Orientation Address 2011

It is truly a privilege for me to be here to welcome you to Windsor Law.

I am Acting Dean until December so this will be my one and only opportunity to address an incoming class and I am hoping to use my time to tell you a little bit about what your experience with us will be like – and to show you what an exceptional community you have now joined- each one of us working in various capacities to ensure that you get the best legal education possible.

I am Acting Dean because our incoming Dean, Professor Camille Cameron from the University of Melbourne is not slated to begin until January 1st and our former Dean, Professor Bruce Elman, who has served this faculty in that capacity for 11 years, ended his term on June 30th and is currently on a well-earned administrative leave. I am the “bridge Dean” or the “transition Dean”. I look forward to getting to know you over the next months in my capacity as Dean and in my classes afterwards when I return to my position as professor here.

We are all very proud to welcome you to this very special place.  I promise that you will find your law studies intellectually challenging, stimulating and ultimately profoundly rewarding.  You have earned your place here  - You are part of us now – and we are a part of you. –

So who are you?

There are 160 of you in the JD program and 61 in the Dual JD program.

You come from all walks of life – you mirror and follow in the footsteps of 43 years of incoming classes –diverse, multi-talented - with broad based educational and life experiences. You also come here, no doubt, with a variety of reasons for wishing to pursue a legal career.  But as diverse as you may be, I suspect that most of you are all the same in one particular respect –you are likely excited, somewhat nervous, and perhaps even a bit anxious about what you are about to embark on.

Well, I can say for myself and I think that I speak for everyone else here who has pursued legal studies, I can remember as clear as day my first day of law school and how anxious and uncertain I felt – I actually believed that the admissions committee had made some sort of mistake in my case - and that was a whole lot of years ago so this moment tends to stick with you…

If I can at all allay some of the anxiety, let me do this by telling you a bit about this law school and the people who work here.

Who are we?

Let me start with my first full introduction - Acting Law Librarian Annette Demers is a graduate of this law school and prior to joining our law library, was a specialist in international and foreign law at Harvard Law School Library. In 2009 she published a paper in the Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues (WRLSI), our student-run peer reviewed law journal, in which she chronicled the 40 year history of the law school.

As Ms. Demers relates, it all began in 1966 when Dr. JF Leddy, then President of the University of Windsor, decided that the University needed a law school –

He said: "...in 1966, I proposed to the Board of Governors that we seek approval for a Law School. Not everyone agreed. Some lawyers who were members of the Board felt that Osgoode should take care of the supply of new members for the profession. Others, dreaming dreams, argued that the City of Windsor needed the stimulus of a Medical School, regardless of the expense. But realism prevailed, and in the year 1966-1967, I was finally authorized to present to the then Minister of Education, Bill Davis, our request for approval of a Law School in Windsor." [Demers at p. 32]

It was a bit of a rocky start - As the Windsor Star reported in April, 1967, referring to the first Dean, Dr Mark McGuigan. Dean McGuigan had been Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School and very soon after taking his appointment as Dean entered Federal Politics to end his career as a Federal Court of Appeal Judge:

"Six degree Mark MacGuigan moved to Windsor in September to borrow an office and head a law school that doesn't exist. His library in the north wing of Windsor Hall at the University of Windsor consists of 500 dog-eared books - all donated by area lawyers." [“Law Dean Appointed at University of Windsor” The Windsor Star, April 12, 1967 p. 3]

This past summer, we held a reunion for that inaugural class, the Class of 1971 and those in attendance reminisced fondly about their first year when classes were held in one room on campus and their professors rotated around them.  This pioneering class has remained closely attached to the law school and it was a pleasure for me to speak with them about those early days.

I would encourage you to read Ms. Demers paper:

Demers, A., “And Social Justice for All: A History of the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law”

(2009) 27 WRLSI 31.

Here is your first introduction to the mysteries of legal citation!

