Warren J. Newman’s career in constitutional law

Growing up with a keen interest in politics, Warren J. Newman set his sights on the legal profession in his early teenage years – mostly as a stepping stone to his ultimate goal.

“My intention was to become a lawyer and then enter public life,” he says.

“Instead, I’ve ended up advising those in public life,” adds Warren, who is currently Senior General Counsel in the Constitutional, Administrative & International Law Section at Justice Canada, where he has spent the bulk of his four decades in practice, advising on a wide range of matters, including constitutional principles and conventions, federalism, Crown law, parliamentary sovereignty, the separation of powers, parliamentary privilege and constitutional amendment.

For almost half of that period, he has also served as co-director of Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Constitutional Law, joining the faculty soon after his 2004 graduation from the same program.

“I remain, needless to say, a strong supporter of the virtues and importance of this key program for current and future students,” Newman says.

Building on his childhood enthusiasm for the subject, Newman studied history and political science at McGill University, before earning degrees in both civil and common law at the same institution. Although he took classes in criminal and administrative law, he says constitutional law was an especially prominent part of his courseload.

“We were going through a constitutional moment. The prime minister of the day had been a constitutional law professor himself, so it was very much front and centre,” adds Newman, whose transition from law school into the legal profession coincided with the enactment of the Constitution Act, 1982, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

After articling with the Commissioner of Official Languages for Canada, Newman was called to the bar in 1984. Within weeks, he was at the Supreme Court of Canada for the Manitoba Language Rights Reference, appearing as junior counsel for one of the interveners with his former Constitutional Law Professor Stephen Scott.

It would be the first of several trips to the nation’s top court, including as co-counsel for the Attorney General of Canada in the Quebec Secession Reference and the Senate Reform Reference. His academic writing has been cited by Supreme Court justices in several cases, most recently in the majority and dissenting opinions in Canada (Attorney General) v. Power, the court’s landmark ruling on the availability of damages for Charter breaches. He has also appeared frequently as an expert witness on constitutional matters before parliamentary committees.

Newman’s connection to Osgoode dates back to the turn of the 21^st Century, when the Constitutional Law LLM was only typically offered in-person to students attending in Toronto. However, he was able to corral enough Ottawa-based candidates to convince the school to experiment with a remote-learning option via teleconferencing technology that was cutting edge for the time.

In the following years, Osgoode would fine-tune its approach, leveraging interactive online learning software to become a remote-learning pioneer and allow students to complete their studies from home across Canada and around the world, long before anyone had ever heard of Zoom or Teams.

Over the years, Newman says the gradual expansion of Osgoode’s Professional LLM offering has been good for constitutional law students, who are now able to take elective courses in related areas of interest, including administrative law. At the same time, the Constitutional Law LLM offering has also evolved, he adds.  

“As a government lawyer, one noticed that the program tended to be more Charter-heavy, which made sense; people are naturally drawn to the Charter and concepts of human rights, fundamental freedoms and equality. But for government lawyers, there are other elements that need to be canvassed: government structure and institutions, constitutional principles and conventions, parliamentary privilege, as well as constitutional reform,” Newman explains. “There is also a good focus now on Indigenous rights in relation to the Constitution, which is a real plus in terms of rounding out the program.”

At the front of a classroom, Newman has developed a kind of double act with Osgoode Professor Richard Haigh, his frequent co-teacher in the Constitutional Law LLM course on Federalism and Institutions of Government.

“We’re a good combination. He’s quite methodical and attentive to structure in terms of getting all the subject matter covered and taking the right pedagogical approach, while I tend to be spontaneous. I have a lot of acquired knowledge and expertise, so when we’re dealing with a particular theme, principle or institution, I like to come at it in that way,” he says. “We enjoy having a lot of interaction in class and we really draw on students and encourage them to participate. They are typically legal practitioners or very skilled professionals, so they have a lot to offer.”

At the federal Department of Justice, several of Newman’s colleagues have completed Osgoode’s Constitutional Law LLM, giving him a close-up look at the immediate and enduring value the program provides to students as they continue in their careers.

“It gives people confidence and exposes them to new perspectives on the perennial issues that come up when you are dealing with constitutional law and the Charter. We all have our prejudices in terms of our go-to people on certain constitutional law topics, so it’s good to hear about the newer generation of academic writers who have emerged since you were in law school,” Newman says. “It’s a wonderful program.”