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Faculty & staff
Law Centre Director,
Assistant Teaching Professor and Clinical Director, Law Centre
We acknowledge with respect the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
The University of Victoria Faculty of Law invites applications for a Grant-Tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Teaching Professor at the Law Centre. This position will commence on July 1, 2023.
Requirements
Duties and Activities in Relation to Teaching LAW 350 The Law Centre Clinical Law Program (7.5 units)
- Organizing and ensuring the delivery of the Introductory Component (the Orientation) three terms per year. This could involve teaching or co-teaching approximately 130 hours per term.
- Preparing and updating course materials, which includes developing and maintaining an extensive model computerized precedent system.
- Organizing seminars throughout the term.
- Assigning students to cases and staff mentors to students.
- Supervising students with respect to managing their caseloads and developing legal skills.
- Securing principals for each student so they can be temporarily articled.
- Mentoring and advising students, including special attention to ethical issues that arise in their relationships with clients, and to their emotional and health needs that arise from working in a high-stress environment.
- Conducting formal file reviews with individual students to provide guidance on how they should proceed.
- Reviewing and approving student correspondence and legal documents, and overseeing student preparation for mediations, hearings and trials.
- Attending mediations, hearings, and trials with students to provide assistance and constructive feedback.
- Modeling excellence in performance of the professional role of the lawyer, maintaining a progressive approach to legal practice, maintaining currency in the substantive and procedural areas of law dealt with by the Law Centre, and demonstrating excellent legal skills and general work habits.
- Working with the Law Centre social worker to assist clients to address the underlying problems that lead to their legal issues.
Duties and Activities in Relation to the Administration and Management of the Law Centre
- Supervising and coaching staff and contract lawyers.
- Collaborating with the Dean and Law Faculty staff to ensure continued financial support for the Law Centre. Collaborative activities may include the following: preparing grant applications, producing reports for funding agencies and other agencies, liaising with grant administrators, developing evaluation plans for various Law Centre programs, and retaining evaluators.
- Supporting Law Faculty research projects as appropriate.
- Managing the Law Centre budget in collaboration with Law Faculty staff.
- Managing the Law Centre Programs (Human Rights Clinic, First Nations Outreach, Shut-in and Hospital Legal Services, Inmate Legal Services).
- Developing office procedures, managing facilities and supplies.
- Managing the office space, which may include securing office space, conducting lease negotiations, reviewing lease documents and planning renovations as needed.
- Promoting, implementing, and managing the use of case management technology to meet the goals of the clinic, regulatory requirements and the Clinic’s public interest mandate.
Professional Activities, Outreach and Public Legal Education
- Acting as counsel for clients of the Law Centre, including representation before courts and tribunals.
- Liaising and maintaining good relations with the judiciary, the Law Society, the Ministry of Attorney General, the Law Foundation, the Legal Services Society, the Federal Department of Justice, the BC Human Rights Tribunal, members of the Victoria Bar Association, numerous government agencies, and community groups in order to secure support for and promote Law Centre activities.
- Promoting awareness of Law Centre activities amongst members of the legal profession and the public.
- Creating Public Legal Educations materials.
- Contributing to communications on behalf of the Law Centre including website content and articles.
Qualifications
- A J.D. or LL.B. degree and membership or eligibility for membership in the Law Society of British Columbia. A further advanced degree in law or a related field would be an asset.
- A minimum of 8 years call to the Bar in British Columbia or equivalent experience in another Canadian jurisdiction.
- Teaching experience, preferably in a legal academic or experiential learning setting.
- Leadership experience, preferably in a clinical setting, supervising students and providing summary advice.
- Experience and interest in providing Access to Justice including through Public Legal Education.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Significant knowledge of:
- the theory and practice of legal skills;
- criminal and civil procedure including advocacy before Provincial Court and administrative tribunals;
- family law, including the preparation of documents for Supreme Court and Provincial Court applications;
- corrections law;
- social welfare law;
- human rights law; and
- Indigenous client issues.
- Experience supervising staff, students and paralegals.
- Knowledge of collaborative processes used to resolve legal disputes.
- Experience and interest in Access to Justice including Public Legal Education.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written).
- Demonstrated ability to develop resourceful solutions to legal problems of clients.