Believe me, this gibberish will soon have meaning for you. The art and mystery of legal citation will be revealed through our Legal Research and Writing Program and its lecturers - each of whom bring different training, experience and talents to teaching and mentoring you in the intricate and critically important skills of legal research and legal writing. - What you will learn this year from Professors Ruth Kuras (’90), Maggie Liddle and Moira McCarney  (’89) will be the foundation for everything that you do throughout your lives as lawyers.

Legal research and legal writing, as all endeavours related to the study of law, are intimately tied to and dependent upon being able to have the law in front of you - the written text - whether a judge's decision, piece of legislation or expert commentary on aspects of law - As Windsor Law’s genesis demonstrates - a law school can start without a building but it can’t start without law books (and in this new millennium we are increasingly migrating to electronic books). The Law Library is therefore a cornerstone and essential part of law studies and our law library is one of the most important spaces that you will frequent as a law student.  It is not only a vital part of our lives here within the law school but it also serves and supports the profession. 

In 1970, the late Right Honourable Paul Martin Sr, in whose name the library is dedicated had this to say at his dedication ceremony:

“I look to this library to help in maintaining the standards of our profession so that we may continue to train not only legal minds, but also to generate concern for the future of mankind in the minds of lawyers. Today you do me great personal honor. But it is much more important that you are advancing the cause of law, of scholarship and therefore of international understanding, for these are the qualities of civilized life which must endure if the human race is to endure. And there can be no symbol more representative of these qualities than a Library of Law”  [“Law Building Officially Opened” The Windsor Star September 25, 1970]

Under the stewardship of Acting Law Librarian Demers who has recently taken over from Law Librarian Paul Murphy – who, by the way, was a graduate of that first class of 1971  - there is a committed team to assist and guide you in finding your way through the labyrinthine stacks and the ponderous tomes.

But the library and law books are only one part of a larger educational experience. The legal texts need to be understood, contextualized and interpreted – Obviously then, a law school couldn’t be what it is without its professors – scholars and teachers – who work collectively to advance legal education, legal discourse and legal policy within a broad curriculum and their own research and professional activities. We are as diverse as you are and perhaps you can see in some of us reflections of what your futures may hold.

Here are the Professors you will be studying under in Law I: In addition to Professors Kuras, Liddle and McCarney, you will work with Professors Reem Bahdi, Donna Eansor (’80),  Brian Etherington, Jasminka Kaladjzic, Richard Moon, Paul Ocheje, Anneke Smit, Gemma Smyth (’02), David Tanovich, Larry Wilson and Chris Wydrzynski (’73). 

You will have to wait for your upper years of study in order to work with me as well as Professors Jeff Berryman, Emily Carasco, Bill Conklin, Emir Crowne, Bruce Elman, Maureen Irish, Laverne Jacobs, Muharem Kianieff, Julie Macfarlane, Julio Menezes, Len Rotman, Marcia Valiante, Chris Waters and John Weir.

You will see from our biographies that some of us hold doctoral degrees, some of us don't.  Some of us started our legal careers in private practice before joining the academy, some of us only practiced to a lesser extent. We hold degrees from national and international Universities and we teach and write in various areas of law – some in public law, some in private law, some experts in international law, others in domestic.

As people, we come from various backgrounds, ethnicities and religions - some of us are new Canadians, some, like myself, are first generation Canadians, others Canadians of long-standing.

We all come together to offer a rich community of scholarship and teaching from which you will benefit and which I invite you to access as fully as you can.

But of course, none of us labours alone. The very approachable faculty support staff, Cristina Corio, Annette Pratt and Thuy-Bin Shiu are there to help you with anything related to your courses and your professors as well as to help you navigate this sometimes confusing building.

Our professorial body is completed by our Professors Emeriti who continue to teach and offer their wisdom and insights to the advancement of our programs.  These are some of the individuals you will be seeing around the building this year: Professors Bogart, Marasinghe, Mazer, Stewart and West.

