Amir Attaran is a Professor in the Faculty of Law, currently on secondment as legal counsel to the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, which represents the Indigenous people on whose unceded, unsurrendered land the University lies.
Professor Attaran is by background both a lawyer (LL.B., Vancouver; called to the bar of Ontario) and a biologist (D. Phil, Oxford; M.S., Caltech; B.A., Berkeley), whose activities extend across both disciplines to advance human, animal, and natural well-being. His research areas and litigation practice have included health law, constitutional law, administrative law, human rights law, environmental law, and aboriginal law.
Professor Attaran has appeared in the trial and/or appellate courts of Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, the Federal Courts, and the Supreme Court of Canada, and tribunals including the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and Environmental Appeal Board (BC).
Professor Attaran has served as advisor, consultant, board member, or legal counsel to (partial list follows): foreign governments such as Brazil and South Africa; international organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, UN Development Program; non-governmental organizations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, the Malaria Foundation International, Amnesty International Canada, Greenpeace Canada, Animal Justice; large-cap industry such as Novartis and Pfizer; medical publications such as The Lancet and the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and; Indigenous peoples such as the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.