News

Congratulations to Schulich School of Law Professor Dr. Sara Ross who has been named to Canadian Lawyer’s 12^th annual Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers list, which highlights the critical and considerable work jurists have done in the last 18 months. This year, that is a particularly noteworthy timeframe, as it reflects how long the world has been deeply immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inclusion in the Top 25 speaks to the ability to influence public opinion and to help shape the laws of this country and others, contribute to the strength and quality of legal services, involvement and impact within the justice community, and social and political influence and involvement. Each year, the Top 25 list is the magazine’s most-read feature which is shown both in terms of the number of nominations received as well as the number of votes in the public poll.

The Top 25 is split into five areas of influence with five winners in each of the following categories: Business; In House; Changemakers; Human Rights, Advocacy and Criminal; and Government/Non-profits/Associations. Nominees were put in the category where the individual most recently exercised their influence, which might differ from their primary practice area. Ross was recognized in the Government/Non-profits/Associations category.

"I am honoured to have my urban legal anthropology research and leadership in the law and society community recognized outside of academia by Canada’s broader legal community,” says Ross. “As I have found in cities across Canada, the intersection of law, culture, and the city is a place where a lot of good can be done in improving equitability for all urban denizens."

Ross completed her PhD in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, with her dissertation published as a book by Routledge in 2019. Her past law teaching experience includes positions at Osgoode Hall, the Ryerson University Law Practice Program, and the Allard School of Law, where she held both a Killam Laureate and SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow. She was then named a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Schulich Law. Ross completed her LLM at the University of Ottawa and prior to this she became a barred lawyer member of the Law Society of Ontario after clerking at the Federal Court. She received her law degrees (BCL and LLB) from McGill University.

Click here to read Canadian Lawyer's announcement.