Dean’s Message

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Welcome to the 41st edition of Hearsay. There is, as usual, lots to celebrate (notwithstanding the pandemic), and Dal Legal Aid is at the top of the list. What a milestone, and what a track record! For 50 years the Clinic has been providing legal information and advice to people in our community who would not otherwise be able to access those services. I know that many of you who are reading this message had the benefit of a semester at the Clinic. Our current students praise their Clinic experience as a highlight of their law school education, and we hear the same message from our alumni. From my perspective, clinical education is one of a law school’s valuable assets, giving students a great learning experience while at the same time providing a service to the community.

Thanks to Stewart McKelvey’s generous donation, the initio Technology and Innovation Law Clinic is up and running. While current circumstances have delayed things, we were finally able to begin furnishing and equipping the new clinic space on the third floor of the law school in June. An exciting new initiative we are offering this year is articling positions with the Tech Law Clinic and Dal Legal Aid for two students who will spend six months at each of the clinics. The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society was very supportive of the idea, and our goal is to continue this initiative in future years. It is an excellent example of the kind of opportunities we can create for students with the generosity of our alumni donors.

It will come as no surprise to you that COVID has been affecting our lives in many ways. We have been keeping you informed over the past few months about what we are doing to navigate our way through these uncertain times. Like so many, we are working from home and trying to stay safe and healthy while still getting the job done. Having managed the quick switch in March to online learning, much of our time and energy is now directed to redesigning our teaching for predominantly online delivery this year. We have a great working group in place that has been supporting faculty in these efforts, and the university is also providing excellent support. We are developing creative ways to build community, especially because much of what we do socially this year will have to be done virtually. It is a massive job but our Schulich Law team has collectively come together to rise to the challenge.

Initiatives to help our students through these trying times have been high on our list of priorities. As we have shared with you over the past few months, we established an emergency bursary fund and created additional paid internship and research assistant summer positions. This allowed us to provide relief for students who suddenly found themselves without summer jobs and with unanticipated expenses.

Our new faculty, featured on page 11, come to us with a wide variety of research and teaching interests, including property law, criminal law, Indigenous knowledge and justice, private international law, critical race theory, labour law, and corporate governance. We are also pleased to welcome Kelsey Jones as the new Director of our Indigenous Blacks and Mi’kmaq Initiative, and equally pleased that Michelle Williams, the former Director of our IB&M Initiative, has joined us as a full-time faculty member.

So, while I cannot say it is business as usual here at Weldon, we are, like you, doing what we have to do and adjusting to our current circumstances to keep getting the job done. From everyone here, we wish you all the very best. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we look forward to seeing you in person (Zoom is good too, but in person is better!) when that is possible. Thanks for all that you do to make it so easy to write great stories about our law school and its wonderful alumni.

Camille Cameron, Q.C. Dean and Weldon Professor of Law Schulich School of Law