Alumni Spotlights

Manu Sud

Manu is a manager of business analytics at Fasken in Toronto. Manu reflects on his varied skillsets and achievements across industries – including engineering, finance, technology and the public sector – and how obtaining an LLM helped him fulfill his goals.

Amanda Wickett

Amanda is a partner at McDougall Gauley LLP. Amanda shares her journey from public to private practice, balancing her work, studies and family life, and how she accomplished her goals through learnings during her Professional LLM.

Melanie Toolsie

Melanie serves as legal counsel for the Department of Justice Canada’s National Litigation Sector. Here she discusses how an LLM in Administrative Law built on her existing work experience, allowing her to “zoom out” and appreciate the theory behind the work she does.

Sam Ghawi

Sam is an associate lawyer with Allan Snelling LLP. Sam details his journey as an internationally trained lawyer that led him to pursuing Osgoode’s Professional LLM, and how it culminated in him practising law in Canada.

Dian Thompson

Dian is an intellectual property lawyer and a member of the Trademark and Copyright Law practice groups. Dian details her experience with pursuing an LLM and how it was everything that she had hoped for as it prepared her for practising law in Canada.

Yulia Vasilyeva

Yulia is a lawyer at Jones & Co. Yulia explains how pursuing Osgoode’s Professional LLM gave her a sense of community, which she credits for her sense of longstanding and important relationships.

Armando D’Andrea 

Armando is a staff lawyer with Legal Aid Ontario’s Provincial Case Management Office. Armando shares his experience as a student in Osgoode’s Professional LLM programs and tells prospective students to embrace the chance to make their own contribution to the dialogue.

Stacey Purser 

Stacey is currently a Criminal Trial and Appeal Lawyer with Purser Law. She discusses what drew her to the part-time Professional LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure and how the value of the connections she made with other professionals in the criminal justice system.

Jacob Stilman

Jacob practises as a litigation lawyer and has represented thousands of clients at trials, appeals, and hearings. Jacob shares how Osgoode’s Professional LLM re-kindled his enthusiasm for law after having practiced for over two decades.

Marty Venalainen

Marty is currently serving as Director on Infrastructure Ontario’s Transaction Legal team. He shares how his personal convictions have motivated his professional decisions and led him to enroll in Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Energy and Infrastructure Law.

Manish Paul

Manish is a project management professional at Hydro One. Manish reflects on his credibility in conversations with stakeholders at multiple levels in capital projects, and how it has been enhanced by obtaining Osgoode’s Professional LLM.

Yakov Radyushin

Yakov established his own law firm, Radyushin Law. With a penchant for learning and passion for law, he knew he could increase the quality of his legal energy and infrastructure knowledge by obtaining Osgoode’s Professional LLM.

Cherie Daniel

Cherie Daniel’s was looking to bridge the two elements of her career in law and education. After a while of looking for a general law degree to help pivot her practice to new areas of law, she settled on the Osgoode Professional LLM in General Law.

Solange Espinoza

Solange is co-founder of Freymar Consulting. Solange helps Canadian companies and other organizations understand Mexico’s legal/policy environment. The Professional LLM helped her apply her deep knowledge of Mexican law in Canada.

Dr. Sandra Donnelly

Sandra is a clinical nephrologist at William Osler Health System and an associate professor at University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Sandra shares her thoughts on Osgoode’s Professional LLM for those considering the program while discussing the value that it has brought to her life.

Dr. Qaiser Fahim

Qaiser is a clinical ethicist at Trillium Health Partners. Qaiser reflects on the nature of Osgoode’s Professional LLM and how the program provided him with a deeper understanding of how to navigate the ethical complexities of his profession.

Danielle Douek

Danielle is a partner at Lerners LLP, where she defends health professionals as a member of the health law group. Danielle discusses how an Osgoode LLM in Health Law allowed her to combine her interest in medicine with her legal profession and helped to change the direction of her career.

Ramanuj Basu

Ramanuj is a senior manager working in the Economic Sanctions compliance office for a Canadian bank. Ramanuj credits his internship, facilitated through Osgoode, on forming the basis for him to establish credibility in the Canadian market.

Bianca Tedesco

Bianca is a lawyer at EY Law LLP. Bianca discusses the academic and social experiences during her LLM studies that helped her get to where she is today.

Rene Mendizabal

Rene is a privacy research lawyer for a privacy compliance software company. Although Rene works with privacy on the daily basis, the Professional LLM gave him the opportunity to see it all in a different context which was extremely useful in his career.

David Cade

David is a senior tax analyst in the International Tax Group at Deloitte LLP. David describes how he could indulge in research and paper writing while completing his program, which ultimately lead him to receive the CTF-Fasken Martineau DuMoulin Award for the best Ontario paper of 2020-21.

Heather Evans

Heather is the Executive Director and CEO of the Canadian Tax Foundation. Heather spent many years as a tax lawyer before she became one of the earliest graduates of Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Taxation Law.

Juan Carlos Diaz Garcia

Juan is an alumnus of the Taxation Law LLM and a current student in Osgoode’s Canadian Common Law LLM. Juan discusses his journey to obtaining an LLM in Taxation Law, which includes overcoming the challenges of transitioning from a civil law to a common law jurisdiction, and highlights the array of services available to support international students at Osgoode.