Life skills and career tips for Canada's lawyers in training
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year to study law at TRU, which is almost double the $8,507.92 tuition at UVic and substantially more than the $10,338.17 at UBC for 2011-12. But students in the fi rst intake will each get a $3,700 grant for each of their three years — bringing their fees down to $13,100 per year. Part of the diff erence in fees between the new law school and the others in B.C. is that they are both under a tuition freeze and receive provincial funds, which Pap- pas told a local newspaper that TRU will not. In its fi rst year, TRU's curriculum will be similar to that of the University of Calgary since the schools are partnering. Ax- worthy says TRU will have similarities to Calgary's focus on natural resources. However, being a new faculty, TRU will be able to get creative once it moves along to the upper years. Th e fi rst-year curriculum will be fairly standard: contract law, tort law, property law, constitutional law, and criminal law, as well as alternative dispute resolution courses. He says the faculty has thought about focusing on aboriginal law, energy law, natural resources law, and environmental law for the long term, but it will depend on what specialties professors bring and which areas of law students are interested in. TRU is also connected with the Staff ordshire University Centre for International Sports Law in England. With TRU's large tourism department, Axworthy is confi dent the law school can eventually specialize in sports law, an area not well covered in other Canadian law schools and one in which stu- dents are showing more interest. To kick things off , TRU will have 11 faculty members and 65 students entering its fi rst-year class. As of the beginning of July, the school had six full-time and two part-time faculty mem- bers on board (see below and visit us at canadianlawyermag. com/4Students for the full list in the fall). It was still seeking a chief law librarian and looking to fi ll two other vacant positions by the fall. Promislow says she's excited about the small group THE FACULTY AT TRU'S NEW LAW SCHOOL Chris Axworthy has taught at numerous law schools and prior to joining TRU, was the dean of law at the University of Manitoba. In the political sphere, he served as Saskatch- ewan's attorney general, minister of justice, minister of ab- original affairs, minister of intergovernmental affairs, and then as Queen's counsel. He is TRU's founding dean and will be teaching contract law. Margaret Isabel Hall taught law at the University of Ottawa before becoming a staff lawyer at the British Columbia Law Institute and then the fi rst director of its Canadian Centre for Elder Law. Hall then went on to teach in the University of British Columbia's law faculty. She will be teaching tort law at TRU. Sharon Mascher has held the position of associate dean of law at the University of Western Australia. She has also taught law in New Zealand and at the University of Sas- katchewan. Mascher has practised law in Kelowna, B.C. She will be teaching property law. Richard Frimpong Oppong obtained his LLB in Ghana. He also holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge, an LLM from Harvard University, and a PhD from UBC. Prior to joining TRU, he taught law at Lancaster University in the U.K. He will be teaching property law and contract law. Janna Promislow has taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Alberta, the University of Victoria, and oth- ers. She clerked at the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench and Court of Appeal and has also practised in the Northwest Ter- ritories. She will be teaching constitutional law. Micah B. Rankin has served as a judicial law clerk to the B.C. Court of Appeal. Prior to joining TRU, he practised as a litigation associate at Hunter Litigation Chambers in Vancou- ver. He will also be teaching constitutional law. Ken Cooper-Stephenson was a founding member of the law school at the University of Leicester and has taught at law schools in Australia. He immigrated to Canada in 1971 to teach at the University of Saskatchewan's law faculty. He will be teaching tort law at TRU in the fi rst semester. Doug Hodgson is a law professor at the University of West- ern Australia. He obtained his LLB from Osgoode and his LLM from the University of London. He is on sabbatical leave from UWA and will be teaching at TRU in the second semester. 28 F A L L 2011 C ANADIAN Lawy er 4STUDENTS hildview_4st_Sep_11.indd 1 7/20/11 10:56:26 AM *