Law History Profiles

Dr. Carol Liao has played a pivotal role in Allard Law since she joined in 2017. In addition to her role as faculty member and instructor, she is the UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar of the Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics, Director of the Centre for Business Law, and Principal Co-investigator of the Canada Climate Law Initiative. 

Professor Tony Sheppard spent more than 50 years with the Allard School of Law before retiring in June of 2020. 

After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and Economics from UBC in 1964, Professor Sheppard went on to an LLB from the school in 1967. Once he completed his articles with Guild, Yule and Company, he was called to the British Columbia bar in 1969 and appointed as an Assistant Professor at UBC that same year. Professor Sheppard became an Associate Professor in 1972 and a full Professor in 1976. He also holds an LLM from the London School of Economics. 

Chris Heslinga earned his JD from the Allard School of Law in 2012 but soon found himself back on campus. 

After a brief time in private practice, the Campbellford, Ontario native returned to the Law Students’ Legal Advice Program (LSLAP) where he now helps students handle client matters, oversees legal decision-making and teaches students how to think and practice like lawyers. 

For technology lawyer Ryan Black, being a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee for the Centre for Business Law is an important opportunity to give back to the legal community. 

Andrew Gay, QC is a partner at Gudmundseth Mickelson LLP where he practices litigation with an emphasis on government liability, regulatory disputes, professional discipline, commercial litigation, and tort litigation. He is also an expert in the area of judicial review of administrative decisions. 

For eight years, Mr. Gay was involved with the Allard School of Law as an Adjunct Professor, teaching an upper-year seminar on government liability—an idea that was first suggested by then-government lawyer and now-British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Karen Horsman. 

Professor Pitman Potter retired in June 2020 after 30 years at the Allard School of Law. He joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1990, before being appointed to associate professor in 1992 and full professor in 1999. During his time with the law school, Professor Potter served in a number of leadership roles, including as Director of Chinese Legal Studies. He held the position of HSBC Chair in Asian Research at the Institute of Asian Research at UBC, where he was also the Director from 1999 to 2008.

The Allard Law History Project sat down with Tamara Levy, QC in the summer of 2020: listen to the full interview. Since then, under her leadership, the UBC Innocence Project continues to work on the exoneration of the wrongfully convicted.

If you’re a current JD student or alumnus reading this, chances are that Elaine Lenki Borthwick reviewed your law school application. For the last 30 and some years (over 40 years total at UBC), Elaine has served as the law school’s Director, JD Admissions. From a former Prime Minister and numerous justices and judges, Elaine has admitted several generations of British Columbia's legal profession to law school.

Associate Professor Hoi Kong (inaugural Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professor in Constitutional Law) joined the faculty in 2018. 

Erez Aloni joined the faculty at the Allard School of Law in 2017. His primary research interests lie in the legal regulation of adult relationships and complex family structures. Aloni’s work stages the family as an institution affected by a broad range of laws, norms, and economic structures. He is particularly interested in investigating laws which impact the composition and well-being of households and families, as well as the effects—socioeconomic and otherwise— those laws have on society at large. 

Tremblay’s research to this point has explored how the family has been regulated in Quebec, where blood ties and formalities are of great cultural importance – creating, perhaps, a narrow understanding of the range of meaningful relationships constituting the family. 

Dr. Sara Ghebremusse specializes in mining governance, law and development, and African legal studies and human rights. A rising star in her field, she believes in the law’s transformative potential in the fight against global poverty. 

Camden Hutchison is an associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, specializing in corporate law. In particular, Hutchison examines corporate transactions and governance, as well as the historical development of corporate law. With a PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hutchison continues to the explore the history of corporate law.

Toby Goldbach is an Assistant Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, having joined the faculty in 2017. She comes to the law school following a two-year teaching fellowship at Cornell Law School. She earned her doctorate from Cornell, where she was a Rudolf B. Schlesinger Research Fellow, a Visiting Scholar at the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law at Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law, and held grants from the Institute for Comparative Modernities and the Berger Center for Comparative & International Law. 

Nicole Barrett is the Director of the Joint International Justice and Human Rights Clinic at Osgoode Hall and University of British Columbia Allard School of Law.  She was previously a Trial Lawyer and a Legal Officer for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague and a Senior Scholar in Residence at New York University Law School’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, where she directed legal projects with international criminal courts and tribunals.

The Allard School of Law is pleased to welcome Dr. Asha Kaushal, who recently joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track). Dr. Kaushal is an alumna of the Allard School of Law, where she earned her Ph.D. in 2013. She holds an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall and an LL.M. from Harvard, along with an M.Sc. in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. 

Graham Reynolds is an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law with research and teaching interests focused on copyright, intellectual property, human rights, technology, and access to justice. Prior to joining the faculty at the Allard School of Law, Reynolds was an Assistant Professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Dr. Russo obtained his LLB, LLM and PhD degrees from the Peter A. Allard School of Law, where he is currently a Lecturer. His research has been primarily in the area of immigration and labour law and he has published several peer-reviewed articles in this field. He has also held previous teaching appointments at the law school, and has taught first-year Torts, Transnational Law and Public Law in the JD program, as well as Advanced Legal Research and Writing and subjects in the LLM CL and Distance Learning programs. Dr. Russo worked as a legal researcher before pursuing his LLM degree.

When Allard School of Law Associate Professor Wei Cui saw a posting for an appointment at UBC in 2012, he suspected that the job was perfectly suited to him. Describing a tax law specialist along with expertise in comparative law in Asian countries, the posting couldn’t have been a better fit, and Cui’s colleagues at the time agreed.

The school’s search for such a scholar coincided with Cui’s desire to relocate from China to North America, where he wanted to pursue academic work more exclusively after several years as a government advisor and senior tax practitioner.

Patricia Barkaskas is the Academic Director of the Allard School of Law (“Allard”) Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, and the incoming director of the Allard Judicial Externship Program. In addition to working closely with law students in these capacities, Barkaskas is a sole practitioner, practicing in the areas of child protection (as parent’s counsel) as well as criminal and family law.