Professor Garry Watson joined Osgoode’s faculty in 1966 and has been a Visiting Professor at universities in Canada, the United States, Israel and (his native) Australia. He taught Trial Practice and Class Actions. His teaching of these courses was been augmented by his experience in private practice with a Toronto law firm and his appearances before the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. From 1991 to 1994, he was Director of Professional Development at the firm of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.
Professor Watson research interests include civil procedure, class actions and civil justice reform. He is widely known for his civil procedure books: Watson & McGowan, Ontario Civil Practice (2 volumes), Holmested & Watson, Ontario Civil Procedure (6 volumes). His numerous papers and articles deal with various aspects of civil litigation and civil justice reform. His current research is focused on the operation of Canada’s class action legislation and the comparative study of similar regimes in other countries.
He was a member of the Ontario Civil Rules Committee (1983-2005), and continues to be a member of its research arm, the Rules Secretariat. He was also a member of New Brunswick’s Civil Procedure Advisory Committee as well as Manitoba’s Queen’s Bench Rules Revision Committee.
He is the founder and Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop held every summer since 1979. This is a NITA style program that brings 120 young lawyers into the law school for 8 days of trial advocacy training with a faculty of more than 60 lawyers and judges.
Professor Watson established the National Class Action Symposium (for the Osgoode Professional Development Program) and chairs the Planning Committee and the Symposium, which is held in Toronto each spring.