Professor
Tel.: (416) 946-5027
Email: Michael.saini@utoronto.ca

Michael Saini - Alternate Biography

Michael A. Saini joined the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work in 2008 as an Assistant Professor. He is now a Professor and holds the endowed Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work, and is the Co-Director of the Combined J.D. and M.S.W. program with the Law Faculty. Michael’s scholarship addresses the intersections of law and social work and the advancement of children and families’ wellbeing in systems governed by law. Michael has generating new knowledge regarding the assessment of coparenting; the complexity of strained parent-child relationships; the impact of interparental conflict; the use of technology to support parent-child relationships; the crossover cases of child protection and child custody disputes; and social-work perspectives on law as socially embedded phenomena. For 19 years, Michael conducted parenting plan evaluations and assisted children’s counsel for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario. He is currently the co-PI on four external grants on 1. Co-parenting across Family Structures, Phase 2; 2. Enhancing the Interdisciplinary Study of Law by Future Social Workers at Hong Kong University (HKU) through Pedagogical Innovations and Experiential Learning; 3. L’expérience de la séparation parentale et de la recomposition familiale dans la société québécoise: acteurs, enjeux et parcours Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada. Subventions de partenariat; and 4. Access to effective family justice: Improving outcomes for children and parents. Michael is a Board Member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), Access for Parents and Children of Ontario (APCO), Family Mediation Canada (FMC) and the Canadian Coalition of the Rights of the Child (CCRC). He is Associate Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, Lifetime Member of Family Mediation Canada, Associate Member of Ontario Association of Family Mediation and an Editorial Board Member for the Family Court Review and the Journal of Divorce and Remarriage and serves as reviewer for both national grant competitions (SSHRC, CHIR, IODE) and for peer reviewed journals. Michael has over 200 publications, including books, book chapters, government reports, systematic reviews and peer-reviewed journal articles. In 2019, Michael was awarded the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts’ Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award, sponsored by the Oregon Family Institute.

Supervised Access as a Stepping Stone Rather than a Destination: A Qualitative Review of Ontario Services & Policies for Assisti
Academic appointments
Co-Director, Combined JD/MSW Program Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work
Awards and distinctions
Stanley Cohen Research Award. Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (2019)
Meyer Elkin Essay Award, the best article in Family Court Review in Volume 55 for “Adaptive and Maladaptive Gatekeeping Behaviors and Attitudes: Implications for Child Outcomes After Separation and Divorce” (2017: Saini, M., Drozd, L., Olesen, N.)
Selected publications

Books

  1. Saini, M., Drozd, L., & Olesen, N. (in press). Parenting plan evaluations: applied research for the family court (3rd Edition). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  1. Greenberg, L., Fidler, B., Saini, M. (2019). Evidence-Informed Interventions for Court-Involved Families: Promoting Coping and Healthy Child Development. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  1. Drozd, L., Saini, M., & Olesen, N. (2016). Parenting plan evaluations: applied research for the family court (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  1. Regehr, C., Kanani, K., McFadden, J., & Saini, M. (2016). Essential law for social work practice in Canada. (3rd Edition), Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
  1. Saini, M. (2014). Structuring communication: how to create a parenting log book. Toronto, ON: Pathways to CoParenting.
  1. Drozd, L., Olesen, N., & Saini, M. (2013). Parenting plan & child custody evaluations: Increasing evaluator competence & avoiding preventable errors. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Press.
  1. Fidler, B., Bala, N., & Saini, M. (2013). Children who resist postseparation parental contact: A differential approach for legal and mental health professionals: New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  1. Saini, M., & Shlonsky, A. (2012). Systematic synthesis of qualitative research: A pocket guide for social work research methods. New York: Oxford University Press.

 

Peer Reviewed

  1. Saini, M., Pruett, M., & Alschech, J. (2022). The short-form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (CoPAFS-27): A confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 31, 2785-2800. 

  2. Lam, A., Emery, V., Griffin, R. & Saini, M.(2022). Integrating social work within legal clinics: An inter-professional perspective to facilitate access to justice. Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, 38, 11-29.

  3. Birnbaum, R., Poitras, K., Saini, M., Bala, N., Cyr, F. (2021) Views and experiences of parents in the family justice process in Ontario and Quebec: Report on the first stage of a longitudinal research project Journal of Divorce & Remarriage. 62(7), 532-550. 

  4. Poitra, K., Birnbaum, R., Saini, M., Bala, N., Cyr, F. (2021). Family dispute resolution: Case characteristics associated to trial. Children and Youth Service Review, 123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105832
  5. Saini, M., Laajasalo, T & Platt, S. (2020). Gatekeeping by allegations: An examination of verified, unfounded, and fabricated allegations of child maltreatment within the context of resist and refusal dynamics. Family Court Review, 58(2). 417-431.
  1. Saini, M., Black, T, Godbout, E., Deljavan, S. (2019). Feeling the pressure to take sides: A survey of child protection workers’ experiences about responding to allegations of child maltreatment within the context of child custody disputes. Children and Youth Services Review, 96, 127-133.

 

Newsletter Articles

  1. Saini, M. (2022) Working with Family Law Clients in the Aftermath of the Pandemic International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) European Chapter Newsletter Autumn 2022. 13- 18 https://www.iafl.com/media/7659/iafl-european-chapter-newsletter-2nd-edition.pdf
  1. Davies, A., & Saini, M., (2021). Pathways through the pandemic: An application of family justice pathways in 3 courts. Trends, National Center of State Courts. https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/66973/Pathways-through-the-Pandemic-An-Application-of-Family-Justice-Pathways-in-Three-Courts-.pdf
  1. Saini, M., Drozd, L., Deutsch, R. (2018). A trauma-informed approach to assess and intervene in resist/refusal cases. Family News & Views: A Publication of AFCC New York, 2(2), 1-7.
Research areas
Critical Legal Theory
Family Law
Judicial Decision-Making
Legal Process

Publications

All Publications
Supervised Access as a Stepping Stone Rather than a Destination: A Qualitative Review of Ontario Services & Policies for Assisti