Reflections on the inspiration and organizing of the event
by symposium founder and co-organizer, Nik Khakhar, JD 3L
The inaugural University of Toronto Faculty of Law Students’ Research Symposium, a Canada-wide, student-run, and student-targeted event held on March 24 and 25, was a resounding success. As founder of the symposium, I was honoured to work alongside my co-organizer Emily Sarah Hean (2L) and Editor-in-Chief, Charles Ma (3L), to make this event a reality. We were thrilled to see an excellent turnout of audience members; the online nature of the conference made participation accessible across the country.
The symposium featured 20 presentations, including presentations by U of T Law students and alumni: Ivy Xu (3L), who presented twice, Alex Rego (3L), Gordon Lee (3L), Faisal Bhabha (3L), Taylor Rodrigues (2L), and Liam Turnbull (JD 2022). The presentations were diverse, engaging, and presented with sound and novel methodologies. Organized in a workshop-style format, each presentation lasted 20 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A.
The keynote speech was delivered by U of T Law alumna, the Hon. Gloria Epstein (LLB 1977, Hon. LLD 2022), a retired judge from the Ontario Court of Appeal. Her speech emphasized the importance of gaining clients' trust as lawyers and the significance of understanding lived experiences to achieve this goal. Additionally, she reminded attendees of the importance of balancing personal and professional life.
Two awards were sponsored by Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Cassels):
Mirabelle Harris-Eze (3L, University of Calgary)
Cassels Best Submission Award
Jennifer Hauk (1L, Osgoode Hall Law School)
Cassels Best Presentation Award
Alex Rego (3L) won recognition for the best submission from U of T Law for his paper, “Entrenched Incentives: Offshore Money Laundering as a Collective Action Problem.”
Organizing the symposium was a challenging but gratifying experience. In September 2022, I met with Dean Jutta Brunnée to pitch the idea of a research conference held at U of T Law, with the goal of creating a non-hierarchical and barrier-free forum to foster learning and open presentation. Emily Sarah Hean co-organized the event, combining her operational skills with my outreach abilities. Our amazing editorial team reviewed and accepted submissions, questioned presenters, and graded presentations for awards.
We originally planned to focus on three law schools in the Greater Toronto Area and hold the conference in-person, but difficulties finding a sponsor in the fall semester and unavailability of venues forced us to change plans. Instead, we held the symposium online, allowing law students Canada-wide to attend and engage in the shared experience of learning about the diverse facets of law. We recognize that in-person symposia allow for more audience engagement and provide a more comprehensive learning experience, but the online format presented unique opportunities for participation.
We are extremely grateful for the support of Faculty and staff members who encouraged new ideas and cheered on the progress of the event. Special shout-outs go to Dean Brunnée for her opening remarks; Assistant Dean, Academic Sara Faherty for her help marketing the conference; and Manager of Student Programs Sara-Marni Hubbard for advice on organizing the event. We are also grateful to Interim Assistant Dean, JD Program Eleonora Dimitrova for advocating for the symposium in faculty meetings; Assistant Dean, Advancement, Jennifer Lancaster and Development Officer, Leadership and Annual Giving, Nicole Landa for arranging sponsorship discussions; and the Faculty IT team for making the virtual conference possible. In the years ahead, we hope to have more Faculty involvement with the conference to provide feedback and guidance to students developing their research.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone whose support made the symposium possible. It has been a pleasure to organize this event, and I look forward to watching its continued progress with Emily Sarah Hean as its president for the 2023/2014 academic year.
The original version of this article appeared in Ultra Vires and has been republished with permission of the author.
