MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING DEAN

Greetings to everyone from the Weldon Law Building! As I write this note in late July 2021, slowly the pandemic restrictions are lifting and gradually we are returning to the hallowed halls of our great law school. And what a pleasure it is to be back on campus. As one of my colleagues quipped, “working at home for the last 16 months has ruined working at home for me”.

It has of course been a very challenging year for everyone at the Schulich School of Law, the students, the staff and the faculty members. The students took a double hit—first, many of them encountered significant economic hardships and second, they missed out on the dynamics of in-person teaching. But the law school responded with energy, enthusiasm and creativity to both these challenges. As our cover story details (p. 32) in terms of economic support we invested almost $1M in our students. Many thanks to all of our alumni who stepped up to help our students in what was undoubtedly a time of serious financial need and a special thanks to our donors.

On the second challenge, the impossibility of in-person teaching, all of our instructors made the transition to online teaching. This was true not only of our 30 plus full-time faculty, but also our 69 part-time faculty. This was remarkable, especially for the busy practitioners who could easily have said “No thanks” but instead said “We are up for the challenge”. While none of us believe that Zoom classes are an adequate replacement for in-person instruction, there is no doubt that the students continued to receive an excellent education at the Schulich School of Law. I also want to acknowledge the work of the support staff over the last year. While some are well known, many are not. Yet, they are central to the smooth and efficient operation of the school. They too had to make the difficult transition to working from home and they did so with a commitment and professionalism that served us well.

What unites all the foregoing is a sense of leadership—from our alumni, our instructors and our staff—and it is this theme of leadership that emerges from this edition of Hearsay. The alumni you’ll read about in the pages ahead have all been unique path breakers committed to making Canada a more responsive and inclusive community of communities. They all truly manifest the Weldon Tradition of unselfish public service.

Let me conclude by acknowledging that it has been an honour to step into the role of Acting Dean for a year, even if it has been during a pandemic. I have been a member of the law school for more than three decades and it has been very good to me in that time. I am very proud of who we are and what we do as students, staff, faculty and alumni at the Schulich School of Law. We have vision and commitment; we care for each other and we care for our communities; and we strive to make Canada (and the world) a better place. It has been a privilege to serve this inspirational community.

Richard Devlin, FRSC Professor of Law and Acting Dean Schulich School of Law