One of David Lepofsky’s missions in life is to help educate law students on how to effectively serve the legal needs of clients with disabilities.
“There are 2.9 million Ontarians with disabilities and over 8 million Canadians with disabilities,” says Lepofsky, one of Canada’s most prominent blind lawyers.
“Historically, Canadian law schools did a good job of training law students to meet the legal needs of clients without disabilities, but not as good a job at meeting the legal needs of clients with disabilities. Reform in this area requires planned, systematic refinement of existing law school curriculum.”
Lepofsky has been appointed to similar visiting professorships at Osgoode Hall Law School and Western Law and one of the highlights of his Ottawa visit was a meeting with a large group of law students with disabilities.
“Like other law schools where I have been a visiting professor in a similar role, the Faculty has a very bright, talented, determined and highly motivated cohort of students with a diverse range of disabilities, far more than when I was in law school at Osgoode from 1976 to 1979.
“It benefits all law students when we make available to them targeted advice and supports that enable them to succeed in law school, and to head out thereafter into the job market equipped with the skills needed to tackle disability barriers that too often pervade the workplace. We made a good start on this at this first meeting, with a need and an appetite for more to follow.”
He also met with Dean Kristen Boon, the Equity Committee and several staff members involved with admissions and career support, as well as meeting a cohort of students doing focused research on important disability rights topics.
“Law students and law professors alike welcome the addition of this content to the law school. It is extremely important to have specialized course offerings in this area, for which Professor Ravi Malhotra is a real leader.
“It is also important to mainstream this content so that it reaches all law students. Family practitioners need to know how to address the legal needs and disability issues of family law clients with disabilities. Criminal lawyers need to know how to do the same for criminally accused clients with disabilities. Major parts of administrative law pertain to the legal rights and needs of people with disabilities. The list goes on and on.”
Lepofsky recently published an article in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, entitled “People with Disabilities Need Lawyers Too! A Ready-To-Use Plan for Law Schools to Educate Law Students to Effectively Serve the Legal Needs of Clients with Disabilities, As Well As Clients Without Disabilities.”
“I found the Faculty to be extremely receptive to expanding what is taught in this area. To do so only effective happens with planning, and with a keen sense of what needs to be added. I welcome the opportunity to share this.”
Lepofsky will return in the winter term.
Professor David Wiseman, who coordinated the visit in his role as Social Justice Option Co-ordinator for the English Common Law Program said: “David Lepofsky’s visit was an important opportunity for our students, faculty and staff to explore disability rights issues in legal education.
“David attended classes in clinical law, health law and professional responsibility and directly engaged with students on the commitment and skills needed to effectively serve the legal needs of people with disabilities in a range of settings, as well as to support improvements in access to justice more generally. “
Lepofsky graduated with honours from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1979 and obtained a Masters of Law from Harvard Law School in 1982. From 1982 to the end of 2015, he practised law in Toronto with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, in the areas of constitutional, civil, administrative and most recently, criminal law. In 2004, he was appointed to the position of General Counsel.
Since the late 1970s, he has been active in a volunteer capacity, advocating for new laws to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in Canada. In 1980, he appeared before the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution of Canada, on behalf of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind for an amendment to the proposed Charter of Rights, to guarantee equality rights to persons with disabilities.
In February 2009, he became the Chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.
He is the author of one law book, and the author or co-author of over 30 law journal articles or book chapters on topics including constitutional law, criminal law, administrative law, human rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. He has created and is expanding an extensive online series of videos on disability rights and advocacy.
He is a member of the Order of Canada (1995) and the Order of Ontario (2007) and has honorary doctorates from Queen's University, the University of Western Ontario, the Law Society of Ontario and Brock University.