Talk to anyone affiliated with Western’s law school in its early years and they’ll tell you it was an exciting time.
Justice Minister John Turner entertains an audience in the Moot Court Room on October 25, 1971.
A new school with small class sizes and a friendly ambience – those were some of the hallmarks of Western Law when it was founded in 1959.
Just ask Roger Yachetti.
Yachetti, a lawyer who covers all areas of litigation and has a practice in Hamilton, Ont., was a member of the school’s third graduating class in 1964.
“It was a very congenial and wonderful ambience. Everyone reached out to everyone else,” he says.
“It was the ideal setting for teaching and learning.”
His first-year class included about 40 students (“I think we had two ladies in the class,” he says), which made for an intimate one-on-one learning environment among students and professors.
One of the professors back then was Justice Ivan Rand, Western Law’s first dean, who taught constitutional law.
“He was a delightful person,” Yachetti recalls. Students knew they were privileged to be taught by Rand, “an icon in the legal profession,” and yet they found him approachable enough that they could go to him with their concerns.
“He was somewhat formal, but always correct,” says Yachetti. “We regarded him as a father figure.”
At the time, most students came to Western Law because they were “just interested in getting called to the bar,” he says. “There wasn’t the same global approach there is today.”
Many of the friendships forged by the more than 6,000 graduates inside the walls of the Josephine Spencer Niblett Building have endured the decades.
“We still have a continuing interest in each other,” says Yachetti, who caught up with several former classmates at Homecoming — the school’s largest yet — this past fall.
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Talk to anyone affiliated with Western’s law school today and they’ll tell you it’s still an exciting place to be.
One of Canada’s leading law schools – now 50 years strong – it continues to boast small class sizes and a friendly ambience among other strengths, much as it did in its early years.
But not all things have stayed the same.
Incorporated in the curriculum is the largest international student exchange program of any law school in North America, a growing roster of accomplished legal minds who have come from around the world to teach courses at Western Law, and more degree options than ever before, including international dual degrees.
“We’re a much more internationally engaged law school than we used to be,” says Dean Ian Holloway. “And we generally have a higher profile.”
The student body has seen visible changes, with about one-quarter of the school’s population belonging to a visible minority group, adds Holloway. And the students are much more geographically diverse than in the past, with most students coming from outside the Southwestern Ontario region.
“There’s (also) been a real sense of faculty rejuvenation,” says Holloway, adding about two-thirds of faculty members have joined since he was appointed dean in 2000.
The building itself has undergone changes; it’s been expanded three times to accommodate growth and meet the changing needs of students’ lives.
With just less than 500 students enrolled in total, “there’s a real sense of community in the building. There’s a vibrancy and buzz here from morning to night.
While he notes legal education in Canada has come a long way during the past 50 years, Holloway suggests the biggest challenges facing law schools may lie ahead.
“This is probably the most exciting time in 100 years to be a law student . . . All the problems facing the world today require a legal solution,” he says, citing climate change and global peace.
In the previous century, many of the world’s problems were solved through violence.
“The 21st century has the potential to be the century of change through peace. That can only happen through change of law,” says Holloway.
Some of the ways Western Law is preparing students for the future is by encouraging them to think globally and think in terms of solutions, not problems.
“There are skills we need to think about teaching in law school that we don’t,” he says, adding more emphasis should be put on teaching students to work in teams.
Syd Usprich, a faculty member since 1970 who retired in 2008, says evolving technology has meant the traditional way of conducting legal research is becoming “a lost art.”
“You look across a classroom and you see a sea of laptops. Everyone has a laptop.”
“We still teach our students the old-fashioned way to research resources through paper sources.” But if they rely too heavily on digital resources, they’ll skip some important finds, he said.
Professor Michael Lynk agrees.
“(Technology) challenges teachers. How do we keep students engaged when they have a portal to the world in front of them?”
Both Usprich and Lynk would like the school to be able to do more research-based projects. And for that, Western Law would require more money.
Each year, the faculty raises about $2 million through fundraising and various alumni programs, says alumni relations officer Matoula Zesimopoulos. Last year during the economic downturn, the school managed to reach $2.75 million.
“We’re seeing alumni stepping up and wanting to make a difference,” says Zesimopoulos.
Part of the reason Western Law alumni want to give back to their alma mater is due to the positive student experience they had, she says.
“Western Law is a significant part of their life. Alumni want to be reengaged and a part of something.”
A Golden Anniversary fund has been established to mark the school’s 50th year. Western Law has also planned a string of events to mark the golden year.
Anniversary Events
March 3 – Phillipe Sands delivers the Pensa Lecture in Human Rights. A professor of international law at University College London and a regular commentator on the BBC and CNN, Sands will speak on “Torture, Lawyers and Accountability.” 7:30 p.m. Room 38.
March 4 – “Shakespeare in Court: A Play with Appeal,” Conron Hall. Law students act out a trial based on Shakespeare’s Merchant in Venice. A panel of judges includes Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley.
March 22 – The Beattie Family Lecture in Business Law, Nobel Prize winning economist George Akerlof, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being. 5:30 – 7 p.m. in Rm. 38, Faculty of Law.
April 29 – Golden Anniversary reception, at the Royal York Hotel, Toronto.
Visit www.law.uwo.ca/ for a complete events listing.
The writer is a Western journalism graduate and London freelance writer.
Gay Stewart (’77) and her parents celebrate Convocation, June 16, 1977.