Professor Poonam Puri is an internationally recognized scholar of corporate law, corporate governance, capital markets regulation. Appointed to Osgoode Hall Law School over twenty-five years ago, she has served as both Associate Dean, Academic and Associate Dean, Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations at Osgoode. She has also chaired Osgoode’s Faculty Council several times and she is currently serving as Chair of York University’s Senate.
Professor Puri is Co-Founder and Director of the Osgoode Investor Protection Clinic, a clinic that provides pro bono legal assistance to individuals who have suffered financial harm. She is also Founder and Director of the Business Law LLM at Osgoode Professional Development. Both are the first of their kind in Canada.
A prolific scholar, Professor Puri has co-authored/co-edited close to 100 books, book chapters, scholarly articles in leading journals, and commissioned research reports. She has presented at over 200 invited keynotes, conferences and public addresses in Canada and around the world.
Professor Puri is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and has received over $5 million in external research funding, including five SSHRC grants. Together with her co-investigators, she recently received $775,000 from both York University and the University of Toronto in order to conduct critical research on digital currencies. Her scholarship is academically rigorous and firmly grounded in the realities of policy-making and law in action. Governments and regulators in Canada and internationally, including the Bank of Canada, Ministry of Finance, Treasury Board Secretariat, Industry Canada, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, have called upon her expertise for financial regulation that serves the public interest.
In the community, Professor Puri currently serves on multiple boards, including the Canada Infrastructure Bank and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the latter as Chair. She has previously served as a Commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission and on the boards of Women’s College Hospital and the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (Pearson Airport), among others. Her public and private sector board work has provided her with valuable experience and skills in financial management, strategic planning, operational oversight, labour relations and stakeholder engagement.
Awards and Professional Honours (Selected)
- Osgoode Hall Law School Award for Excellence in Teaching (2022, 2009, 1999)
- Peter Dey Governance Achievement Award, Governance Professionals of Canada (2022)
- Yvan Allaire Medal for Outstanding Contributions in Governance, Royal Society of Canada (2021)
- Law Society Medal, Law Society of Ontario (2021)
- Walter Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal Writing, Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General (2020)
- Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada, Canadian Lawyer Magazine (2015, 2017)
- Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women Award: Trailblazers & Trendsetters (2011)
- Female Lawyer of the Year, South Asian Bar Association of Toronto (2010)
- Female Professional of the Year, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (2008)
- Canada’s Top 40 under 40 Award (2005)
- Arbor Award, University of Toronto’s highest award for alumni volunteers (2004)
Representative Publications
- Halpern, Paul, Caroline Cakebread, Chris Nichols & Poonam Puri, Back from the Brink: Lessons from the Canadian Asset Backed Commercial Paper Crisis (Toronto: U of T Press, 2016)
- Puri, Poonam, Anita Anand, Ron Daniels, Edward Iacobucci, Ian Lee, & Jacob Ziegel, Cases and Materials on the Law of Partnerships and Business Organizations in Canada, 6th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2016)
- Puri, Poonam, “Governance in a Time of Crisis” in Ben-Ishai, ed, Dangerous Opportunities: Examining the Home Capital Crisis (U of T Press, 2021)
- Veneris, Andreas, Fan Long, Andreas Park & Poonam Puri, “Central Bank Digital Loonie: Canadian Cash for a New Global Economy” (2021) Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper
- Anand, Anita, Stephen Choi, Adam C. Pritchard & Poonam Puri, “An Empirical Comparison of Insider Trading Enforcement in Canada and the United States” (2019) 57Intl Rev L & Econ 49
- Puri, Poonam, “Securities Class Actions in Canada: 10 Years Later” in Jessica Erickson (Richmond), Sean Griffith (Fordham), David Webber (Boston) and Verity Winship (Illinois), eds, Research Handbook on Representative Shareholder Litigation (Edward Elgar, 2018)
Teaching Expertise (Selected)
- Boards of Directors
- Corporate Governance
- Corporations
- Corporate & White Collar Crime
- Investor Protection
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Securities Regulation
Twitter: @PPuri_Osgoode
LinkedIn: Poonam Puri
Osgoode Investor Protection Clinic
Research Interests: Corporate/Commercial Law