Welcome/Opening Remarks

Lincoln Alexander School of Law and a Special Advisor to the President’s Office at Ryerson University. Prior to joining Lincoln Alexander Law, Dr. Eboe-Osuji served as the President of the International Criminal Court in The Hague as well as a senior judge in the Appeals Division of the ICC 2018 to 2021, when he finally retired from the Court. He earlier served in the Trial Division of the Court from 2012 to March 2018, including as President of the Division.

Before serving with the ICC, Dr. Eboe-Osuji served as the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, where he anchored the High Commissioner’s interventions in cases involving human rights questions, notably writing amicus curiae submissions to the European Court of Human Rights and the United States Supreme Court. Before joining the international public service, he practiced law as a courtroom advocate before courts in Canada and Nigeria, not only as trial counsel, but also arguing as appeals counsel before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada.

Dr. Eboe-Osuji received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; LLM from McGill University, also did his Canadian law degree accreditation studies at McGill; and, LLB at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He also received an honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University, London, England; and, was awarded the Gold Medal of the Honorary Patronage from the Philosophical Society of Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. He was called to the Bar in Ontario, British Columbia, and Nigeria.

Dr. Eboe-Osuji is a visiting professor at Stanford University Law School and a senior fellow at Cambridge University. He also currently holds the Paul Martin Professorship in Political Science, International Relations and Law at the University of Windsor.

Tanya (Toni) De Mello is the assistant dean, student programming, development and equity at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law.

Toni is a human rights lawyer and holds Bachelors' degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Waterloo; a dual Masters degree in Public Policy and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University; and two law degrees (common and civil law) from McGill University Faculty of Law. She has a PhD from the University of Toronto, focused on access to the legal sector in Toronto and examining recruitment and interview processes by focussing on questions such as, “Who fits?,” and, “Who doesn't?” She is considered an expert on equity and inclusion in Canada. Toni is a member of the Ontario bar.

Shawn Richard is a creative, forward-thinking and solutions-oriented litigator and partner at Lenkinski, Carr and Richard LLP. By paying attention to his clients’ goals and providing smart, practical advice, Shawn has built a reputation for being a resolute but reasonable lawyer. His practice has been built on resolving complicated financial and international family and estate litigation issues.

Shawn is a Past President of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers (CABL), where he represented the organization before standing committees, and members of provincial and federal parliament to address issues of anti-Black racism and human rights.

Shawn is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where he has taught trial advocacy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is also an instructor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. While in law school, Shawn volunteered at a legal clinic, Downtown Legal Services, and in the Human Rights Litigation Working Group. He participated in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and the Arnup Cup.

The Honourable George R. Strathy was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario on April 25, 2013, and was subsequently appointed as Chief Justice of Ontario and President of the Court of Appeal for Ontario on June 13, 2014.

For the previous five years, he served as a judge of the Superior Court of Justice in the Toronto Region, where he presided over civil, class action and criminal matters. He was appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on December 13, 2007.

Chief Justice Strathy received a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in 1970 and a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1971. He studied law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law where he received his LL.B. in 1974 and was awarded the Gold Medal. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1976.

In practice, he specialized in civil litigation, with an emphasis on maritime and transportation law. He was active in a number of professional organizations, including the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Maritime Law Association and the Canadian Association of Maritime Arbitrators. He is the author of two books on maritime law, as well as numerous papers and articles.

Donna E. Young is the inaugural dean of the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. Before assuming her deanship, she was the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School and a joint faculty member at the University at Albany’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her teaching and scholarship focus on law and inequality, race and gender discrimination, and academic freedom and university governance. She has taught courses in Criminal Law, Employment Law; U.S. Federal Civil Procedure; Gender and Work; and Race, Rape Culture, and Law.

Dean Young is much sought after as a speaker and has been invited to present her work at conferences and other venues around the world. She has been a staff member at the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance, in Washington, D.C. and was a member of the AAUP's Committee A, the preeminent national body setting standards and investigating academic freedom disputes in the United States. She has been a Fellow at Cornell Law School's Gender, Sexuality, and Family Project; a Visiting Scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School's Institute of Feminist Legal Studies; an Associate in Law at Columbia Law School; a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Law at Roma Tre University in Rome, Italy; and a consultant to the International Development Law Organization for whom she traveled to Uganda to conduct field research on the relationship between gender inequality and law in the context of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Dean Young was an articling student at Cornish Roland, a labour law firm in Toronto; at the Ontario Human Rights Commission; and at the Legal Department of the City of New York, Mayor's Office of Labor Relations. She is admitted to practice in New York State.