Students and Faculty members will be delighted to learn that Mike Rosenberg, JD III, has won this year's prestigious Harvey Strosberg prize, worth ten thousand dollars, awarded each year for the best student paper on a class action topic. The paper will be published in the Canadian Class Action Law Review under the title of "The Rise and Imminent Fall of Waiver of Tort in Class Proceedings."
The paper began its career as a term paper in the Class Actions course offered by Professors Ziegel and Watson in the spring term of 2008. Mike continued to work on the paper last summer while working at McCarthys, then refined it further while taking Prof Ernest Weinrib's restitution course in the fall 2008 term. The topic is of great practical and theoretical importance in class action proceedings and is currently being litigated before Canadian courts. The debate will determine whether class members will have a remedy against a defendant whose product is defective or injurious even though class members cannot prove that they were individually injured by the defect. The plaintiffs have sought to overcome this difficulty by arguing that the defendant was unjustly enriched at the expense of class members and should therefore be required to disgorge its ill gotten gain.
Mike was an excellent law student and will be clerking for Chief Justice McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada after he graduates this June. He has a very engaging personality, delights to debate and, according to those who know him, is a joy to teach. It is safe to predict that Mike has a very promising career ahead of him.
Warmest congratulations, Mike.
Jacob Ziegel
