Kierstead, Shelley

Professor Shelley Kierstead’s research interests lie in the areas of family law, access to justice, and dispute resolution.  She has also conducted research in the conflict of laws area, completing a Master of Laws degree focusing on this topic at the University of Toronto 1993.  Professor Kierstead first taught Legal Research and Writing (LRW) at Osgoode in 1993, and became Director of the LRW program at Osgoode in 2002. In 2005, she completed a doctoral dissertation in the family law area and obtained a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.  Since 1997, Professor Kierstead has also coordinated a parent education program for separating parents entitled the “Parent Information Program.” This program is an initiative of Osgoode’s Centre for Public Law and Public Policy. Research Interests: Family Law, Legal Process

Farrow, Trevor C. W.

Trevor Farrow is Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School.

Research. Professor Farrow is internationally recognized as a leading scholar on access to justice, legal process and the profession. He is regularly consulted and invited to participate at conferences, expert panels, policy initiatives and justice projects in Canada and around the world, including as a research expert on the OECD’s Advisory Justice Research Consortium. Professor Farrow has been awarded numerous Canadian and international grants to conduct innovative and ground-breaking research, including his $1 million SSHRC “Costs of Justice” grant, which was the first national study of its kind to look at financial and other costs associated with access to justice in Canada. Professor Farrow is consistently ranked in the top 10% of authors on SSRN by all-time and annual downloads and his research is widely cited and relied on by researchers, policy makers, governments, judges and the media in Canada and around the world.

Teaching. Professor Farrow’s undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching focuses on the administration of civil justice, including access to justice, legal process, legal and judicial ethics, advocacy and globalization. He has taught and lectured at universities across Canada and around the world. Professor Farrow has received teaching awards from Harvard University and Osgoode Hall Law School.

Administration. Professor Farrow has held numerous administrative and leadership appointments at Osgoode Hall Law School, including Associate Dean, Associate Dean (Academic), Associate Dean (Research & Institutional Relations), and Faculty Council Chair. He is the Chair of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, the founding Academic Director of the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution, and was the Director of the York Centre for Public Policy and Law. He also serves on numerous research and policy panels and committees, including Canada’s Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters (he was credited as “the holder of the pen” on the Action Committee’s ground-breaking and often nationally and internationally cited Roadmap for Change report). Professor Farrow was formerly a litigation lawyer at the Torys law firm in Toronto.

Research Interests. Access to justice; legal process and dispute resolution; professional and judicial ethics; advocacy; legal education; political theory and globalization.