We also welcome visiting scholars who join us on a more temporary basis but whose presence enriches our curriculum and our scholarly work – we are pleased to have Professor Tom Kuttner Q.C as our Ron Ianni Visiting Scholar. He has joined us after a long and distinguished career at as Professor at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law.

I should say bit about the late Dr. Ron Ianni, in whose name this Visiting Scholar program was established. Professor Ianni was a former Dean of this law school and past President of the University of Windsor. You will not doubt have noticed that we have dedicated this building to his memory.

Our scholarly mission is completed through our special lecturers or sessional instructors – practitioners and judges who bring a particular expertise to the classroom experience and without whose contributions we would not be able to offer a broad-based and comprehensive legal education.

This legal education is further fostered and reinforced through our active engagement with two broad and foundational institutional themes:  Access to Justice and Transnational Law (the evolution of what we had first designated as Canada-US Relations).

From its very beginning, Windsor Law was committed to integrating access to justice principles within it and that theme is manifested in a myriad of ways. Most notably, we embody this principle in our admissions policy, our flagship Law I course entitled “Access to Justice”, our new joint MSW/JD program and, in addition to the WRLSI, the Faculty’s acclaimed peer reviewed journal, the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, established in 1982.

However, another critical piece of this engagement with access to justice issues is reflected in our long-standing and abiding commitment to serving the community through our clinical programs. This clinical tradition remains a cornerstone of who we are and our Academic Clinic Director Prof. Gemma Smyth is entrusted with ensuring sound and sustainable pedagogical outcomes for students engaged in the clinical experience.

Our two oldest clinics, Community Legal Aid (established in 1971) and Legal Assistance of Windsor (established in 1974) operate under the Directorship of Brian Rodenhurst (’77). CLA, which is housed on campus, is a Student Legal Aid Society clinic in which students provide legal services under the supervision of Review Counsels Rose Faddoul (’97) and Jim Yaworski .  Administrative support is provided by Joanne D’Agnolo and Scott Wraight.

LAW, whose office is downtown, is a community clinic in which students work with Staff Lawyers Marion Overholt  (’81) and Sharon Murphy (’00) and Social Workers Shelley Gilbert and Marcel Trepanier.  Office manager Gayle Sinasac and support staff Stella Blak and Catherine Farnham keep this multi-disciplinary clinic running.

The third among our earliest and more venerable clinics is the University of Windsor Mediation Service – established in 1995 through the leadership of Professor Julie Macfarlane and now under the Directorship of Lynne Pearlman with the support of Angie Penev.  Housed downtown, the UWMS provides alternative dispute resolution services to community clients.

Of more recent vintage yet an equally significant Access to Justice initiative is Professor Tanovich’s Legal Enforcement Accountability Project. Established in 2009, LEAP allows students to conduct research and influence policy in matters relating police accountability and racial profiling.

Another recent clinic and one that I have a more direct and personal interest in is the Centre for Enterprise and Law. Established in 2008, this project is a partnership between the Faculty of Law and the Odette School of Business. My co-director, Prof. Francine Schlosser of the Odette School of Business, and I bring law students and business students together to provide support to local entrepreneurs.  

The newest addition is the first International Environmental Law Clinic in North America – a joint project between this Faculty and Wayne State University Law School in Detroit. Under the Directorship of Prof. Marcia Valiante, this clinic is a manifestation of the synergy between our two themes – It is an access to justice initiative in the context of environmental policy and environmental sustainability while at the same time being inherently transnational in its orientation.

The theme of Transnational Law is manifested in a number of other initiatives and programs. Obviously, the Dual JD program with the University of Detroit (Mercy) Law School is emblematic of this focus. In addition, students in the single JD program are now required to take, during their law studies, one course designated Transnational Law.

