Law Is Cool is a blog and podcast addressing issues related to law school and the legal field with a Canadian focus. Law is Cool was founded in 2007 by Omar Ha-Redeye and several other law students who were just about to start their first year of law school.

Although most of the founders and contributors have moved on upon being called to the bar, the site is maintained as a resource to students.  The site is also maintained in memory of Thomas Wisdom, who passed away in 2012, and was one of the founding members of the site.

If you are a law student in Canada interested in contributing feel free to contact us.  We welcome your suggestions and comments.

All opinions expressed, including unsigned commentary, are those of the author alone and do not reflect the position of this site or the contributors as a whole.

If you are a blogger or web surfer that wandered over, please keep in mind that this is not your traditional blog. It is intended to be an academic site; a constant work-in-progress. We do use the edit button quite liberally and with good conscience in order to enhance the content.

Alumnus Contributors

 

Lawrence Gridin holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Toronto, having majored in Psychology and History. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.

Omar Ha-Redeye has an educational background in nuclear medicine, health administration, and public relations. He has worked in all three fields for several years before deciding to pursue a law degree at the University of Western Ontario.  He is the founder of the site.

John Magyar received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario in 1990 and completed the Recorded Music Production program at Fanshawe College in 1993. Before returning the UWO to study Law, he held a wide variety of jobs including freelance recording engineer, Operations Manager at Other Peoples Music Inc and Research Director at Technical Economists Ltd., a commercial real estate consulting service in downtown Toronto. Current interests include Municipal Law, Constitutional Law, Copyright Law and Real Estate Law. He has completed an LLM at UWO.

Joel Welch is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from UWO and a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Brock University. Before pursuing a law degree, Joel served for nearly seven years as a regular member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Ryan Venables is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. He holds B.A. (2001) from the University of Western Ontario in Political Science and Sociology. Ryan was also enrolled in a M.A.- Journalism at the University of Western Ontario before withdrawing to attend law school. Before pursuing a formal education in law, Ryan served with the York Regional Police as a police officer for five years specializing in organized crime. He also served in the Special Investigations Section with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for two years. His legal interests include criminal, litigation, employment/labour, and human rights.

Pulat Yunusov is a Toronto litigation lawyer with a JD degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. 

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Bios of Historic Contributors

Zeeshan Baig studied Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he served as the Chair of the student-organized Ministry of Social Justice.

Vitali Berditchevski did his undergrad at UofT in Management with Co-Op. He previously worked in IT, banking, and the automotive sector. His legal interests include Intellectual Property, New Media Regulation and Corporate Law.

Fathima Cader is a graduate of the University of British Colombia. She received a BSc in Life Sciences and a BAH in English from Queen’s University and an MA in English from the University of Toronto. Her legal and academic interests include social justice law, cultural studies, and digital media studies. She freelances as a web and graphic designer.

Claire Devlin holds a B.A. (Hons.) from Queen’s in Psychology and Spanish, and completed a postgraduate program specializing in public relations at Humber College before starting law school at UWO. Her legal interests lie primarily in entertainment and corporate law.

Rob Evans has a BAA in psychology from Kwantlen University College in Surrey, B.C. He attended the LLB/JD joint program at the University of Windsor and University of Detroit Mercy.

Milad Haghani obtained his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from York University before entering Law School at the University of Western Ontario.  He is also a Violinist and has recently begun pursuing an artistic interest in Photography.

Ryan MacIsaac has a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Toronto (New College) before starting  law school in Fall 2009.

Carolyn McKeen holds an undergraduate degree in Applied Science and a Master’s degree in Public Health. She is interested in combining her experience and theoretical expertise in health and international development policy with her legal studies. Human rights law in the international context is her major area of interest. She entered Western Law in September 2011.

Navraj Pannu has a J.D. from Thomas M Cooley Law school in Michigan and completed Masters in Law at UWO Law.

David Shulman holds a B.A. (Hons.) from Queen’s University, having majored in Philosophy and History. There, he founded and was the editor-in-chief of a successful student academic magazine called Syndicus. David also holds an M.A. from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His studies and thesis focused on the Philosophy of Language and Logic. He is graduate of the University of Windsor. His interests include social justice, analytic philosophy, French language, politics, reading, writing, squash, and travel.

Tom Slade is a graduate of the University of Ottawa.

Amelio Thé is a graduate of Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He received his Bachelor of Arts & Sciences at the University of Guelph in Ecology and in Philosophy.

Siena Anstis has worked as a freelance journalist over the past 4 years, primarily in East Africa, before attending law school at McGill.

Simon Borys graduated from the University of Waterloo in ’05 with a B.A. in Philosophy and a Legal Studies and Criminology Option and worked for the last five years in policing with a major regional service in Southwestern Ontario.  In December 2009 he quit policing to attend law school at Queen’s because of their focus in Criminal Law, his primary area of interest.

Saron Ghebressellassie is a PhD Candidate in the department of Social and Political Thought at York University and is a law student at UofO.

Jamil Jivani was born and raised in the world’s most multicultural city, Toronto. He is a first generation African-Canadian and York University and Humber College graduate with a BA in International Development Studies and Non-Profit Management.  In addition to contributing to initiatives like the Road to Independence program based in Nairobi, Kenya, Jamil’s interests include combat sports and hip-hop culture.  Jamil is currently pursuing his J.D. as part of Yale Law School’s Class of 2013.

Alex Kerner completed a B.A. in History and American Studies and an M.A. in History at the University of Toronto.  He served as president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union and spent the last five years working at Ryerson University and overseas in Taiwan.  He is part of the 2013 class at UVic.

Ivan Merrow graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2011, after completing 2 years of co-op employment in banking, business development and IT.  Currently he is a dual-degree JD/MBA candidate at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario.

Simone Samuels is a graduate of York University and is in her first year at McGill’s Faculty of Law. She has blogging experience at theCOR and Girls in Transition. Her primary research interest is the intersection between law and morality.

Soroush Seifi is a law student at UofT.

We are still interested in taking on more contributors, especially incoming first-years, so please contact us at admin[at]lawiscool[dot]com for more info.

Behind Bars

These people once contributed to Law is Cool, but have graduated or otherwise moved on.

Cris Best, Ainsley Brown,  Alex Dimson, Adrian DiLullo, Ken Saddington, Aditya Swarap, Jacob Kaufman, Jonathan Kleiman, Sarah Boyd, Diana Younes, Costa Ragas, Vimal Baid, Matthew Nied, Kashif Ahmed, Darcy Ammerman, Adam Campbell, Navjot Dhaliwal, Torwoli S. Dzuali, Ahmed Farahat, Lawrence Gridin, Digal Haio, Dany Horovitz, Devin Johnston, Christine Kellowan, Shane Martinez, Will McNair, Logan Rathbone, Daniel Simard, Justin Teterault, Marie Winfield, May El-Abdullah, Ajay Gajaria, Meagan Williams, Daisy McCabe-Lokos, Asad Moten, Thomas Wisdom