Meet Benjamin Berger, Program Director for Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure

Benjamin Berger isn’t afraid to push his students. In fact, he says it’s part of his job as program director of Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure.

“When you enroll, you’ve got to be open to the idea of being pushed out of the comfort zone of your practice,” Berger says of the LLM candidates in the part-time Criminal Law and Procedure program, who are often managing their studies alongside their regular work. They include criminal defence counsel, prosecutors, other lawyers in private practice, as well as senior professionals without a legal background.

“You’re there because you’ve chosen to exercise some different muscles and because you want to challenge and test what you’ve learned through your own experience,” he adds. “That’s going to be uncomfortable sometimes, but if you are committed, it can be tremendously enriching and maybe even transformative.”

Berger’s challenging style is an effective one, judging by the steady stream of teaching and academic awards that have followed him throughout his career. A previous winner of the Osgoode Hall Law School Teaching Award, Berger was most recently named the 2024 recipient of York University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies Teaching Award, which recognizes teaching and supervisory excellence, considering scholarly, professional and teaching development, along with initiative involving graduate program and curriculum development.

Back in the late 1990s, Berger began his academic pursuits in Religious Studies at the University of Alberta, where his work was recognized with the Gold Medal in Arts and the Governor General’s Academic Medal.

Berger says he came close to pursuing graduate studies in the subject, before rekindling another of his longstanding passions.

“I always had an itch for seeing what the study of law was like,” he explains.

Berger quickly took to legal studies, graduating as the Gold Medallist at UVic Law and applying successfully to the Supreme Court of Canada’s prestigious clerkship program, where he eventually served as a clerk to then-Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

“Once I was in law school, that love of university fused with my interest in engaging with the law; specifically with constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, as well as legal theory more broadly,” he says.

In the years since, Berger has also found a way to keep his undergraduate studies relevant to his work, through his continuing research in the area of law and religion, as well as in his role as convenor of the Osgoode Colloquium in Law, Religion & Social Thought. 

Berger spent his first seven years teaching at his alma mater, the University of Victoria, before joining the Osgoode faculty in 2011. One of his earliest appointments was as co-director of Osgoode’s LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure – a role that he shared with James Stribopoulos until the latter’s appointment to the bench.

“To me, the beauty of the professional LLM program at Osgoode is that it’s a fusion of ongoing practice and experience within law, combined with a desire by all of the students to explore further that bigger-picture, intellectual side of the law that practice alone doesn’t often afford them a chance to explore,” he says.

The rich diversity of professional backgrounds that students bring with them to the Criminal Law and Procedure LLM program is another of its strengths, Berger adds.

“The classroom is rich not only with knowledge, but also personal experience,” he says. “Because of our selectivity and the quality of the class, students should be prepared to learn as much from their colleagues as they do from the instructors.”

Benjamin Berger – Program Director of Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure