Poonam Puri

Professor and York Research Chair in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection & Financial Markets
Poonam Puri photo
Education
LLB (Toronto), LLM (Harvard) of the Bar of Ontario
Email
Assistant
Hyo Park
Telephone
416-736-5542
Fax
416-736-5736
SSRN
Research

Professor Poonam Puri is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of corporate law, corporate governance, investor protection and capital markets regulation. Appointed to Osgoode Hall Law School over twenty-five years ago, she has served as both Associate Dean and Associate Dean, Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations at Osgoode. Professor Puri has also chaired Osgoode’s Faculty Council several times and she is currently serving as Chair of York University’s Senate. She holds the York Research Chair in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection and Financial Markets.

Professor Puri is Co-Founder and Director of the Osgoode Investor Protection Clinic, a clinic that provides pro bono legal assistance to individuals who have suffered financial harm. She is also Founder and Director of the Business Law LLM at Osgoode Professional Development. Both are the first of their kind in Canada.

A prolific scholar, Professor Puri has co-authored/co-edited close to 100 books, book chapters, scholarly articles in leading journals, and commissioned research reports. She has presented at over 200 invited keynotes, conferences and public addresses in Canada and around the world.

Professor Puri is a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and has received over $5 million in external research and program funding, including five SSHRC grants. Together with her co-investigators, she recently received $775,000 from both York University and the University of Toronto in order to conduct research on digital currencies. Professor Puri’s scholarship is academically rigorous and firmly grounded in the realities of policy-making and law in action. Governments and regulators in Canada and internationally, including the Bank of Canada, Ministry of Finance, Treasury Board Secretariat, Industry Canada, and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank, have called upon her expertise for financial regulation that serves the public interest.

In the community, Professor Puri currently serves on multiple boards, including the Canada Infrastructure Bank and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the latter as Chair. She has previously served as a Commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission and on the boards of Women’s College Hospital and the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (Pearson Airport), among others. Her public and private sector board work has provided her with valuable experience and skills in financial management, strategic planning, operational oversight, labour relations and stakeholder engagement.

Poonam has been recognized with the Attorney General of Ontario’s David Walter Mundell Medal, the Royal Society of Canada’s Yvan Allaire Medal, the Law Society of Ontario’s Law Society Medal, among other distinctions. She has also previously been named one of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers and one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 leaders.

Awards and Professional Honours (Selected)

  • Osgoode Hall Law School Award for Excellence in Teaching (1999, 2009, 2022)
  • Peter Dey Governance Achievement Award, Governance Professionals of Canada (2022)
  • Yvan Allaire Medal for Outstanding Contributions in Governance, Royal Society of Canada (2021)
  • Law Society Medal, Law Society of Ontario (2021)
  • Walter Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal Writing, Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General (2020)
  • Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada, Canadian Lawyer Magazine (2015, 2017)
  • Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women Award: Trailblazers & Trendsetters (2011)
  • Female Lawyer of the Year, South Asian Bar Association of Toronto (2010)
  • Female Professional of the Year, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (2008)
  • Canada’s Top 40 under 40 Award (2005)
  • Arbor Award, University of Toronto’s highest award for alumni volunteers (2004)

Visiting Professorships

  • University of Toronto, Faculty of Law (2022-2023, 2023-2024)
  • National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law (2021)
  • P. Jindal Global University, Jindal Global Law School (2017)
  • University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law (2007)
  • University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management (2006 – 2007)
  • Cornell Law School (2001 – 2002)

Research Fellowships

  • Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship (2016).
  • Ninth Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship (2015).
  • Walter Gordon Fellowship (2010 – 2011).
  • Fulbright Faculty Fellowship (2000 – 2001).

Representative Publications

  • Veneris, Andreas, Fan Long, Andreas Park & Poonam Puri, “Central Bank Digital Loonie: Canadian Cash for a New Global Economy” (2021) Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper
  • Puri, Poonam, “Governance in a Time of Crisis” in Ben-Ishai, ed, Dangerous Opportunities: Examining the Home Capital Crisis (U of T Press, 2021)
  • Anand, Anita, Stephen Choi, Adam C. Pritchard & Poonam Puri, “An Empirical Comparison of Insider Trading Enforcement in Canada and the United States” (2019) 57Intl Rev L & Econ 49
  • Puri, Poonam, “Securities Class Actions in Canada: 10 Years Later” in Jessica Erickson (Richmond), Sean Griffith (Fordham), David Webber (Boston) and Verity Winship (Illinois), eds, Research Handbook on Representative Shareholder Litigation (Edward Elgar, 2018)
  • Halpern, Paul, Caroline Cakebread, Chris Nichols & Poonam Puri, Back from the Brink: Lessons from the Canadian Asset Backed Commercial Paper Crisis (Toronto: U of T Press, 2016)
  • Puri, Poonam, Anita Anand, Ron Daniels, Edward Iacobucci, Ian Lee, & Jacob Ziegel, Cases and Materials on the Law of Partnerships and Business Organizations in Canada, 6th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2016)

Teaching Expertise (Selected)

  • Boards of Directors
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporations
  • Corporate & White Collar Crime
  • Investor Protection
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Securities Regulation

X (Twitter): @PPuri_Osgoode

Osgoode Investor Protection Clinic

Graduate Research Supervision (LLM, PhD): Professor Poonam Puri is interested in supervising students who wish to pursue advanced studies in corporate law, corporate governance and capital markets regulation including topics in corporate accountability, diversity in leadership, ESG, regulatory enforcement, and the legal and regulatory aspects of cryptocurrencies.