Dalhousie University Research Professor, and this position was renewed in 2010. His areas of teaching include Contracts, Jurisprudence, Legal Ethics and Graduate Studies. He has published widely in various journals, nationally and internationally. Recent books include editing Critical Disability Theory and Lawyers’ Ethics and Professional Regulation (2nd ed. 2012). In 2003, and again in 2010, he received the Hanna and Harold Barnett Award for Excellence in Teaching First Year. In 2008 he was a recipient of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for Academic Excellence. In 2013 he won Dalhousie University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning “Change One Thing Challenge”. He has been involved in the design, development and delivery of Judicial Education programmes in Canada and abroad for more than 20 years. In 2012 he agreed to serve as the Founding President of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics. In 2015 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Jerry McHale, QC (November 4)
Commencing July 1, 2011, Jerry McHale was jointly appointed to the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Administration as the Lam Chair in Law and Public Policy. For 10 years prior to this appointment, he was Assistant Deputy Minister with the Justice Services Branch of the BC Ministry of Justice responsible for civil, family and criminal law policy and legislation, mediation and alternative dispute resolution, legal aid, and family law programs. He received the Canadian Bar Association (National) John Tait Award for Excellence in Public Sector Law in 2000, a Queen’s Council designation in 2001, the Canadian Bar Association (B.C.) Georges A. Goyer QC Memorial Award for Distinguished Service in 2009, the Victoria Bar Association’s Contribution to the Law Award in 2009 and the Susanna Jani Award for Excellence in Mediation in 2014. In addition to holding other government positions, including Director of the Dispute Resolution Office, he has worked in the private sector as a litigator and mediator. He has spoken at more than 175 conferences, professional gatherings and educational programs since 1986 on topics related to his areas of interest: mediation and dispute resolution, access to justice and justice reform, child welfare and family law, procedural law, policy development and the legislative process.
Peter Sankoff (November 18)
Peter Sankoff is a Professor at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law and located in Edmonton, Alberta. He is also an author and editor of leading texts on criminal law, evidence and animal law. In Peter’s class on the Law of Evidence, he has adopted the model of the Flipped Classroom, which provides students with pre-packaged material to study outside the classroom (the “lecture” part of the experience) and encourages students to use class time to work on problems and discuss issues in small groups, and later with the entire class. The capsules are now available to all on Peter’s web site. Peter is the winner of the University of Alberta’s 2014 Information Technology Innovation Award, a university-wide award for the member of the university who shows the most innovative use of hardware and/or software technology in support of research, teaching or service, and the 2013 Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund Grant, awarded to pursue study on the use of “capsule” technology in law classrooms.
Blog: http://petersankoff.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/petersankoff