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Tap into the minds of leading academics, judges, senior practitioners and industry experts—each a leader in their respective specialization. Learn more about the diverse range of scholars for this program.
View ProgramAdministrative Law Faculty
Hassan Ahmad
Professor Hassan M. Ahmad is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. He holds an SJD from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from Osgoode Hall.
Professor Ahmad has won and been nominated for numerous teaching awards for in-person and online teaching. Outside of his academic work, he has continued to be involved in public interest litigation, representing clients at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Aaron Dantowitz is Senior Litigation Counsel in the Ontario Securities Commission’s Enforcement Branch, where he participates in regulatory investigations and proceedings, and related court matters. Prior to joining the OSC, Aaron was a partner at Stockwoods LLP, practising civil and administrative litigation. Aaron is a past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section, was an adjunct professor of Administrative Law at Osgoode Hall Law School from 2018-2022, and has also co-taught administrative law in Osgoode Professional Development’s LLM program. From 2007-2021, Aaron was Managing Editor of the Advocates’ Journal. In 2002-2003, Aaron was a judicial law clerk, supporting judges of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
Audrey Fried is the Director, Faculty & Curriculum Development at Osgoode. Her research focuses on how social and technological developments are changing the legal profession and how legal education should respond. Her paper, “Unstructuring for Insight: The Legal Profession in an Age of AI & Social Change” won the CALT Prize for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in 2024. Fried teaches about regulating legal services, A2J, and the public interest. She earned her JD from the University of Chicago, her LLM from the University of Toronto, and her MA from OISE, where she is currently a doctoral candidate.
Carla Goncalves is the Deputy Director at the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA). She has appeared at various courts and tribunals and been part of systemic reviews, inquiries and transition initiatives.
Over the years, Carla has presented on a variety of topics including Charter Challenges in Police Discipline; Reconciling Charter Rights and Employment Policies; Mitigating Liability on Social Media; and Regulatory Investigations.
Carla also has an interest in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). She was a founding member of the Mediation Intensive Clinical Program at Osgoode Hall. Her early publications relate to Youth Statements; Avenues for ADR and Workplace Harassment.
David is a partner of INQ Law and concentrates his practice on privacy, data protection, access to information and data governance. With more than 30 years of experience, David was a senior information and privacy regulator and has deep expertise in the application and enforcement of privacy and access laws.
Over his career, David has held the roles of assistant commissioner, director of legal services, and manager of adjudication with Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner. He is an experienced litigator, and has appeared before the Divisional Court, the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. David has a history of strong constructive relationships with key access and privacy stakeholders, including Ontario government ministries and agencies, municipalities, school boards, police services, hospitals, and information and privacy regulators across and outside Canada.
David is the author of the only textbook on Ontario’s privacy and access laws, 2020-2021 Annotated Ontario Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts, published byThomson Reuters. David also teaches privacy law and administrative law at Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law.
David is a recognized thought leader in privacy and access to information, and has been quoted by CBC, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and IT World. He is also a sought-after public speaker and has given presentations at high-profile conferences and public events, including the Canadian Bar Association, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and the U.S. Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Sedona Conference (e-Discovery).
W. David Rankin is a partner of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in the Litigation Department. He carries on a general commercial litigation practice, with a focus on appellate litigation, administrative and constitutional litigation, and class actions.
David has appeared as counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada on ten separate occasions. He has also appeared as counsel in the Federal Court of Appeal, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Canada, and the superior courts of various provinces. David is a co-author of Sopinka and Gelowitz on the Conduct of an Appeal, 4th Edition, a leading resource for litigators and judges on appellate practice and procedure.
David received his J.D. (Hons.) from the University of Toronto in 2010 (Silver Medal), and is called to the Bars of Alberta (2011) and Ontario (2013). Before joining Osler, David served as a law clerk to The Honourable Mr. Justice Morris J. Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Professor Hassan M. Ahmad is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. He holds an SJD from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, an LLM from the University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from Osgoode Hall.
