June 26, 2019
We’re happy to announce that Martha Simmons is the new Academic Director of the Professional LLM in Dispute Resolution at Osgoode Professional Development!
Martha was a student of the program in 2009 and went on to teach the Teaching, Training, Coaching course afterward. In April, it was announced that Martha would be the next Academic Director of the program, following the retirement of former Academic Co-Directors Leslie MacLeod and Paul Emond. Martha is also a full-time faculty member of the Osgoode Hall Law School JD program, and she also acts as Academic Director of the Winkler Institute. Martha also previously acted as Director of Osgoode’s Mediation Intensive Program and Mediation Clinic
When reflecting on the reasons she sought the role of Academic Director for the DR LLM program, Martha remarked that Leslie and Paul had built an excellent program and she wanted to contribute to that legacy in some tangible way. Martha also accredits the program to changing the course of her career. The Dispute Resolution LLM led her into academia as a full-time career, and after she completed the LLM degree, Martha also obtained her Ph.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School. In addition, Martha credits the LLM program with exposing her to the interesting people and perspectives that made up her cohort that year.
As Academic Director, Martha wants to continue to build upon the excellence of the ADR LLM. She also wants to increase the course offerings to include subjects such as online dispute resolution, which is gaining more and more traction in the legal community. Martha’s advice to those who may be thinking of applying for the LLM program is to come in with an understanding of the goals you have that may be achieved through this program and to make those goals clear to the faculty who can guide you.
We look forward to Martha’s contributions as Academic Director of the ADR LLM and welcome her to the role!
To learn more about the Professional LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution, click here