News

Farewell and best wishes to seven of the Schulich School of Law’s long-serving faculty and staff members who are retiring this year. They will be fondly remembered for their significant contributions to the legal profession and the law school community.

Camille Cameron

Professor Camille Cameron, KC, retired from the Schulich School of Law, where she served as dean from 2015-2023. She came to Dalhousie after a career practicing law in Halifax and teaching law in Hong Kong and Australia. She also worked as a consultant with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, AusAid, and other organizations for many years on justice reform projects throughout Asia, including judge and lawyer training and legislative reform. During her time at Dalhousie, she was chair of the Canadian Council of Law Deans and a member of the Independent Advisory Board for Supreme Court of Canada Judicial Appointments. She is currently a member of the Law Commission of Canada Advisory Council.

Cameron has enjoyed being part of the Weldon community and working with colleagues and alumni to contribute to its mission and growth. Some key highlights include a successful, collaborative strategic planning process that included students, staff, faculty, alumni, and members of the judiciary, establishing the initio Technology & Innovation Law Clinic, and the growth of the law school’s paid summer internship program. She has also enjoyed her community advisory role with Pro Bono Dalhousie, especially learning about the law school’s many community partnerships and the high student participation rates. As dean, she had the opportunity to meet and work with smart, engaged students from across the country who contributed to building a strong Schulich Law community, and to continue those connections when they went on to become alumni. 

Cameron will continue with graduate supervision, research, and publishing after retirement. Her current research projects focus on climate change litigation and third-party funding of civil litigation. She is also looking forward to spending more time with family and friends, continuing her volunteer activities, cross-country skiing, and reducing the number of books on her ‘must read’ list.

Richard Devlin

Professor Richard Devlin retired from the Schulich School of Law where he has been a faculty member since 1987. He is one of this country’s leading thinkers on legal theory, equality, legal ethics, judicial ethics, and the regulation of the legal profession. He served as acting dean of the law school from July 2020 to June 2021.

A three-time winner of the Hanna and Harold Barnett Award for Excellence in Teaching First Year Law, his areas of teaching include Contracts, Legal Ethics, and Graduate Studies. He also received the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Award for Academic Excellence and won Dalhousie University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning “Change One Thing Challenge.” A Dalhousie University Research Professor since 2005, he has published widely in various journals and edited a number of books. He has been involved in the design, development, and delivery of judicial education programs in Canada and abroad for more than 25 years. He became the founding president of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics (CALE) in 2012 and was later named chair of its Board of Directors. In 2015 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He received CALE’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

In retirement, Devlin will miss the energy of the classroom but will continue with several research projects including co-editing the 5th edition of the Lawyers’ Ethics and Professional Regulation. He also has plans to improve his carpentry skills, get fitter, and spend time with family and friends both near and far.

David Michels

Dr. David Michels retired after 25 years as a law librarian in the Sir James Dunn Law Library at the Schulich School of Law.

Michels interned at the law library as a summer student in 2000 with every intention of becoming a theological librarian. He discovered that summer that the theological and biblical research skills he possessed were transferable to legal research. He would become the law library’s reference & IT librarian, then the reference & instruction librarian, and finally, the public services librarian. He taught research courses as an instructor at the law school and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Management and lectured in courses across the university curriculum. He helped re-vision the Legal Research and Writing program and was an early instructor exploring blended and online learning at Schulich Law.

He actively researched and published on legal librarianship, religious institutions and information, everyday life information behaviour, and games in education. He saw his research as part of the wider task of helping people make sense of their information worlds. He witnessed significant changes in legal publishing and libraries during that time but sought to keep people at the heart of the mission of the library.

In retirement, Michels will be working as a library consultant with the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, helping them reimagine legal information services for their membership, and he hopes to finally finish writing a book on Bible literacy.