Sajida Mehdi has an extensive practice working inhouse at a number organizations, providing commercial legal support in various industries including financial services, consumer products/goods, transportation/logistics and professional services. Sajida has legal experience working at pubic organizations, companies operated by private equity firms and privately owned businesses.  Her commercial practice includes providing legal advice on regulatory matters, contract drafting and review, compliance, procurement support, commercial leasing, real property sale/disposition and merger and acquisition oversight.  Sajida received her law degree from Osgoode Hall, and her undergraduate studies were at York University where she earned a honours degree in Sociology.

Mr. Fitzgerald is a leading practitioner in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and securities law with significant experience in a wide range of both public and private transactions, including public offerings, private placements, negotiated transactions, hostile take-over bids, shareholder activism and complex corporate reorganizations. Mr. Fitzgerald has extensive experience with large, multijurisdictional transactions and provides advice to boards of directors and their committees, often in the context of transformative events. Mr. Fitzgerald also provides advice to public companies on their disclosure, corporate governance and other corporate and securities law obligations.

Karen Papadopoulos is Crown Counsel at the Crown Law Office – Criminal, Ministry of the Attorney General. She is an experienced trial and appellate litigator, with a specialization in leading large-scale appeals before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. She taught Trial Advocacy at Osgoode Hall for many years, and is a director of the Ministry’s Appellate Advocacy course. Prior to joining the Crown Law Office, Karen practiced as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She regularly presents on a number of criminal law matters to members of the bar, the judiciary, and students. In 2023, Karen received the Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Gold Key Award in the Public Sector.

Andrew McCoomb’s practice focuses on complex commercial and securities litigation, as well as competition, consumer protection and fraud disputes. He regularly acts for companies in the technology, financial services and transport sectors ranging from start-ups to multinationals. Andrew is also a member of the Norton Rose Fulbright’s Canadian special situations team, which encompasses Canada’s leading shareholder activist practice, sophisticated securities litigation and complex reorganization transactions.

Andrew has successfully acted as lead counsel to clients in cases at all levels of court in Ontario in trials, motions, applications and on appeal, and appears regularly before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Commercial List. Andrew has also appeared before the Ontario Securities Commission and British Columbia Securities Commission, and was appointed to the OSC’s Legal Assistance Program through which he provides counsel services to unrepresented respondents involved in enforcement proceedings.

While in law school, Andrew received the Robert E. Bamford Memorial Award as the graduating student who best combined academic excellence with a commitment to the law school community.

Ben is a Principal Lecturer in Law at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, a qualified Solicitor, and an accredited Mediator. Within the Law School at CCCU he has academic responsibility for the LLB’s Dispute Resolution pathway. Being supportive of experiential learning and clinical legal education Ben’s other responsibilities include the Mediation Clinic and CLOCK, a social justice community outreach project.

Ben has a research informed teaching approach through which he applies his interests in civil justice, alternative dispute resolution and mediation. He also has an interest in legal education and is Learning Resources Reviews Editor for The Law Teacher, the International Journal of Legal Education. He is an experienced peer reviewer of research papers and has presented his work at conference both nationally and internationally.

Ben is leading co-author/editor of both the 4th edition of Brown & Marriott’s ADR Principles and Practice (2018) and the 5th edition of Learning Legal Skills and Reasoning due for publication in 2021. His most recent publication is the 2023 Essential SQE1 Series Guide on Dispute Resolution, commissioned by Routledge. He also has a number of published peer reviewed journal articles to his name.

Ben teaches Dispute Settlement: Alternatives to Resolving Disputes and Theory and Practice of Mediation.

Richard is a partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers, LLP.

Richard litigates contaminated land and other environmental disputes before all levels of Ontario’s Courts and Tribunals, including the Superior Court of Justice, the Court of Appeal. Richard defends environmental charges in environmental, land use and conservation authority matters before the Ontario Court of Justice. He also appeals environmental and natural resource regulatory orders.

Richard acts in a broad range of environmental matters, including regulatory inspections and investigations, strategic advice to help clients maintain compliance with environmental laws, and negotiating resolutions with regulators on behalf of clients. He works with parties to respond to spills and discharges, assists clients with matters involving contaminated land, waste and water issues. Richard provides advice in a broad range of sectors including mining, agriculture, food, construction, infrastructure, waste management and insurance. Having started his career as a scientist, Richard has an in-depth familiarity with the technical aspects of environmental assessment.

Richard is recognized as a leading environmental law practitioner in Canada. He is a repeatedly recommended ‘Leading Lawyer’ by Lexpert in environmental law and is acknowledged by his peers by being named to the ‘Best Lawyers in Canada’ for environmental law.

Richard is an Osgoode Hall alumnus and was called to the Ontario bar in 2006.

Julian Di Bartolomeo is a partner in the business law group at Goodmans LLP. He has a broad transactional practice involving all aspects of corporate and securities law, with particular emphasis on private equity transactions and public and private mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Di Bartolomeo is an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he teaches Case Studies in Business Enterprises.

John Friedlan is an associate professor in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa.  Before that he was on the faculty of the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. Over his career John has been involved in the preparation and administration of the professional exams for Chartered Accountants (who have since been merged into the CPAs or the Chartered Professional Accountants). He has also been a member of the Education Assessment Team of the Public Accountants Council of Ontario where he provided opinions on the adequacy of educational and examination materials produced by CPA Ontario. He is also qualified as an expert witness in accounting matters by the Superior Court of Ontario. John is the author of a now out of print introductory financial accounting textbook that for 20 years was used by university students across Canada. His research has been published in Contemporary Accounting Research and Issues in Accounting Education. Professor Friedlan is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Professional Accountant and is a fellow of both organizations, and he has a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University, an MBA from York University, and a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle. For over 20 years
John has delivered accounting programs to lawyers at Osgoode Hall Professional Development and other organizations.

Sasha Baglay is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities (Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON). Her work and teaching cover various areas of immigration and refugee law and policy, including human trafficking, climate change refugees, and sentencing and inadmissibility. She is the past President of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies and an Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Migration and Border Studies.

Michael Fawcett works as Crown Counsel and is the provincial coordinator for cybercrime within the Ministry of the Attorney General for Ontario. He also is team lead for the country’s first and only dedicated group of cybercrime Crowns. He provides legal assistance on various cyber- and crypto-related law enforcement investigations, and also appears in court regularly on cybercrime, search and seizure, and digital-privacy related matters. Michael teaches cybercrime law at the University of Ottawa and previously at Western University and Osgoode Hall Law School. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 2008, Michael practiced law in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the United States Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit, before returning to Canada and joining the Attorney General’s Office.