Justice Patrick Monahan has become the third former Osgoode dean to be appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario, joining Justice Lorne Sossin and Supernumerary Justice James MacPherson.
Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General David Lametti announced the appointment May 15. Justice Monahan replaces Justice I.V.B. Nordheimer, who became a supernumerary judge effective September 1, 2022.
An Osgoode graduate and, later, a faculty member for more than two decades, Justice Monahan served as dean of the law school from 2003 to 2009. He went on to become provost and vice-president academic of York University from 2009 to 2012 and deputy attorney general for Ontario from 2012 to 2017. He was appointed to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario in 2017.
Justice MacPherson was dean from 1988 to 1993, while Justice Sossin’s term stretched from 2010 to 2018.
The three former deans share the Court of Appeal bench with 10 other Osgoode graduates, including Chief Justice of Ontario Michael Tulloch ’89, the province’s first Black chief justice. Other graduates include Justice David Brown ’05 (LLM), Justice Steve Coroza ’03 (LLM), Justice William Hourigan ’90, Justice Alexandra Hoy ’78, Justice Peter Lauwers ’83 (LLM), Justice Sarah Pepall ’83 (LLM), Justice Gary Trotter ’90 (LLM) and Justice Benjamin Zarnett ’75.
Osgoode graduates have served at every level of court across Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada, where three graduates are current sitting judges: Justice Malcolm Rowe ’78, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis ’80 and Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin ‘14 (LLM), the high court’s first Indigenous justice.