We’re working on creating an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Action Plan for the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section)—and we need your input!

Please take a few minutes to complete our anonymous student survey. Your feedback will help us understand what’s working, what’s not, and how we can build a more inclusive environment for everyone.

As a thank you, you can enter a draw to win a $200 gift card after completing the survey. If you have already participated in an in-person or virtual listening session, you will automatically be entered into the draw.

Please click here.

CIAJ is hiring two law students for summer 2025! This is a great opportunity to gain valuable experience within an organization committed to improving the justice system.

For more information: https://ciaj-icaj.ca/en/our-network/working-at-ciaj/

The Career and Professional Development Centre wants to remind you that summer and articling job postings are available on The Source under the Jobs & Internships tab. Be sure to check The Source regularly and set up your alerts to stay up to date.

Did you interview for a clerkship position? Please share your experience with the Career and Professional Development Center (CPDC). Your input will inform future students about the interview process and could help them prepare. Please fill out Clerkship Interview Feedback Form. 

We invite you to inform us of any positions you have secured for Summer 2025 or the 2025-2026 articling term. You can share your updates with us at [email protected].

Gladys Osien is a bilingual lawyer, published researcher and mentor who provides direct support to our Black law students. You can book an appointment with Gladys in The Source.

April 2 | FREE Notarial Services (including true copies) available at the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic | 11am-1pm | 538 King Edward Avenue | Drop-in every Wednesday

April 9 | FREE Notarial Services (including true copies) available at the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic | 11am-1pm | 538 King Edward Avenue | Drop-in every Wednesday

To prepare for the upcoming exam period, please ensure that Examplify is installed, up-to-date, and tested well in advance. 

Key Steps: 

• New Installation: If Examplify is not yet installed, download it from the Faculty’s ExamSoft portal at https://ei.examsoft.com/GKWeb/login/ottawalaw using your uoZone login credentials.
• Upgrade Existing Examplify Installation: If Examplify is already on your laptop, launch the app and complete any available upgrades.
• Run Practice Exams: Complete mock exams to confirm Examplify is working on your device. This step is essential for troubleshooting and getting familiar with the software. The Mock Exam password is 123Abc.
• Register: After testing Examplify, complete the Examplify Registration Form to authorize the $57 CAD annual licensing fee (if not already done earlier this academic year).  New registrations for 2024-2025 must be completed by March 24 for the Winter term exam period. 

Please review the information available on the Exams webpage for further details.
 

Below are academic summer opportunities available to students entering or remaining in the upper years of the JD program in the next 2025-2026 academic year.

Students may allocate credits earned from these courses to either the Fall 2025 term or the Winter 2026 term. Summer credits allocated to Fall 2025 or Winter 2026 will be included in regular full-time tuition, with no additional fees.

Students are not permitted to exceed the full-time course load, even if they complete coursework over the summer. For example, if a student completes 3 summer credits and applies them to Fall 2025, they may enrol in 4 additional courses (12 credits), for a total of 15 credits. As a reminder, a regular full-time course load consists of 5 courses (15 credits) for the Fall, 1 course (3 credits) for January, and 4 courses (12 credits) for the Winter.

Students may take up to 2 summer courses (6 credits), including any combination of courses, internships, Student-Proposed Internships (SPIs), or other for-credit academic activities. If a student enrols in 6 summer credits, they must allocate them evenly—3 credits to Fall and 3 credits to Winter (not January).

We wish you all the best for the last weeks of the winter term and the planification of your summer months.

Note that these courses are only offered in English.

Summer 2025 Course Offerings

CML4113 FB - LWA Portfolio and Leadership Program 
Professor Angela Long
Dates: May 12 – May 30
Format: Meets every day. Virtual/Time TBD. 
Credits: 3 credits allocated to the Fall 2025.

Description: You’ll produce high quality legal writing to showcase to future employers and learn how to mentor other students to become better writers. Students who demonstrate outstanding writing and interpersonal skills will be eligible to become paid Writing Leaders during the academic year.

Applications are due April 4, 2025 at 5:00 pm. To apply, click here.

CML2302 SF/SW - Business Organizations - Summer 2025
Professor Samuel Singer 
Dates: May 5-June 16, 2025 
Format: Synchronous online. Monday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Credits: 3 credits allocated to the Fall 2025 or to the Winter 2026.

