With strong experience in the crossroads of emerging technology and legal practice, Samantha Delaney is a Senior Innovation Advisor at Norton Rose Fulbright in Toronto. Samantha leverages a deep understanding of technological advancements to drive strategic innovation within the legal sector. At Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, she advanced from Coordinator of Professional Development to Project Manager of Legal Innovation & Knowledge Management, where she focused on seamlessly integrating new technologies into legal workflows and boosting organizational efficiency. Samantha’s work underscores her commitment to advancing the future of legal practice through technology-driven solutions.

Jordana Bergman is the founder and clinic director at Eden Wellness, a bespoke virtual counselling clinic that supports the mental health and wellness needs of lawyers and other busy career professionals who experience stress/burnout, anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, relationship challenges, and interpersonal difficulties. She is a Registered Psychotherapist with a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology, as well as an Internal Family Systems (IFS) trained therapist. Jordana is also a former lawyer who previously practiced in the litigation department at a Bay Street law firm before transitioning out of private practice and into legal career counselling at Osgoode Hall Law School.

Jordana has advanced training in several humanistic, experiential, cognitive and behavioural therapeutic modalities and customizes treatment in a holistic, integrative approach. Through talk therapy and experiential intervention, Jordana focuses on the mind-body connection and deepening self-awareness to create healthy patterns, build strong relationships to self and others, and foster change in a warm, empathic, non-judgment environment. In addition to providing psychotherapy, Jordana offers Wellness Seminars that are psychoeducational and experiential in nature on a variety of topics including burnout and stress management, imposter syndrome, cultivating self-compassion, supporting anxiety, amongst others.

Sadeq Bigdeli is a Barrister & Solicitor in Ontario, Canada. His firm is active in the area of immigration and corporate/commercial and trade law. He has a track record of success in applying for judicial review at the federal court, often achieving favorable settlements with the IRCC. His extensive experience spans across handling complex inadmissibility cases, refugee claims, and deportation matters, ensuring comprehensive support for his clients.

Sadeq has held full-time academic positions in New Zealand (Senior Lecturer 2010-2017) and Iran (SBU National Law School 2016-2020). He has also taught in various universities from the Middle East to Switzerland, Canada, and the US. His main fields of expertise and scholarship include international trade and business law, immigration law, administrative law, and legal
philosophy. He was a visiting scholar Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School’s Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security in 2022.

Dr. Bigdeli holds an MA and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Bern, and an LLM (’09) from Harvard Law School. He has co-edited two volumes with Cambridge University Press (2009) and Edward Elgar (2017) and published numerous articles and book chapters in the last decade. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Georgetown Law School in 2011 and a lecturer at Harvard Institute for Global Law & Policy in Doha in 2014.

David Hughes teaches in the Ethics, Society & Law program at Trinity College, University of Toronto and in the first-year program at Osgoode Hall Law School. From 2022-2024, he was an Assistant Professor at the Canadian Forces College. Before that, he was the Trebek Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa. He holds a PhD from Osgoode Hall Law School during which time he spent two years at the University of Michigan Law School as a Grotius Research Fellow. David has written about various topics and themes relating to international law which have appeared in several leading journals including the Harvard Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law, the Georgetown Journal of International Law, the Melbourne Journal of International Law, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Currently, he co-leads a project about double standards and international law. His publications can be found here. Before beginning his doctoral research, David worked at the Council of Europe, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and with civil society organizations in Strasbourg, Geneva, Brussels, and Jerusalem.

Aashish Oberoi is an Associate at Olthuis Kleer Townshend LLP. He works with the Firm’s Toronto and Yellowknife offices and provides advice on matters related to lands and natural resources, self-government, consultation, the co-management of land, and economic development. He further assists with negotiations on issues that include the co-development of legislation, modern treaties, impacts and benefits agreements, and the delivery of social services.

Prior to joining OKT, Aashish advised on matters related to Aboriginal law, energy law, natural resources and economic development for the Government of Ontario and the Government of the Northwest Territories.  He has previously lived in Yellowknife and continues to be passionate about issues affecting the North.

Yashoda Ranganathan is Senior Counsel in the Constitutional Law Branch, Civil Law Division of the Ministry of the Attorney General. Prior to joining MAG, Yashoda was an Associate at Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP.

Yashoda has argued cases in all levels of Court in Ontario, in the Alberta Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. Yashoda is frequently asked to speak and teach a variety of topics including constitutional and administrative law and practice, skills training for advocates, as well as diversity, inclusion and mentorship in the legal profession.

Yashoda joined the Board of Directors of the Advocates’ Society in 2024 and has been a member of the Advocates’ Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee since 2020. Yashoda also sits on the Antiracism Committee of the Association of Law Officers of the Crown.

Yashoda holds an Inclusive Leadership Certificate from Anima Leadership.

Ajay is a partner of Aird & Berlis LLP’s Municipal & Land Use Planning Group. He represents municipalities across Ontario and other clients interacting with municipalities. He was formerly in-house legal counsel at the Regional Municipality of York.  Ajay regularly assists municipalities with regulatory powers, governance, by-law drafting, infrastructure development, procurement and commercial agreements for municipalities.   He is the past chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s Municipal Law Section and frequently publishes on pressing municipal law issues.  Ajay’s practical experience is supported by his academic background in local government.

Jill Witkin was appointed a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice in 2023. Prior to that she worked as counsel at the Crown Law Office (Criminal) and was the Chair of the Criminal Law Division’s Sexual Violence Advisory Group. She was Deputy Crown Attorney at Old City Hall courthouse from 2009 – 2015 and before that she was Team Leader of the Child Abuse Team. As a prosecutor, she did a great deal of high-profile trial and appellate work involving cases of sexual assault.

Jill is an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. She was the past director of the Ontario Crown Attorney’s Association summer school courses “Sexual and Domestic Violence” and “Sexual Offences”. She speaks on various aspects of criminal law and procedure at a variety of educational conferences for the legal and quasi-legal profession and she has done a great deal of police training. She has conducted workshops in Uganda, teaching justice participants how to effectively interview children and adduce a child’s evidence in court.

Jill is the proud mother of three Gen-Z’ers.

Michael Lynk is Professor Emeritus of Law, Western University, where he taught labour law, constitutional law and domestic and international human rights between 1999 and 2022. He is the co-author of Trade Union Law in Canada (Thomson Reuters) (with Peter Engelmann and Michael Mac Neil) and Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine (Clarity Press) (with Richard Falk and John Dugard). In 2016, Professor Lynk was selected by the United Nations Human Rights Council as the 7th UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory. In this unpaid capacity, he submitted regular reports to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly on human rights trends in the OPT. He served in this position until 2022.