David Sandomierski
David Sandomierski is a scholar of legal education whose work imagines how law schools can equip students to contribute broadly to society.
Prior to joining the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, David was an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Western University, where he served a three-year term as a Teaching Fellow with the Centre for Teaching and Learning. He has previously taught in the Arts & Science Program at McMaster University, Osgoode Hall Law School, and the law faculties of McGill University and the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College.
David earned his SJD from the University of Toronto, where his dissertation received the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal. He has twice been awarded the Prize for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers. As a law student at McGill, he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the McGill Law Journal, and went on to clerk with the Chief Justice of Canada, the Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin.
His current research draws interdisciplinary connections across multiple fields. He is the Principal Investigator on a SSHRC Insight Grant The Architecture of Law Schools, a project that explores the diverse messages about law and the legal profession communicated by the physical spaces of law schools. In Fall 2025, he pioneered an interdisciplinary course on Law and Architecture at both the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and Western University, for which he received the Vice-Provost (Academic Programs) Award for Excellence in Collaborative Teaching (external link) . He is currently collaborating with scholars from architecture, medicine, and information studies to explore future possibilities for transforming legal education.
I can’t wait to join the community of kind, thoughtful, and innovative scholars and teachers at Lincoln Alexander. I’m excited to see what happens when we work together to imagine new possibilities for legal education, unconstrained by convention and guided by a shared mission.
Books
Susan Bartie & David Sandomierski, eds, American Legal Education Abroad: Critical Histories (external link) (New York: NYU Press, 2021)
David Sandomierski, Aspiration and Reality In Legal Education (external link) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020)
Articles
David Sandomierski, Co-Teaching in Contracts: Integrating Theory and Practice in University Legal Education (external link) (2025) 76 UNBLJ 187
Christopher Watling, David Sandomierski, Sophie Poinar, Jennifer Shaw & Kori LaDonna, The Courage to Advocate: How Two Professions Approach Public Advocacy Work (external link) (2024) 58:11 Medical Education 1361
David Sandomierski, John Bliss & Tayzia Collesso, Pass for Some, Fail for Others: Law School Grading Changes in the Early Covid-19 Pandemic (external link) (2023) 56:2 UBC Law Review 605
David Sandomierski, Cultivating Versatility: The Multiple Pillars of the Law School’s Public Mission (external link) (2023) 46:1 Dalhousie Law Journal 229
David Sandomierski & Stephanie Ben-Ishai, Modular Legal Learning: Revitalizing the Law Classroom (external link) (2022) 45:1 Dalhousie Law Journal 591
John Bliss & David Sandomierski, Learning Without Grade Anxiety: Lessons from the Pass/Fail Grading Experiment in North American JD Programs (external link) (2021) 48 Ohio Northern University Law Review 555
David Sandomierski, Catalytic Agents? Lon Fuller, James Milner, and the Lawyer as Social Architect, 1950-1969 (external link) (2021) 71:1 University of Toronto Law Journal 91
David Sandomierski, Tension and Reconciliation in Canadian Contract Law Casebooks (external link) (2017) 54 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 1181
David Sandomierski, Legal Inquiry: A Liberal Arts Experiment in Demystifying Law (external link) (2014) 29 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 311
David Sandomierski, Training Lawyers, Cultivating Citizens, and Re-Enchanting the Legal Professional (external link) (2014) 51 Alberta Law Review 739
Roderick A Macdonald & David Sandomierski, Against Nomopolies (external link) (2006) 57 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 610
Chapters and Entries in Edited Collections
David Sandomierski, “Contingent Agreements” in Stephanie Ben-Ishai & David R Percy, Contracts: Cases and Commentaries (external link) , 12 th ed (Thomson Reuters, 2026), c 7.
David Sandomierski, “Canada (Contemporary Legal Education)” in Fiona Cownie, Anthony Bradney & Emma Jones, eds, Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Legal Education (external link) (Gloucestershire: Edward Elgar, 2025) 45
David Sandomierski, “Selective Deference and the Judicial Role: Chief Justice McLachlin’s Legacy for Law and Legal Education” in Vanessa MacDonnell, Graham Mayeda & Owen Rees, eds, Controversies in the Common Law: Tracing the Contributions of Chief Justice McLachlin (external link) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022) 123
David Sandomierski, “The Limits of Adjudication in the First-Year Curriculum: The Recurring History of Legal Process at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law” in Ian Pilarczyk, Angela Fernandez and Brian Young, eds, Law, Life, and the Teaching of Legal History: Essays in Honour of G. Blaine Baker (external link) (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s, 2022) 415
David Sandomierski, “Theory and Practice, Together at Last: A Heretical, Empirical Account of Canadian Legal Education” in Meera Deo, Mindie Lazarus-Black & Elizabeth Mertz, eds, Power, Legal Education, and Law School Cultures (external link) (New York: Routledge, 2020) 1
David Sandomierski, “Pursuing Virtue: Human Potential, Citizenship, and a Research Agenda for Legal Education” in Richard Janda, Rosalie Jukier & Daniel Jutras, eds, The Unbounded Level of the Mind: Rod Macdonald’s Legal Imagination (external link) , (Montreal & Kingston, McGill-Queen’s Press, 2015) 206
Book Review
David Sandomierski, Law and Living (external link) , Review of Connecting the Dots: The Life of an Academic Lawyer by Harry W Arthurs (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019), (2021) 58 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 467
- Vice-Provost (Academic Programs) Award for Excellence in Collaborative Teaching, Western University (2026)
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, Canadian Association of Law Teachers (2022)
- Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal, University of Toronto (2017)
- Peter Oliver Prize, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History (2017)
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, Canadian Association of Law Teachers (2017)
| Degree | Institution | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Doctor of Juridical Science | University of Toronto | 2017 |
| Bachelor of Laws, with Great Distinction | McGill University | 2008 |
| Bachelor of Civil Laws, with Great Distinction | McGill University | 2008 |
| Master of Arts (Political Science and Environmental Studies) | University of Toronto | 2003 |
| Bachelor of Arts & Science (Hon) | McMaster University | 2001 |