Professor Ahmad has won and been nominated for numerous teaching awards for in-person and online teaching. Outside of his academic work, he has continued to be involved in public interest litigation, representing clients at the Supreme Court of Canada, the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Jesse Boyce is Counsel at Tribunals Ontario with the Ministry of the Attorney General, where he advises adjudicators and staff on substantive and procedural matters while also representing its tribunals in litigation. An experienced decision-maker, he served as a Vice-Chair with the Licence Appeal Tribunal and as a Member with the Ontario Parole Board, Ontario Civilian Police Commission, Animal Care Review Board and Fire Safety Commission. He is active in the justice community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators and acting as a mentor and assessor with the Law Practice Program.
Johanne Poirier teaches constitutional law at McGill, where she holds the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism.Previously taught at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where she co-directed the Center for Public Law. Her main research areas are the legal dimensions of intergovernmental relations and informal constitutional change. Before embarking on an academic career, Johanne clerked for Gonthier J. at the Court of Canada, worked as a litigator for Justice Canada and as a constitutional reform consultant. She has a doctorate (Cambridge), an LLM (ULB), BCL/JD (McGill) and BA (Hon, Queen’s).
Justin Safayeni practices mainly in the areas of administrative law, civil litigation and defamation/media law.
In his administrative law practice, Justin prosecutes and defends cases before various administrative tribunals, represents clients in judicial review proceedings and acts as independent legal counsel to a number of tribunals. He is an experienced litigator and has appeared several times before the Supreme Court of Canada, including as co-counsel for the appellants in the case of Hamlet of Clyde River v. Petroleum Geo-Services Inc., which raised issues at the intersection of administrative and Aboriginal law.
Justin has also acted for parties in judicial review proceedings challenging the Northern Gateway pipeline and represents Amnesty International in ongoing proceedings before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal involving discriminatory funding for First Nations children living on reserves.
Justin frequently acts in defamation matters, with a particular interest in matters involving online defamation. He also has experience in related proceedings for extraordinary relief, including Norwich Pharmacal orders, injunctions, and de-indexing or “take-down” orders. Justin was counsel to an intervener before the Supreme Court in the recent Google v. Equustek case, which addressed whether search engines could be required to de-index websites from their search results.
Justin writes frequently on a variety of topics in both legal and mainstream publications, including the op-ed pages of the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and the Law Times. He is the co-editor of the Stockwoods LLP Administrative and Regulatory Law Case Review and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Advocates’ Society Regulatory and Administrative Law Practice Group. He holds a JD from the University of Toronto and a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University (gold medalist). Following law school, he clerked for the Honourable Justices Laskin, Goudge and MacFarland at the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
Lorne Sossin became Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School on July 1, 2010. Prior to this appointment, he was a Professor with the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto (2002-2010). He is a former Associate Dean of the University of Toronto (2004-2007) and served as the inaugural Director of the Centre for the Legal Profession (2008-2010). Previously (1997-2002), he was a faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School, and the Department of Political Science, at York University. His teaching interests span administrative and constitutional law, the regulation of professions, civil litigation, public policy and the judicial process. Dean Sossin was a law clerk to former Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada, a former Associate in Law at Columbia Law School and a former litigation lawyer with the firm of Borden & Elliot (now Borden Ladner Gervais LLP).
Dean Sossin has published numerous books, journal articles, reviews and essays, including Boundaries of Judicial Review: The Law of Justiciability, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2010) (forthcoming); The Future of Judicial Independence (Toronto: Irwin, 2010) (co-edited with Adam Dodek); Civil Litigation (Toronto: Irwin 2010) (co-authored with Janet Walker); Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009) (co-edited with Peter Russell); Administrative Law in Context (Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2008) (co-edited with Colleen Flood); Dilemmas of Solidarity: Rethinking Redistribution in the Canadian Federation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006) (co-edited with Sujit Choudhry and Jean-Francois Gaudreault-Desbiens); and Access to Care, Access to Justice: The Legal Debate over Private Health Insurance in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005) (co-edited with Colleen Flood & Kent Roach). Dean Sossin served as Research Director for the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Task Force on the Independence of the Bar and has written commissioned papers for the Gomery Inquiry, the Ipperwash Inquiry and the Goudge Inquiry. He also serves on the Boards of the National Judicial Institute, the Law Commission of Ontario and is a Vice Chair of the Ontario Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and Member of the Health Services Appeal and Review Board. Dean Sossin served as Interim Integrity Commissioner for the City of Toronto in 2008-2009, and is currently the Open Meeting Investigator for the City of Toronto.
