Three community leaders are going back to school to share their expertise with students and faculty at Canadian law schools.
Richard Elliott, Michael Janigan, and Allan McChesney have been chosen as the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Community Leadership in Justice Fellows for the 2009/10 academic year.
The fellowships bring together Ontario’s post-secondary institutions and leaders from public interest groups that work with the justice system. The fellows partner with a law school or other post-secondary institution for one term to conduct research, teach, and mentor students.
Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network, will work with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
He will conduct legal research and policy analysis in support of proposed legislative reforms to Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime. He will take part in academic research and discussion at the university through guest lectures and workshops. He will also publish an article on CAMR reform in a law journal.
Janigan, the executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, will work with Carleton University’s Department of Law.
Through lecturing, he will encourage students to participate in outreach work with citizen groups that protect vulnerable consumers in the Canadian marketplace. He will also work alongside other departments to help PIAC advance consumer advocacy.
McChesney, senior legal researcher for Reach Canada, will work with the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre. He will look at ways to do cross-disciplinary research and education, professional training, and public education on disability and law issues, as well as occasionally lecture on law and policy issues related to disabilities. Along with Reach Canada and others in the legal community, he will support “barrier-free access to courts for persons with disabilities.”
Mark Sandler, LFO chairman, said the program continues to grow.
“Our fellowship program has been extraordinarily successful in achieving its goal,” he said. “In fact, in order to expand the exceptional impact of this program, we have increased the number of fellows from two to three this year.”