But, of course, categories tend to create silos which can sometimes be stifling –We are finding that, as this law school has matured and developed, our two themes have become more closely integrated and the lines between access to justice and transnational law become increasingly blurred. This is perhaps not surprising – In an increasingly interconnected world, issues of social justice and access to justice must be approached from a transnational, international and comparative law perspective if the aims of justice are truly to be served. As well, traditional areas of law and practice are increasingly being scrutinized in light of social justice concerns, and rightly so.

This thematic melding is certainly manifested in our International Environmental Law Clinic but another good example of this growing interaction is the Faculty’s Centre for Transnational Law and Justice. CTLJ, through its Director, Prof. Paul Ocheje, advances research and policy in transnational, comparative and international law. It grew out of two different Centres – The Canadian American Research Centre for Law and Policy – rooted in our Canada-US focus and the Centre for Law in Aid of Development – rooted in our focus on access to justice.

And we continue to evolve….

We are establishing a graduate program in law (LLM) designed to reflect our commitment to our institutional themes. Although still at its inception, we anticipate having the program in place before you leave here through the leadership of Prof. Laverne Jacobs our Director of Graduate Studies.

However, as much as law school is an academic discipline, it is also a professional school and we remain mindful of our obligations to serve the profession and to ensure that we facilitate your entry into the profession – in whatever capacity or role suits you.

We have a career services office run by Director, Anne Decia-Gualteri, (’01) with support from Debbie Squillaro. This office, that will be expanding this year, serves as a critical bridge between you and your future careers whether your aspirations lie in traditional or less traditional legal fields.

Another reflection of how the law school ties into the larger profession, is in our ongoing and proud relationship with our alumni.  As I mentioned before, we hosted the class of 1971 this summer and we will be hosting more of our alumni throughout the fall namely, the classes of 1976, 1981, 1986 and 2001. Our graduates maintain a close and deep connection with this law school and we support and celebrate this relationship through our Alumni and Fund Development Office under the directorship of Karen Momotiuk  (’96) assisted by Marissa Hatt

In fact we are honoured and privileged to be welcoming here on October 5th, the justices of the Ontario Court of Appeal.  Remember this event – it’s a once in a lifetime chance to speak with members of that distinguished Bench including (I say proudly), Justice Eleanore Cronk of the Ontario Court of Appeal who graduated from Windsor Law in 1975.

You can see then that your relationship with us won’t end in three years. We greatly benefit from the contributions of our alumni – whether in teaching, mentoring, financial support or in direct delivery of our programs and services.

Now all of this couldn’t work in a seamless fashion (or as seamlessly as possible) without administrative oversight. I am privileged to be working closely with a group of exceptional people who provide academic and administrative stewardship to ensure that this law school flourishes and grows.

The Dean’s office is supported by Anne Dawson, Secretary to the Dean and advisor on all things decanal. I work closely with Associate Dean Chris Waters, a wonderful colleague, and his very able assistant Sandra Stein, Associate Dean’s Secretary, Admissions and Awards.

Both Associate Dean Waters and I rely on two extremely capable Assistant Deans – Francine Herlehy, Assistant Dean (Student Services) (’89) and Michelle Pilutti – Assistant Dean (Administration and Finance) – as well as the indefatigable Academic Coordinator Virginia Obierski and the Director of the dual JD program Jennifer Henderson who ably manages the cross-border experience.

Our General Office Staff, Cathy Milec and Angela Haskell keep things humming and our IT Services ‘techies’ Norm Saxon and Shafqat Hanif make sure that things don’t crash…. Finally, our custodian, Pauline Benoit makes sure that we have a fresh start to every day…!

To conclude, I hope that this brief introduction has demonstrated to you what a rich, vibrant and multi-faceted community we are and how much our past informs our present and guides us to our future.

Our story is now your story.

I am a very proud member of this Faculty and have been so for 20 years and counting. I am pleased to welcome you as you take your place among us.

Thank you

Myra J. Tawfik
Acting Dean and Professor