University of Toronto Faculty of Law
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| University of Toronto Faculty of Law | |
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| Flavelle House | |
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| Established: | 1887 |
| Type: | Public |
| Dean: | Mayo Moran |
| Faculty: | 60 full-time, 60 adjunct, 15-25 visiting |
| Students: | approximately 600 (515 J.D.; 85 LL.M and S.J.D.) |
| Location: | Toronto, Canada |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Website: | www.law.utoronto.ca |
Established in 1887, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is one of the oldest professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Law is particularly renowned in the areas of corporate law, international law, law and economics, and legal theory. The median undergraduate GPA of students accepted into the J.D. program is 3.8 (85%), and the median Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score is 167 (95th percentile),[1][2] making the law school one of the most selective in North America[citation needed]. The Faculty of Law offers its students Canada's most extensive internship program in pro bono work and international human rights law, and supports a range of legal clinics staffed by students as well as practitioners.
The Faculty of Law has close to 60 full-time faculty members, and 600 undergraduate and graduate students, giving it a student-faculty ratio of approximately 10:1, one of the lowest in North America.[citation needed] Its "Distinguished Visitors" program brings 15-25 short-term visiting professors from the world's leading law schools to teach at the school each year.
The Faculty of Law was the first law school in Canada to offer the Juris Doctor (J.D.) rather than the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). The J.D. designation is intended to reflect the fact that the vast majority of the law school’s graduates enter the law school with at least one university degree. (In fact, approximately one quarter enter with one or more graduate degrees.) The J.D. designation does not, however, reflect significant changes in the law school's curriculum.
The Faculty of Law lies at the geographic center of the University of Toronto, in the very heart of Toronto's downtown core. It is located at the corner of Queen's Park Crescent and Hoskin Street, immediately south of the Royal Ontario Museum and slightly north of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
The current Dean of the Faculty of Law is Professor Mayo Moran, appointed to the post effective January 2006.
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[edit] Falconer Hall
Falconer Hall is home the faculty's offices and the first home for York University from 1959 and 1961.
[edit] Early history
Although the University of Toronto Faculty of Law was established in 1887, it was not until 1949 that it adopted its current form. In the 1940s, the Faculty played the leading role in making legal education in Ontario into a modern academic degree course, rather than an apprenticeship.
In 1949, Cecil (“Caesar”) Wright assumed the deanship of the Faculty of Law. He first had to resign his post as Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School, the seat of the Law Society of Upper Canada, rejecting the Law Society's apprenticeship model of legal education in favour of the University of Toronto's vision of a full-time legal education, hinging on the professional bachelor of laws degree and embedded within a university. Wright brought with him his colleagues John Willis and Bora Laskin, the latter of whom would go on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Despite the Faculty of Law's academic program, the Law Society of Upper Canada refused to recognize it as a degree-granting institution for the purposes of accreditation. In the early 1950s, law students and their supporters petitioned the Law Society, and in 1953, a group of 50 student protesters marched on Osgoode Hall demanding formal recognition for the Faculty of Law. Finally, in 1958, after years of negotiation and discord, the Law Society began to give credit to graduates of the law school seeking admission to the Ontario bar.
[edit] Tuition and financial aid
Tuition fees for entering Juris Doctor (J.D.) students were set at $16,000 in 2005-06, and will increase to $17,280 (excluding incidental or ancillary fees) in 2006-07. (Update: as of 2007-08, tuition is $19,850 a year). Although the Faculty of Law has the highest tuition fees of any law school in Canada, it also has a generous financial aid program[3], which allows approximately 40 students to attend tuition-free each year. More than 50% of the student body receives financial aid on the basis of assessed need, predominantly in the form of bursaries and interest-free loans. The Faculty of Law is the only law school in Canada with a back-end debt relief program for graduates who choose to pursue low income employment.
[edit] Selected alumni
- Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella ('70) - current Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada
- Mr. Justice Ian Binnie ('65) - current Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada
- Tony Clement ('86) - current federal Minister of Health
- Ronald J. Daniels ('86, past Dean) professor and current provost of the University of Pennsylvania
- Jerry Grafstein ('54)
- Bill Graham ('64) - former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, and federal Leader of the Opposition
- Karl Jaffary
- Patrick Macklem ('84) - professor and specialist in labour, indigeneous, and constitutional law
- Mr. Justice John C. Major ('57) - former Puisne Justice of Supreme Court of Canada, Commissioner, Air India Inquiry
- Paul Martin ('64) - former Prime Minister of Canada
- David Miller ('84) - current Mayor of Toronto
- David Peterson ('67) - former Premier of Ontario
- Robert Prichard - former Dean, former President of the University of Toronto
- Bob Rae ('77) - first Ontario New Democratic Party Premier of Ontario, current Canadian Member of Parliament (MP), Liberal foreign affairs critic
- Kent Roach ('87) - professor and specialist in criminal and constitutional law
- Clayton Ruby ('69) - criminal lawyer
- John Sewell ('64)- former Mayor of Toronto, columnist
- Stephen Stohn ('77) - television producer (Degrassi)
- George Triantis ('83) - Harvard professor and specialist in corporate law
- Ernest Weinrib ('72) - professor and noted private law theorist
[edit] External links
- University of Toronto Faculty of Law
- Ultra Vires - the independent student newspaper of the UT Faculty of Law
- University of Toronto Law School Faculty Blog
- University of Toronto Law School Alumni Network
[edit] References
- ^ Official Guide to Canadian Law Schools
- ^ Law School Admission Council
- ^ University of Toronto - Faculty of Law: Prospective Students
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