Theory and Practice of Mediation offers students an interactive opportunity to develop an understanding of the utility and impact of mediation within the context of the dispute resolution spectrum. Students will gain knowledge through lecture, group discussions, simulations, placements in the Toronto Small Claims Court (circumstances permitting), and final evaluated mediations. As well, the seminar provides an opportunity for students to undertake a paper assignment to examine both theoretical and practical issues discussed during the term. Students will be engaged in a hands-on learning opportunity to explore negotiation, mediation styles and tactics, while being mindful of ethics and professional obligations.
Course or Seminar Category: Dispute Resolution - Civil Legal Process and Professionalism
Legal Practice Dynamics
This course is an introduction to the skills and behaviours necessary to become a successful legal practitioner. It analyzes how lawyers think and work and equips students with foundational skills in managing their careers and succeeding in any legal environment whether in-house, government or private practice.
Being well-versed in substantive law is only half the battle in becoming a successful legal practitioner. This course will prepare students to excel in the practical skills they need to optimize their professional development – communication, collaboration, human capital management, productivity and practice management.
This course is experiential in nature with learning revolving around a fictional law firm. Topics include the following: communication skills (difficult conversations, feedback, meetings); practice management (delegation, productivity, docketing, file management); human capital management principles (being managed, managing up, managing your own career; teamwork); lawyer competencies; mentoring and performance management.
Managing Family Law Cases
This seminar will focus on simulated family law cases. As “counsel” for these cases, students will examine and apply legal principles, tactical, ethical and policy considerations, and rules of practice and professional responsibility to complete tasks and resolve problems that arise in the day to day work of family law practice. Throughout the seminar, students will be exposed to the interdisciplinary nature of family law. Work with complex fact patterns will assist students to develop advanced analytical skills, client management skills and to understand how to work effectively with professionals such as mental health experts and business valuators to achieve optimal outcomes for clients. Students will engage in the drafting of documents and participate in mock courtroom appearances. Classes will be in-person.
Mental Health, Wellness and the Legal Profession
It is no longer tenable to separate the study and practice of law from issues of mental health and wellness. Drawing from scholarship, clinical insight, and reflective experience, this course is premised on the conviction that mental
wellness, professional fulfillment, and academic insight can align, with productive and even transformative effects. The skills and capacities essential to thrive in law school and the legal profession—including personal reflection, healthy
relationships, values clarification, and boundary setting—are the very capacities that are strengthened by focusing on emotional and personal wellness. Using a model that marries the study of psychotherapeutic theory with experiential learning, the course equips students with skills and tools for life in the legal profession while cultivating critical and
personal insight to help students understand, navigate, and even constructively intervene to disrupt the mental health challenges endemic in legal education and the legal profession.
Combining practical skills-development and psychoeducation, the course will help students conceptualize their mental wellness from differing theoretical perspectives while deepening their awareness of self and others and fostering healthy relationships. The course will introduce students to topics such as: theories of psychological change; fostering awareness of self; the mind-body connection and the importance of good nutrition, physical exercise, and sleep;
deepening relationships to self, others, and at work; values clarification; effective communication of needs; coping mechanisms for stress & burnout; anxiety management skills; treatment options for depressive symptoms; resilience and meaning-making through adversity and trauma. With the support of assigned readings and other forms of class preparation, lectures, experiential exercises/practice, and small group discussions, the course will aim to create an
environment of trust and curiosity, and to foster a willingness amongst the students to bring their ideas, experiences, and emotions to the exploration of these issues, of the study and practice of law, and of themselves.
Dispute Settlement: Alternatives to Resolving Disputes
Students are introduced to an analysis of the dispute resolution continuum and will be required to identify where and how, through the different processes, dispute resolution is achieved. Students will gain an appreciation of the historical development and current application of various dispute resolution processes, including litigation, arbitration, negotiation, and mediation. The process of litigation as applicable to the adversarial system of justice will be examined. The seminar focuses on an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to dispute resolution as well as the appropriateness of when to use them. Students will also gain a practical understanding of the theoretical aspects of certain processes available for resolving disputes within the legal system as a applicable to the Province of Ontario, including litigation and methods of alternative dispute resolution including negotiation and mediation. The seminar will provide an opportunity to develop and practice some of the techniques of dispute resolution under the supervision of members of academic staff. Teaching methods include: lectures/seminars (Socratic and otherwise), facilitated class discussions, interactive small seminar and larger group exercises.
Labour Arbitration
This seminar is intended to provide an overview of the labour arbitration process applicable to unionized workplaces. The seminar primarily addresses grievance arbitration and med-arb as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. It may also introduce interest arbitration. The seminar will examine both procedural and substantive issues, including the regulatory framework, arbitral jurisdiction, pre-arbitration and arbitration processes. This seminar will be taught partly as an advocacy course, encouraging students to apply these concepts to persuasive and coherent oral and written arguments.
