The Osgoode Mediation Clinic is run by upper year law students at Osgoode Hall Law School who are trained in mediation and are currently enrolled in the Mediation Intensive Clinical Program. All work is supervised by the Clinic Co-Directors, Bernard Morrow and Professor Karen Drake.
Bernard Morrow, Clinic Co-Director
Bernard is the principal of Morrow Mediation, a Toronto based ADR firm. Prior to entering the dispute resolution field, he practiced as a lawyer with a particular emphasis on employment law. Bernard was called to the Ontario Bar in 1988. He has been providing dispute resolution services since 1994 and in May 2013 was awarded the Chartered Mediator (C. Med) designation by the ADR Institute of Canada (ADRIC), Canada’s only professional designation for practising mediators. His mediation practice focuses on employment (including wrongful dismissal and human rights claims), commercial (including partnership and family business disputes), workplace, construction and insurance matters. In addition to operating his private ADR practice, Bernard serves as a part-time Vice-Chair with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal. Between April 2014 through March 2018, Bernard served as the Law Society of Ontario’s (LSO) independent Complaints Resolution Commissioner, reviewing complaints of professional misconduct against lawyers and paralegals that have been investigated by the LSO. Bernard has designed and delivered several of his own training programs in the ADR field, including an advanced negotiation course for the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies and a certificate program in ADR for the Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology.
Professor Karen Drake, Clinic Co-Director
Karen Drake is a member of the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation and an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School who researches and teaches in the areas of Canadian law as it affects Indigenous peoples, Anishinaabe constitutionalism, property law, and dispute resolution including Indigenous dispute resolution. She joined the Osgoode faculty in July 2017 from the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University where she had been a founding Co-Editor in Chief of the Lakehead Law Journal. Prior to joining Lakehead, she articled with Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, completed a clerkship with the Ontario Court of Appeal, served as a part-time judicial law clerk with the Federal Court, and practised with Erickson & Partners, focusing on legal issues impacting Indigenous peoples, human rights, and civil litigation. Professor Drake’s research on Indigenous dispute resolution includes a SSHRC-funded project in partnership with the Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre, which will be used to develop a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) First Nation Court and the Sarnia Indigenous Persons Court.