- Ability to work with, negotiate, discuss and resolve matters with opposing parties, lawyers, and witnesses as appropriate.
- Must have awareness and sensitivity to cultural influences in the community.
- Demonstrated ability to work with Indigenous people.
- Demonstrated ability to work with people facing marginalization due to income, disability, literacy, language of origin, gender identity or otherwise facing historical disadvantage.
- Demonstrated knowledge of practice management including use of technology for file management.
Remuneration will be commensurate with educational background and experience.
Additional information
The University of Victoria is consistently ranked in the top tier of Canada’s research-intensive universities. Vital impact drives the UVic sense of purpose. As an internationally renowned teaching and research hub, we tackle essential issues that matter to people, places and the planet. Situated in the Pacific Rim, our location breeds a profound passion for exploration. Defined by its edges, this extraordinary environment inspires us to defy boundaries, discover, and innovate in exciting ways. It’s different here, naturally and by design. We live, learn, work and explore on the edge of what’s next-for our planet and its peoples. Our commitment to research-inspired dynamic learning and vital impact make this Canada’s most extraordinary environment for discovery and innovation. Experience the edge of possibilities for yourself.
The Law Centre
Since its founding in the mid-1970’s, the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria has sought to make a unique contribution to legal education in Canada. Dedicated to providing students with the skills, knowledge, and judgment they will need to embark on diverse careers, UVic Law, as part of its curriculum, offers a diversity of experiential education opportunities. The Law Centre Clinical Program furthers the Law school’s and the University’s strategic commitments to experiential education, engaged student learning, service to the community, equity and inclusion, and fostering respect and reconciliation for indigenous persons and communities.
The Law Centre provides clinical legal education to students enrolled in the Faculty of Law, while also providing an outreach and service to the community. The Law Centre provides a range of legal services to low-income clients through a clinic located off campus at the Victoria Courthouse. Students enroll in the program as a full term, for credit, course within the faculty. In each of three terms, students spend the first four weeks in the orientation part of the program delivered at the law school. For the remainder of each term, students attend the clinic fulfilling the role of articled students, directly interviewing, advising, and representing clients with legal matters, with the supervision, advice, and assistance of lawyers in the office.
The method of clinical legal education places students in an experiential setting where they may critically observe aspects of the legal system. Students develop an understanding of their professional role within that system, and develop knowledge, values, and skills relevant to the practice of law. Through the clinic’s focus on assisting clients who would otherwise be unable to afford a lawyer and who have other challenges, students gain an understanding of the health, social, and economic contexts in which legal issues arise. While assisting students to become knowledgeable, skilled, and compassionate legal professionals, the clinic provides an important contribution to access to justice in the community.
Faculty and Librarians at the University of Victoria are governed by the provisions of the Collective Agreement . Members are represented by the University of Victoria Faculty Association .
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; in accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. Please indicate in your application package if you are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
Contact information
Applications consisting of a 1-2 page cover letter outlining your suitability for the position, a curriculum vitae, and the names of (and contact information for) three referees should be addressed to the Faculty of Law Appointments Committee and sent by March 21, 2023 to ldeanadmuvic.ca .
For enquires about the position, please contact Acting Dean Val Napoleon at lawdeanuvic.ca .
Please note that reference and background checks, including credential and degree verification, may be undertaken as part of this recruitment process.
Application deadline
March 21, 2023 Equity statement
UVic is committed to upholding the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion in our living, learning and work environments. In pursuit of our values, we seek members who will work respectfully and constructively with differences and across levels of power. We actively encourage applications from members of groups experiencing barriers to equity.
Read our full equity statement here: ?url=www.uvic.ca%2Fequitystatement&module=jobs&id=37786" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">?url=www.uvic.ca%2Fequitystatement&module=jobs&id=37786" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.uvic.ca/equitystatement
The University acknowledges the potential impact that career interruptions can have on a candidate’s record of research achievement. We encourage applicants to explain in their application the impact that career interruptions have had on their record.
Persons with disabilities, who anticipate needing accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, may contact Faculty Relations and Academic Administration in the Office of the VP Academic and Provost at FRrecruituvic.ca . Any personal information provided will be maintained in confidence.
