Osgoode Hall Law School is a law school in Toronto, Ontario. While it was founded by the Law Society of Upper Canada, it now serves as the faculty of law of York University. It is named after William Osgoode, an Oxford University graduate and barrister of Lincoln's Inn who was the first to serve as the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and then later Lower Canada. Although it can trace its origins to the 1820s, Osgoode Hall Law School was officially established on-site in the Osgoode Hall building, which still houses the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario, on Queen Street West in 1889. Following a provincial decision that every law school be affiliated with a university, Osgoode signed an "agreement of affiliation" with York University in 1965 while still operating out of Osgoode Hall. Osgoode has been housed at York University's Keele Campus since 1969 (see section below).
The law school is home to the Law Commission of Ontario and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. Osgoode also hosts Professional Development Programs (OPD) which are located in downtown Toronto at 1 Dundas St. near the original Osgoode Hall building. A variety of LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law are available. The current dean of the law school is Lorne Sossin.
Rankings and reputation
Maclean's magazine has ranked Osgoode second amongst Canadian law schools in 2011, 2012 and 2013. In the 2008 rankings published by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, Osgoode was ranked first in Canada, and was awarded high marks for the quality of its professors, flexible curriculum, and the diversity and relevance of course offerings.
The Original Osgoode Hall Building and the Law School's Current Facilities
For its first eight decades, Osgoode Hall Law School was located at Osgoode Hall at the corner of Queen Street and University Avenue. The structures at Queen and University (the earliest dating from 1832) are still known as Osgoode Hall. They remain the headquarters of the Law Society of Upper Canada and house the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
Currently, the law school is located on the Keele Campus of York University, in the Toronto suburb of North York. In May 2007, Dean Monahan announced plans for an extensive renovation and extension of Osgoode Hall Law School involving a renovation of the existing building, and the addition of an additional wing. The building was designed by architect Jack Diamond with the construction of the renovated building beginning in the summer of 2009. The project had been majorly funded by a $2.5 million gift by Ignat Kaneff, and the building has been renamed in his honor. The law school is referred to by York as its faculty of law.
John Robert Cartwright, former Chief Justice
Peter Cory, former Puisne Judge and former Chancellor of York University
Sir Lyman Duff, former Chief Justice
Frank Joseph Hughes, former Puisne Judge
Wilfred Judson, former Puisne Judge
Andromache Karakatsanis, current Puisne Judge
Patrick Kerwin, former Chief Justice
Bora Laskin, former Chief Justice
Malcolm Rowe, current Puisne Judge
Wishart Spence, former Puisne Judge
John Arnup, Moderator for United Church of Canada, Justice at Ontario Court of Appeal
George Ethelbert Carter
Kim Carter, Chief Military Judge of the Canadian Forces
Marcel Crête, jurist and Chief Justice of Quebec
(Jack Sydney George) Bud Cullen, Judge at Federal Court of Canada
Charles Dubin, former Chief Justice of Ontario
Daniel Dumais (LL.M.), Emeritus Lawyer distinction from Barreau du Quebec, Puisne Judge of Superior Court of Quebec
Asher Grunis, President of the Supreme Court of Israel
Sydney Harris (judge), activist lawyer and judge, President of the Canadian Jewish Congress
Bill Hastings, Chief Censor of New Zealand, District Court Judge of New Zealand
Russell G. Juriansz, first South Asian appointed to Ontario Court of Appeal
Harry S. Laforme, Justice at Ontario Court of Appeal
Patrick LeSage, Chief Justice of Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Malcolm Archibald Macdonald, Chief Justice of British Columbia
Mark MacGuigan, Attorney General of Canada, Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal
Goldwyn Arthur Martin, QC, Justice at Ontario Court of Appeal
Roy McMurtry, Chief Justice of Ontario, Attorney General of Ontario, Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
James Chalmers McRuer, Ontario Court of Appeal, Chief Justice at High Court of Justice of Ontario
Charles Terrence Murphy, Judge at Ontario Superior Court, President of North Atlantic Assembly
Dennis O'Connor, Associate Chief Justice of Ontario
James O'Reilly, Federal Court Judge
Coulter Osborne, arbitrator, Associate Chief Justice of Ontario
John Richard, NAFTA Adjudicator, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Appeal
Charles Stuart, Justice of the Supreme Court of Alberta
Michael Tulloch, Justice at the Ontario Court of Appeal
Karen M. Weiler, past Judge Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada, Justice at Ontario Court of Appeal
