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
Trial Advocacy
An introduction to the techniques of trial advocacy in civil and criminal trials. Consideration is given to pre-trial preparation and case analysis, opening and closing statements, examination and cross-examination of witnesses, evidence issues, expert evidence, tactical questions and ethical issues that confront the trial lawyer. Students perform simulation exercises in small groups under the critical guidance of experienced trial lawyers and Judges. Students conduct 1/2 day jury trials with two-student counsel acting on each side of the case. Trials are presided by Judges of either the Ontario Court of Justice or the Superior Court of Justice.
Specialized Legal Research Methods in Foreign, Comparative & International Law
This course introduces students to basic concepts of foreign, comparative, and international law in the context of legal research. It teaches them to identify, select, evaluate and analyze sources and tools for researching foreign, comparative and international law. This is a hands-on skills oriented course with practical exercises and projects to help students understand the available tools and the appropriate research methodologies for given types of research projects. Students will learn to use a variety of resources including essential print collection and electronic databases to research foreign law of other jurisdictions. They will also learn to use available tools to identify applicable sources for public and private international law.
Lawyer as Negotiator
Law schools have traditionally prepared lawyers for litigation and the courts, although in practice lawyers spend much of their time resolving disputes through forms of dispute resolution, including negotiation and mediation. Lawyer as Negotiator is designed to familiarize students with representative negotiation theory and practice, and specifically how theory informs the development of bargaining strategy in a legal setting. Students will attend weekly lectures, conduct negotiation simulations, and participate in small group discussions and coaching sessions which will introduce and critique the principles of representative negotiation. Students will be expected to prepare detailed negotiation plans for their weekly negotiations as well as a final negotiation held at the end of the semester. Students will be coached and critiqued by dispute resolution practitioners throughout the year and will be encouraged to reflect on and discuss their weekly negotiations in small working groups of either 14 or 16 students. The first half of the course will introduce students to distributive and integrative bargaining techniques as well as the importance of developing a negotiation strategy and a detailed plan for each negotiation. The second half of the course will focus on the importance of power, gender, culture, ethics, and emotions, among other issues, in representative negotiations.
Legal Values: Psycho-dynamics of Advocacy & Judging
This course introduces the use of rhetorical techniques in advocacy, bearing in mind the core orientations of judges, advances in cognitive science and psychology, the use of narrative, the margins of manoeuvre open to judges in our legal system, and the constraints imposed by the rule of law and by the modes of judicial responsibility.
Advances in cognitive science and psychology have led to more sophisticated persuasive techniques. In response, the task of judges is to detect the use of these rhetorical techniques and avoid being lured away from doing justice according to law.
This course will familiarize students with these areas of thought, using an excellent and short text: Linda L. Berger and Kathryn Stanchi, Legal Persuasion: A Rhetorical Approach to the Science (Routledge, 2018), supplemented by excerpts form relevant articles and cases.
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, while resisting the lure of cognitive biases and personal prejudices? Do rule of law constraints work to ensure principled advocacy and adjudication?
By the end of the course, students will be familiar with and competent in identifying the use of the rhetorical techniques in decided cases, and in developing strategies for their use in advocacy within the constraints imposed by a good understanding of the judicial function and the rule of law.
Financial Literacy for Lawyers
Lawyers frequently work with financial statements and other accounting information. Yet for many lawyers working with accounting information is difficult and even intimidating. The purpose of this course is to demystify accounting and provide lawyers with the knowledge and understanding they need to work confidently with accounting information so they can have informed conversations with and ask informed questions of accountants, other lawyers, and business managers and owners. The program is not technical—it is not intended to teach how to do accounting—but designed to explain how accounting works and its economic consequences. A key theme is for students to understand the limitations of traditional financial reporting and the misconceptions that many have. On completion, participants will have an understanding of what the numbers on financial statements mean and where they come from. Examples from actual financial statements are used extensively throughout the course to demonstrate the issues discussed.
