Sam Delechantos was already practicing privacy law when she enrolled in Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Privacy and Cybersecurity Law. After several years in the field, she wanted to broaden her perspective and connect with others working in privacy and technology law.
“I wanted to broaden my experience,” she says. “I wanted to learn more about privacy across different domains and across the country.”
She also saw the program as a way to build relationships within the privacy community and demonstrate a long-term commitment to a field that was becoming increasingly complex and interconnected.
Now a lawyer at Fasken, Sam advises startups and mid-sized organizations in technology-focused industries, including fintech, health technology, and other emerging technology sectors. She helps clients navigate privacy compliance, regulatory obligations, access-to-information issues, and cybersecurity incidents, including serving as breach counsel when organizations experience security or privacy breaches. She is licensed in Canada, the United States, and Australia, and works across a range of privacy and technology law issues that increasingly cross provincial and national boundaries.
One of the most valuable aspects of the program was the range of perspectives represented in the classroom.
“It was great seeing different perspectives,” she says. “People were bringing very different experiences to the conversation.”
Her classmates included lawyers in private practice, government, in-house legal departments, and solo practice, which made discussions more practical and exposed her to approaches she would not have encountered in a single workplace or jurisdiction.
The instructors were equally influential. Because they were active practitioners with extensive experience in privacy and cybersecurity law, classroom discussions often reflected the kinds of issues lawyers were confronting in practice rather than purely theoretical questions.
Sam found that the program frequently complemented her day-to-day work in unexpected ways. Some of the most useful courses were not the ones that dealt with issues she encountered every day, but the ones that exposed her to areas she had seen less often in practice.
Crime in the Digital Age, a Privacy & Cybersecurity Law course examining issues including search and seizure and offences involving computer data, stood out in particular.
“I was seeing these things in the LLM and then realizing that they were relevant to something that had come up in my practice,” she says.
During the program, privacy law was evolving rapidly. Proposed federal AI legislation, regulatory developments, and decisions involving technologies such as facial recognition systems were frequent topics of discussion. Rather than simply reading about new developments, students analyzed cases together and worked through their implications in class.
“We all talked about them, shared views on them, and dissected them in class,” she says. “That was really helpful.”
The program also reinforced the importance of maintaining connections across the profession. Sam says that having a network of professionals who can flag important developments is particularly valuable in a field where it can be difficult to keep up with constant changes and updates.
Sam has stayed in touch with classmates and continues to benefit from the network she developed through the LLM, particularly as privacy law evolves across different provinces and industries.
“I think it makes you a more well-rounded practitioner because you don’t operate in a vacuum,” she says.
Wondering if the Professional LLM is right for you? Get information on course requirements, application dates, tuition and more!