Faculty

Andrew Finkelstein has a broad civil litigation and dispute resolution practice, with an emphasis on corporate/commercial, environmental, employment and estates litigation, shareholder disputes and oppression claims, and administrative law. Before joining Chernos Flaherty Svonkin LLPin the fall of 2014, Andrew spent 10 years at Torys LLP in Toronto. He has appeared as lead counsel before all levels of court in Ontario, before a variety of administrative tribunals and in commercial arbitrations.

Bita Amani is an Associate Professor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law in Kingston. Bita’s research interests include intellectual property law (domestic and international), intellectual property law theory and policy and its interaction with law and development, regulating genetics and new technologies, biopiracy and protection of traditional and cultural knowledge, regulatory and ethical issues of medical/scientific research and its commercialization, privacy and data protection, social justice and regulatory diversity and feminist and critical legal studies. For a full bio click here.

Bob Tarantino is Counsel at Dentons Canada LLP and focuses his practice on the interface between the entertainment industries and intellectual property law, with an emphasis on film and television production, financing, licensing, distribution, and IP acquisition and protection. His clients range from artists and independent producers to Canadian distributors and foreign studios and financiers at every stage of the creative process, from development to delivery and exploitation.

He holds graduate degrees in law from Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Oxford, including a PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School. Bob has been an adjunct lecturer at Osgoode Hall, Queen’s University’s Faculty of Law and Western University’s Faculty of Law and previously served as the acting co-director of IP Osgoode’s Intellectual Property Law and Technology Intensive Program. Bob is the co-author of Canadian Film & Television Business & Legal Practice (published by Thomson Reuters), and has also been recognized as one of Canada’s leading lawyers in the area of entertainment law in the Lexpert / American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, Who’s Who Legal: Canada and The Best Lawyers in Canada. Bob plays an active role within the legal community, having been a past Chair of the Executive Committee of the Ontario Bar Association’s (OBA) Entertainment, Media and Communications Law Section and a former Chair of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada’s Copyright Policy Committee. His work with the OBA has included serving on the OBA’s Board of Directors, Governance Committee, Pro Bono Committee, Equality Committee, and Council.

For full bio, click here.

Brendan Brammall practises general civil litigation. Prior to joining Chernos Flaherty Svonkin LLP, Brendan spent more than five years in the Toronto office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP, where he gained a wide range of experience in corporate/commercial, regulatory, administrative, and professional liability matters. He has appeared as counsel before all levels of court in Ontario as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. Brendan previously served as Law Clerk to the Honourable Mr. Justice Ian Binnie of the Supreme Court of Canada and was an associate in the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Brendan received his law degree with honours standing from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He also holds a master’s degree in political philosophy from the University of Oxford, which he attended as a Commonwealth Scholar, and an honours undergraduate degree in political science and international relations from the University of British Columbia. Brendan is bilingual and was called to the Ontario bar in 2007 and to the New York State bar in 2008.

Bryan McLeese practises civil litigation with a focus on commercial and business-related litigation. Prior to joining Chernos Flaherty Svonkin LLP in 2016, Bryan was a partner in the Toronto office of Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP. Bryan frequently acts on complex corporate/commercial, securities, class action, oppression, insolvency, professional negligence and defamation matters. His practice spans a wide range of industries, and his regular client base includes established financial services, real estate, mining, consumer products and professional services firms as well as a number of start-up companies and entrepreneurs with businesses in a variety of sectors. He has appeared as counsel before all levels of court in Ontario and acted on complex matters before numerous other courts and tribunals including the British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec Courts of Appeal and the Ontario Securities Commission.

Bryan received his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. He also holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (with distinction) from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Bryan was called to the Ontario bar in 2008. Bryan is a regular lecturer at the University of Toronto and a committed mentor to young students and lawyers inside and outside the firm, volunteering his time at several organizations. He is a long-suffering Maple Leafs fan and committed craft beer devotee.

Prof Giuseppina (Pina) D’Agostino is a law professor, lawyer, public speaker, board director and recognized international scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University specializing in intellectual property (IP), technology and innovation law and policy. She joined Osgoode in 2006 and is regularly called by Canadian and foreign governments for advice, has testified before Parliament and is a widely published author, regularly serves as a consultant and is a cited authority at the Supreme Court of Canada and in various media. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Intellectual Property Journal.

Prof D’Agostino brings her creativity and passion to trailblaze new initiatives and to serve in new roles as Founder and former Director of the globally-recognized IP Osgoode, the award-winning, IPilogue, the IP Intensive, the IP Innovation Clinic, the first legal clinic of its kind helping inventors and start-ups across Canada and, more recently, founded the AI-powered IP Innovation ChatBot allowing underrepresented groups and the general public greater access to IP information.

She began her legal career as an Associate in a large Toronto law firm and was later recruited into the Canadian Government by the Recruitment of Policy Leaders (RPL) as a Senior Policy Analyst working on copyright policy. She serves on the Board of Directors of Alectra Inc. and Chairs its GRE&T Centre Advisory Committee advancing innovation and sustainable energy solutions. She held an Order in Council Appointment at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection where she served as Trustee, and currently sits on its Art Advisory Committee.

Prof D’Agostino is Co-Chair of the York University AI & Society Task Force, is appointed to the City of Vaughan Smart City Task Force and is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She spent her last sabbatical as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. Prof D’Agostino is the recipient of various tri-council grants, honours and awards and is currently working on the second edition of Copyright Law (with Prof David Vaver, Irwin Law). Her peer-reviewed articles and her three books Copyright, Contract, Creators: New Media, New Rules, The Common Law of Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Professor David Vaver and Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law (with A Gaon and C Piovesan) are widely available.

She holds a Masters and Doctorate in Law (University of Oxford) with distinction, an LLB (Osgoode Hall Law School), an HonBA, summa cum laude, in English and Political Science and a specialization in French (York University), is an ICD.D from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario (2001 call).

Should you be interested in working with Prof D’Agostino on any of her research projects, please feel free to get in touch with her directly at gdagostino@osgoode.yorku.ca

Research Interests: Intellectual Property, data governance & ownership, Innovation law & policy, emerging technologies (ie Artificial Intelligence, IoT, robotics, 3D printing, Blockchain etc)

Following five years of practice in civil litigation specializing in Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property Law, Professor Mgbeoji enrolled in the graduate program of Dalhousie University where he graduated, summa cum laude, with an LLM in 1999. A recipient of the Governor-General’s Gold Medal for the highest academic standing at the graduate level in Dalhousie University, he undertook his doctoral research in Patent Law, graduating, summa cum laude, in 2001. Throughout his academic career, Professor Mgbeoji has won numerous academic awards, scholarships and fellowships including the Killam Scholarship and the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft Award. His teaching and research interests are in Patent Law, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Secrets, International Law on the Use of Force, International Environmental Law, Biotechnology and Law, Comparative Intellectual Property Law, Indigenous Peoples, and Anthropology. Professor Mgbeoji is the author of two books – Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order and Patents and Indigenous Peoples – and he is the co-author of Environmental Law in Developing Countries: Selected Issues. Prior to joining Osgoode in July 2003, he taught at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law.