UManitoba Law names David Asper as acting dean

The University of Manitoba Faculty of Law has announced the appointment of David Asper as its acting dean, effective July 1.

Asper is a criminal defence litigator, known for acting on behalf of David Milgaard in the prominent wrongful conviction case. In 2019, he received a designation as Queen’s Counsel from the Province of Manitoba. He has worked in various committees of the Law Society of Manitoba.

Asper holds a bachelor’s degree and an honorary degree from the University of Manitoba, a Masters in Law from the University of Toronto and a Juris Doctor from the California Western School of Law. He has served as an assistant professor and as a sessional lecturer in the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law and has taught at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin School of Law and at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Asper, who is committed to philanthropic and community initiatives, has contributed his efforts and resources to the Asper Foundation, where he served for seven years as chairperson, to the David and Ruth Asper Research Centre at the Pan Am Clinic Foundation in Winnipeg and to the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the University of Toronto, which has initiated numerous legal challenges invoking the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

For his work, he has received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and the Sol Kanee Distinguished Community Service Medal in 2018.

In the news release announcing the appointment, the university said that felt “honoured to have Mr. Asper serve in this acting role in one of Canada’s oldest law schools, where he will surely inspire the next generation to pursue truth, justice and the betterment of all.”