MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to share what is going on here at Dalhousie and in the Weldon Law Building with you, our incredible alumni. More importantly, it is a chance to thank you for the remarkable value you add to the student experience at our law school.

Now that the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, it is tempting to omit any mention of it in this message. But it is also important to acknowledge the big part it has played in our lives for the past few years, and its significant effects. This year’s graduating class spent a substantial part of their three-year legal education learning online. Thus missing out, to a significant extent, on one of the things that makes our law school experience such a rich one for students – community. Our students demonstrated their resilience by finding alternative ways to build community spirit until they were able to come back together in person.

It would be difficult to reflect on the past year without mentioning the tragic loss of our colleague, Professor Meinhard Doelle (LLB ’89, JSD ’05), who passed away in September 2022. His work and research in the fields of environmental law and climate change is truly formidable. We remain committed to honouring his memory and his legacy.

Included in this edition of Hearsay is a story about our intensive courses. These three-day courses, taught by experts, offer our students opportunities to immerse themselves in specialised or emerging areas of law. They have limited enrolment, therefore offering students a small group experience. Some of our students and instructors share their thoughts about how much they enjoyed participating in intensive courses.

Our remarkable summer internship opportunities continue to grow. Since 2009, Schulich Law’s Internship Program has placed 429 students, awarded 2.6 million in funds, and helped 178 organizations around the world. This initiative began with the support of the Schulich Foundation. It has grown due to the generosity of many other donors who have seen the potential of this program for our students and for the many organizations with whom they work as interns.

Our Jessup Moot team took home top national honours this year, placing first among all Canadian law schools and representing us at the international competition in Washington, D.C. Congratulations to the team and to the coaches, Professor Rob Currie (’98) and Sarah MacLeod (’20), on doing such a great job to bring out the best in this group of talented and hard-working students.

Our graduate students have also been recognized for excellence. Two of our graduate students won prizes this year for their research. Doctoral graduate Adebayo Majekolagbe was selected as one of the recipients of the 2023 Dalhousie Doctoral Thesis Awards for his dissertation on ecological issues. Morris Odeh was the winner of the Governor General’s Gold Medal Award in Humanities and Social Sciences. His thesis investigates the complex intersections of artificial intelligence, patent law, and social welfare.

Our collaboration with the Faculty of Computer Science continues with a joint appointment this year. Anthony Rosborough (’14), who is currently completing his PhD at the European Institute, will join us in December. Some of Anthony’s teaching will be to classes of combined Law and Computer Science students. This approach is informed by the knowledge that the complex issues around artificial intelligence and related regulatory, ethics and policy issues can only be dealt with effectively with a truly interdisciplinary learning, teaching and research approach.

This will be my last message for Hearsay as Dean. I finished my eight-year term at the end of June 2023. It is hard to believe that eight years have passed since arrived at the Schulich School of Law. And what a wonderful eight years it has been. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be the Dean of this excellent law school. I will continue to support the law school as a member of faculty and will ensure that I am contributing to a first-class law school experience for our students. I hope to continue to have opportunities to engage with our wonderful alumni. As have said in all my previous Hearsay messages and on so many other occasions, you and your loyalty, excellence and support make us strong. Your contributions as mentors, teachers, donors and advisors are many and greatly appreciated. Engaging with our donors has been one of the joys of the job for me. I will miss that, but I look forward to staying in touch and seeing you at alumni events. Thank you for everything. You rock!