A.I. and Technology in Legal Practice
This course provides an in-depth look into the evolving role of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the legal field. It explores how these advancements are transforming legal practices, from automating routine tasks to providing sophisticated analysis and decision-making support. Students will gain hands-on experience with key platforms
available on the market, enhancing their technical proficiency. The curriculum covers machine learning, data systems, legal workflow automation, and a high-level overview of AI technology, preparing students for a modern legal
environment, focusing on technical skills and knowledge to address today’s challenging issues around AI.
Learning Objectives:
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of legal tech tools.
• Apply legal technology effectively in various legal contexts.
• Recognize the ethical implications of technology in legal practice.
• Enhance efficiency and accuracy in legal tasks through tech solutions.
Constitutional Litigation
This is a fun course with equal emphasis on both oral and written advocacy. Debate, questions, brainstorming and discourse are encouraged.
Students will be involved in almost all of the steps of a constitutional case, from the initial claim, to cross-examinations, to arguing a preliminary motion and culminating in a final factum and moot before a panel of judges with students receiving both oral and written feedback throughout.
We will focus on a substantive area of constitutional law (ex., freedom of expression, equality or division of powers) as well as questions of procedure, evidence (adjudicative and legislative, privilege) and judicial notice. A key focus is on the importance of remedies as an initial consideration, not as an afterthought.
The seminar also involves working through problems in small groups and presenting positions in class.
Seminar topics are designed to be in service of the final moot and factum. Topics typically include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case; drafting pleadings; government action under s.32 of the Charter; standing; selecting the appropriate court and procedure; mootness, interventions; role of the Attorney General; evidence in constitutional cases, proving constitutional facts, the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits, examination of government witnesses, presentation and assessment of social science data in the adversarial system; drafting constitutional arguments and presenting them effectively; oral advocacy; the importance of remedies for constitutional infringements; litigation strategies for public interest groups and case studies.
Legal Values: Litigating IP Cases
The seminar surveys the process of intellectual property litigation in Canada and gives students an opportunity to acquire and apply practical skills and judgment litigating intellectual property (e.g. copyrights, patents, industrial designs, and trademarks). While the litigation experience is applicable to all Canadian jurisdictions, the focus of this Court is on the Federal Courts, where most such cases are litigated. Evidence (e.g. fact evidence and expert evidence), motions (e.g. pleadings motions and motions for bifurcation), and remedies (e.g. damages, accounting of profits, and injunctive relief), are considered. Students will be exposed to all stages of a case from the perspective of the party suing and the party being sued: advising the client, preparing pleadings, briefing witnesses, discovery, drafting written arguments, and judgment writing. The seminar culminates in preparing for and participating in a moot.
Legal Values: Psycho-dynamics of Advocacy & Judging
Advocates reverse-engineer cases from the outcome their clients seek, selecting the most compelling facts and the most plausible legal channel to build the chain of reasoning that will lead to that outcome. This is result-selective reasoning. By contrast, judges are expected to come to the dispute without a personal agenda beyond the call of duty to reach the just legal outcome based on the facts, the law, and their interaction.
Advances in cognitive science and psychology have led to an arms race between advocates and judges of which judges. No doubt these advances have given advocates more sophisticated persuasive techniques. In response, the task of judges is to detect the use of these techniques and avoid being lured away from doing justice according to law.There are four quite distinct and burgeoning fields of research into the psychology of judging, which are based on empirical research that lays out the cognitive infirmities that affect human beings. These could be basic materials for effective advocacy.
The first, and the one with the broadest reach beyond judging, is based on the thought of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who explore cognitive illusions or biases that affect human cognition generally, and, therefore, judicial cognition. Second, there is a growing area of research specifically on the effect of emotions on judging, particularly empathy. Third, the study of coherence-based reasoning seeks to describe the way judges and juries think. Fourth, there is research on the effect of narrative on judicial attention, understanding, and judging. These areas are not quite silos, but they have not yet coalesced into coherence.
This course will familiarize you with these areas of thought, using an excellent recent American text: Linda L. Berger and Kathryn Stanchi, Legal Persuasion: A Rhetorical Approach to the Science (Routledge, 2018). It is an operating manual to the judicial mind and ground-breaking. I would supplement with Canadian cases demonstrating the impact of the rhetorical techniques explored by Berger and Stanchi.
To these techniques is added the filter of ethics – judicial and lawyerly. How do judges and lawyers meet their obligations, in the course of a lawsuit, to first, do no harm; then, do the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way, at the right time, and in the right words? Do rule of law constraints work to ensure principled advocacy and adjudication?