Sharon A. Williams, Judge ad litem at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
Warren Winkler, Chief Justice of Ontario
Willy Mutunga, former Chief Justice of Kenya
Sir John A. Macdonald
William Lyon Mackenzie King
Arthur Meighen
Bill Davis, 18th Premier of Ontario
George Drew, 14th Premier of Ontario
Ernie Eves, 23rd Premier of Ontario
Howard Ferguson, 9th Premier of Ontario
Leslie Frost, 16th Premier of Ontario
William Howard Hearst, 7th Premier of Ontario
Rachel Notley, 17th Premier of Alberta
John Robarts, 17th Premier of Ontario
John Black Aird, former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Canadian Senator and founding partner of Aird & Berlis LLP
Lincoln Alexander, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Daniel J. Arbess, member of Council on Foreign Relations
Oliver Mowat Biggar, co-founder of Smart & Biggar, first Chief Electoral Officer of Canada
Leonard Braithwaite, member of Ontario Parliament
Lionel Chevrier, Attorney General of Canada, President of Privy Council of Canada, High Commissioner to the UK
Ward Elcock, Director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Gordon Fairweather, Attorney General of New Brunswick, first Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance of Canada
Hugh Guthrie, Attorney General of Canada, Minister of National Defence
Ross Hornby, Canadian ambassador to the European Union
Ron Irwin, former Ambassador to Ireland
James Kelleher, Solicitor General of Canada, Member of the Canadian Senate
Judy LaMarsh, Secretary of State for Canada, broadcaster
Allan Leal, President of the Empire Club of Canada, Rhodes Scholar
Sir James Alexander Lougheed, Calgary businessman and Government Leader in the Canadian Senate
Alexander Malcolm Manson, Attorney General of British Columbia, Judge
John Matheson, M.P., Justice of Ontario, helped develop Canada's flag and the Order of Canada
John Pallett, Chief Gov't Whip, leader of Canadian delegation to NATO
Lawrence Pennell, Solicitor General of Canada
Lionel Perez (politician), Montreal city councilor and member of Union Montreal
Richard Rohmer, aviator, Air Force General, lawyer, author, Honorary Advisor to Chief of Defense Staff
Dianne Saxe, environmental lawyer and scholar, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario
Ian Scott, constitutional lawyer, Attorney General of Ontario
Sinclair Stevens, banker, President of the Treasury Board
George Stanley White, former Speaker of the Canadian Senate
John Tory, 65th and current Mayor of Toronto, Former President and CEO of Rogers Media Inc., Former Chairman of the CFL
James Worrall, Chair of IOC Commission on The Olympic Charter, President of the Canadian Olympic Committee
Marlys Edwardh, civil rights
Fraser Elliott, founder of Stikeman Elliott, President of the Art Gallery of Ontario
Austin Cooper (lawyer), criminal lawyer, defended Keith Richards in Toronto
Edwin A. Goodman, founding partner of Goodmans
Edward Greenspan, criminal lawyer
Jeffry House, refugee law, war resisters
John Rosen, criminal lawyer
Laura Safran, corporate lawyer, partner (business rank) at Calgary office of DLA Piper
M. David Lepofsky, disability and human rights lawyer
Marie Henein, criminal lawyer, defended Jian Ghomeshi
Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Marshall A. Cohen, Director at Barrick Gold Corporation & Toronto-Dominion Bank, member Trilateral Commission
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Charles Peter McColough, CEO and Chairman of Xerox Corporation, member of Council on Foreign Relations
Jagoda Pike, former publisher of the Toronto Star
Arthur Richard Andrew Scace, Chairman of Bank of Nova Scotia, director of Canadian Opera Company
Kathleen Taylor, Chair of Royal Bank of Canada
John S. D. Tory, founder of Torys and Director of A.V. Roe Canada
Morley Callaghan, novelist
Murray Cohl, co-founder of the Toronto International Film Festival
Philip Fleishman, writer, producer, Peabody nominee
Daniel Iron, film and TV producer
Tom MacInnes, poet
Jerry Levitan, Oscar nominee
Aaron Schwartz (Canadian actor)
Robert Elgie, Ontario Minister of Labour, became a neurosurgeon after becoming a lawyer
Payam Akhavan, international human rights
Constance Backhouse, legal scholar and historian, President of the American Society of Legal History
Deborah Coyne, constitutional law and international relations
Giuseppina d'Agostino, intellectual property
Michael Geist, internet and privacy law
James C. Hathaway, international refugee law
Colleen Hanycz, principal of Brescia University College from 2008-2015, current university president of La Salle University
Michael Mandel, law professor, international criminal law
Lyal S. Sunga, international humanitarian law
Paul C. Weiler, Emeritus Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Jean-Gabriel Castel, private international law, decorated member of French Resistance
Peter Hogg, Canadian constitutional law, authored most-cited book at Supreme Court of Canada
David Vaver, intellectual property law, also Emeritus Professor at Oxford University
