Investor Protection Clinic | Osgoode Hall Law School

Where do individual investors turn after suffering a loss, harm or wrongdoing with respect to their investments? The Investor Protection Clinic (IPC), the first of its kind in Canada, provides pro-bono legal assistance to people in Ontario who have invested their savings and suffered an investment loss but cannot afford to hire a lawyer to help them. The clinic fills a gap by offering investors who believe they have been harmed, access to a single point of contact where they can receive comprehensive assistance and advice on how to proceed. A joint initiative of Osgoode Hall Law School and FAIR Canada, IPC provides an opportunity for students to obtain clinical experience in the field of corporate and securities law.

What You Will Do

As a student in the IPC you will have the opportunity to grapple with real-life problems and issues of harmed individual investors. The IPC begins with a training program to prepare you for the breadth and depth of issues that you may encounter at the Clinic. You will work closely with your supervising lawyers to interview potential clients, suggest legal options to clients, draft documents (including complaint letters), assist clients with OmbudService resolution processes, facilitate mediation and arbitration procedures and/or assist with court hearings. The program seminar will provide you with a critical understanding of the theory, policy, nature, and design of the investor protection framework in the Canadian legal and regulatory landscape and you will be encouraged to think constructively about what investor protection means as a dynamic social, economic, and political construct.

What You Will Learn

specialized, advanced, and critical knowledge of investor protection issues, investor recovery mechanisms, and gaps in the current system
what it means to protect individual investors in the Canadian capital markets
the contours of current debates on deterrence versus investor compensation and recovery
to assess the efficacy of current investor recovery procedures
reflective practice (praxis) in the context of investor protection
the potential and limits of the utilization of corporate law, securities law, contract law, and fiduciary duties in the quest for better investor protection outcomes.

Program Directors

Adjunct Professor Brigitte Catellier

Sabrina Jackson-Nazareth ‘22

“What set this experience apart was the opportunity to work directly with clients for the first time and the high degree of independence I was granted in handling my own files. It was a transformative experience, as I witnessed firsthand the challenges and complexities that clients face in this field. What made it even more rewarding was knowing that our work was helping vulnerable individuals seek access to justice and recover from investment fraud.”