Constitutional Litigation
In this seminar, students explore the adjudication process in constitutional litigation, consider questions of procedure, proof and remedies and discuss effective preparation of and advocacy in constitutional cases. Seminar topics will include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case, drafting pleadings, government action under s.32 of the Charter, standing, crown defendants, choice of venue, remedies, evidence in constitutional cases, the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits, discovery of governments, and interlocutory relief.
Administration of Civil Justice: Estate Litigation
This seminar will examine the substantive, procedural, and practical issues surrounding litigating certain claims by and against estates. Topics may include, depending upon available time, a detailed review of will challenges, dependant support claims, appointment and removal of estate trustees, passing of accounts, quantum meruit claims, and solicitor’s negligence in drafting wills. We will also examine the role of mandatory mediation and other negotiation techniques in resolving estate litigation. Students will also participate in a mock mediation exercise.
For each of these topics, we will explore how a client’s case is developed through the interaction of the case law, the Rules of Civil Procedure, the applicable statutes, the rules of evidence, and the psychology of the family unit.
Legal Information Technology: Data Analysis & Coding for Access to Justice
In this course, students will engage with law as data, using new legal technologies that promise to shift how lawyers practice in coming years, with a particular emphasis on exploring implications for access to justice. The aim is to examine not how the law regulates new legal technologies, but rather how these technologies can or should be used by legal professionals to advance the rights and interests of marginalized groups.
The course will use a hands-on experiential pedagogy. That is, students will engage directly with new legal technologies – including by completing several small coding projects involving legal data analysis. In addition to exploring these technologies, students will critically reflect on their ethical, professional, social, and economic impacts, focusing on implications for low-income and otherwise marginalized groups.
No prior coding experience is required. The course recognizes that students may bring a range of prior skills and knowledge. Both learning and evaluation have been designed to allow students who are beginners to coding and legal data analysis opportunities to successfully explore a new area, while also allowing students who already have relevant technical skills – as well as students who want to push their skillsets further – to take on more advanced projects. As such, participation is weighted heavily and final projects can be completed with limited coding.
The course involves both synchronous and asynchronous components. After an initial synchronous introductory class, the first half of the course will be delivered asynchronously, through online modules and small coding projects. The instructor will be available for online troubleshooting sessions and for other support during the hours notionally set aside for classes in the weeks when modules and small coding projects are completed. Once the initial modules are completed, a synchronous discussion class will be held to explore ethical, professional, social and economic impacts, with some critical readings provided. The second half of the course will involve students working on a final project either individually or in groups (with the course instructor available for troubleshooting), presenting a draft of that project to colleagues for feedback, and finalizing the project.
Synchronous sessions will be delivered in a hybrid (hyflex) format, meaning that students can elect to attend any given synchronous session either in person or remotely via Zoom. Classes will be scheduled in 3-hour blocks.
Topics:
(1) Introduction to Coding & Access to Justice (Module 1: Automating the boring stuff)
(2) Data Gathering & Cleaning (Module 2: Finding legal datasets and creating new ones)
(3) Data Analysis (Module 3: I have some legal data, now what?)
(4) Artificial Intelligence (Module 4: Using generative AI to advance access to justice)
(5) Student Presentations of Draft Projects
Law and Social Change: Empirical Methods and Law
This course offers an introduction to the role of empirical reasoning in legal analysis, legal practice, and policy development. As empirical methods increasingly inform judicial decision-making, litigation strategy, and legislative design, the ability to engage critically with empirical claims has become an essential competency for legal professionals.
The course does not require prior training in mathematics or statistics, or any familiarity with empirical methodology. Rather, it is designed to equip students with the conceptual tools necessary to understand, evaluate, and effectively engage with empirical research in legal contexts. Students will examine how empirical questions are formulated, how data is gathered and interpreted, and how empirical evidence is mobilized – both persuasively and problematically – within legal reasoning.
Course materials include landmark empirical studies spanning areas such as access to justice, gun control, environmental regulation, and consumer behaviour, alongside parts of foundational texts in empirical methodology. Students will develop the ability to assess the strengths and limitations of empirical research, to situate such research within broader legal and institutional contexts, and to reflect critically on the implications of data-driven approaches to law. The course will be of interest to students seeking to hone their analytical capacities and prepare for legal practice in an increasingly data-driven world.