Description: This summer course will be offered virtually, and it is open to English JD students who will have just finished their first year of law school, and to upper year students. The course is a survey of the common forms of business organizations, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, non-profit organizations, charities, cooperatives, and corporations, with a focus on the corporation and the rights and responsibilities of shareholders and directors. We will study the basic advantages and disadvantages of different business vehicles, their legal frameworks, and who can be pursued for liability.  Whether you practice in a big law firm, in a smaller firm, or as a sole practitioner, and regardless of what area you practice in, you will need to know the nuts and bolts of corporate governance. Lawyers are also commonly asked to serve as board members in the business and non-profit context. For those who are less interested in business law, this course is an opportunity to learn key business and financial terms. 

Teaching Method: Lecture. This is a synchronous online course.  
Method of Evaluation: Assignment (25%) / Take-home exam on Brightspace on June 18^th (75%)

First come first serve basis. Request enrolment in the course by April 26, 2025 at 5:00 pm by filling this form.

CML4108 SF/SW - Studies in International Law - Protection of Minorities: International & Domestic - Summer 2025
Professor John Packer 
Dates: July 14 to 18, 2025
Format: In person intensive course. Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Credits: 3 credits allocated to the Fall 2025 or to the Winter 2026.

Description: This intensive summer course will be offered in-person, and it is open to JD students who will have just finished their first year of law school, and to upper year students. Unresolved minority issues are the leading cause of tensions and conflicts around the world and a source of various challenges in Canada. Globally, a substantial portion of contemporary conflicts, including wars in Ukraine and Gaza, are directly rooted in unresolved inter-community (often majority-minority) issues. A range of issues linked to diversity present problems of management, full and effective equality, and peace and prosperity.  In Canada, Indigenous peoples present a particular set of issues with distinct histories and various rights.  More broadly, underemployment of recent immigrants and refugees, together with ongoing healthcare and housing crises, raise minority issues. Increasingly intolerant social relations and polarising politics weigh heavily upon various minorities.  Despite multiple endeavors to address minority issues, many such efforts fall short. The summer course on Protection of Minorities aims to provide students with awareness and understanding of the international minority protection framework (little known in Canada) and interrelate it with the Canadian federal and provincial frameworks. Selected comparative law and practice will help shed light.  Through this course students will become familiar with and learn to apply international minority protection norms and standards to Canadian realities with a view to their further studies and future professional engagements. Professor Packer is a former long-time UN staff member (1995-2004), as well as former Senior Legal Adviser and Director of the OSCE Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities located in The Hague.

Teaching Method: Seminar, in person. 
Method of Evaluation: 20% Participation (Including brief daily written reflection) / 80% Final Paper (5,000 words on a selected topic – May satisfy the Major Paper requirement) due on August 8^th.

First come first serve basis. Request enrolment in the course by April 26, 2025 at 5:00 pm by filling this form.

CML4113 FG/WG or FF/WF - Memos Made Easy - Summer 2025
Professor Emma Costain
Dates: May 29 - August 29
Format: Work at your own pace. Virtual. 
Credits: 3 credits allocated to the Fall 2025 or to the Winter 2026.

Description: Designed to fit your summer work schedule. Work at your own pace to write and edit a legal memo guided by structured, online pass-fail assignments that take 3-10 hours a week to complete. The professor supports your summer work with feedback, check-in meetings, an editing class, and an individual meeting before you submit your graded memo.

Grading:

• 50% Complete the pass-fail summer modules, assignments, and skills practice exercises. These are all formative, ungraded assignments intended to give you practice and feedback.
• 35% Legal memo - graded
• 15% Final reflection - graded

Applications are due April 26, 2025 at 5:00 pm. To apply, click here.

Are you an Indigenous Learner who is not receiving emails from Tasha Simon, the Intermediate Specialist, Indigenous Programs?Would you like to be on the mailing list and receive emails on the programming and services available for Indigenous Learners through this office in the Faculty of Law? Please email Tasha ([email protected]) to be added to the list.She can’t wait to meet you and get to know you. 

Any Indigenous Learners graduating this year who have not completed their stole survey, or did not receive a stole survey, please email Tasha Simon at [email protected], she is eager to begin production of your stole. 

Registration in progress!

The University of Ottawa Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) and the Canadian Red Cross are pleased to announce the 2025 Summer School on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), to be held May 25-30, 2025.

The goal of this course is to provide students and professionals with the fundamentals of IHL and the opportunity to apply this knowledge through realistic case studies and a full-day simulation exercise.

The course is offered in both French and English, and enrolment is limited to 30 students per language group.

Interested students (under certain conditions) can take this course for credit (DRC4521), but please note that you must first register with us and send us your CV and an unofficial transcript of your grades.

The registration form is available on the Summer School webpage where you will find all the details!