Research Interests: Human Rights Law, Legal Process, Legal Profession, Poverty Law, Public Law
Morvarid Shojaei is a Crown Counsel at the Ministry of the Attorney General, Law Enforcement Complaints Agency, where she focuses on administrative law, policing, disciplinary proceedings, and law enforcement oversight. Formerly, Morvarid practiced in the area of criminal law as an Assistant Crown Attorney, and worked for several government and public entities, including the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto. Morvarid obtained her LLB from SBU in Tehran and completed her MA in Criminology at the University of Toronto and her LLM at Osgoode Professional Development. Morvarid is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.
Nora Farrell has extensive experience in the field of Dispute Resolution and in fulfilling the Ombuds/man/person role in particular. She is the Ombudsperson at Algonquin/Liberty currently; previously, the Ombudsperson for Ryerson University, for the Canadian and International Franchise Associations and as the Manager of Complaint Resolution for the Ombudsman for Ontario. Nora’s education includes a Ph.D. and LL.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Education degree from UBC. Her recent publications include: Farrell, Nora J. “Access to Justice: The Ombuds Way” in Language Ombudsmen and Minority Protection (LES ÉDITIONS YVON BLAIS INC.) 2019; Paul Herfs, Jenna Brown, Nora Farrell and Ursula Meiser, “PhD Students and Ombuds: How ombuds contribute to civil, fair and productive PhD trajectories”, Occasional Paper for European Network of Ombuds in Higher Education, 2019; Nora Farrell, President, Forum of Canadian Ombudsman and Lorne Sossin, Dean and Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School “Fifty Years of Fighting for Fairness” May 2015 online: http://www.ombudsmanforum.ca/en.; Farrell, Nora J., “The Evolution of the Idiosyncrasy of the Role of the Ombudsman/person in Canada” in The Nature of Inquisitorial Processes in Administrative Regimes – Global Perspectives, Laverne Jacobs & Sasha Baglay (eds.) (Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Company) 2013.
Professor Paul Daly holds the University Research Chair in Administrative Law & Governance at the University of Ottawa. A graduate of University College Cork (B.C.L., LL.M.), the University of Pennsylvania Law School (LL.M.) and the University of Cambridge (Ph.D.), his influential, bilingual, award-winning scholarly work on public law – dozens of books, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and shorter pieces – has been cited more than 100 times, including by the Supreme Court of Canada, various other Canadian courts and tribunals, the High Court of Australia, the Irish Supreme Court and the New Zealand Supreme Court.
Ronda Bessner has taught for many years at law school, done extensive policy work, worked in law reform, served as an adjudicator at the Ontario Consent and Capacity Board, and she has played key roles in several public inquiries.
Her law school teaching has been in the areas of public inquiries, evidence, criminal law, and youth justice. Her public inquiry work includes serving as Senior Legal Advisor/Senior Legal Analyst at seven federal, provincial, municipal public inquiries, including the Mass Casualty Commission, the Walkerton Inquiry, the Ipperwash Inquiry, the Collingwood Inquiry, and the Royal Commission on the Blood System in Canada. In addition, Ronda co-designed and co-facilitated two roundtables and presented to three federal Cabinet ministers in relation to the Public Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Ronda is the co-author and co-editor of Public Inquiries in Canada: Law and Practice. The first edition was published in 2017 and the second edition of the book is scheduled to be published in early 2024.
Ronda is past President of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario, and she co-founded the first Canadian chapter of the Harvard Law School Women’s Alliance.
In 2016, Ronda was awarded the Law Society of Upper Canada medal for outstanding service in the legal profession.
Ronda received her Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and her Bachelor of Common Law (LLB) from McGill Law School. She received a Masters of Law (LLM) from Harvard Law School.