Thinking of pursuing graduate studies in Law? Meet Geoffrey Conrad, Katherine Lofts, Jodi Lazare, Ghyslain Raza, and Pattarapas Tudsri, five grads who came back to McGill to do just that.
Geoff Conrad (BCL/LLB’07)
Program: DCL
Supervisor: Professor Alana Klein
Thesis: “Constituting Community: Constitutional Courts and Social Justice in a Fragmented Social Sphere”
Interests: Issues of pluralism in our society.
Fellowships & Awards: Bourse de doctorat en droit Hydro-Quebec and a SSHRC scholarship, the “Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral”, and the UVic’s Lieutenant Governor’s Silver Medal for his LLM thesis.
Previous Studies: LLM (Victoria) 2012; BCL/LLB (McGill) 2007; BA in Economics (Bishop’s) 2002.
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Mother Tongue: English
Second Languages: French
“I worked in litigation for Ogilvy Renault (now Norton Rose Fulbright) for a few years after graduating from McGill in 2007, but I think I made a great decision to go back to school to further my interest in public law and constitutional law. The people in the program are not only nice, they’re also smart and clearly committed to their scholarship. In a DCL program, things are a little more intense. I’m really sharpening up my thinking. My project is beginning to come together nicely, though, and I’m definitely happy to be transitioning to a more intensive writing stage of my thesis.”
Katherine Lofts (BCL/LLB’09, MA’05)
Program: LLM (thesis)
Supervisor: Professor Kirsten Anker
Interests: Human rights, environmental law, transitional justice, law and literature.
Fellowships & Awards: McGill Faculty of Law Entrance Scholarship
Previous Studies: BCL/LLB with great Distinction (McGill) 2009; BA with Honours (Victoria) 2003; MA in English Lit (McGill) 2005.
Hometown: Sooke, British Columbia
Mother Tongue: English
Second Languages: French
“Because learning happens in unexpected places, I try to always keep an open mind, read widely, attend guest lectures and watch films. After my BCL/LLB at McGill, I lived in New York, London, Mumbai and Singapore, working in the areas of human rights and environmental law. This international experience complemented my legal education and fueled my desire to return to McGill for graduate studies in law, to deepen my theoretical understanding of the issues I care about.”
Jodi Lazare (LLM’13)
Program: DCL
Supervisor: Professor Robert Leckey
Thesis: “Soft Law Instruments in Canadian Family Law: The Legitimacy and Effects of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines.”
Interests: Family law, from a constitutional law perspective. I also have an interest in animal law.
Fellowships and Awards: Wainwright Scholarship for Law; Joseph Armand Bombardier Scholarship (SSHRC)
Previous Studies: LLM (McGill) 2013; JD (Ottawa) 2011; LLL (Ottawa) 2010; Grad. Diploma in Journalism (Concordia) 2006; BA (McGill) 2004 (MEQ bilateral exchange program with University of Sheffield 2003-2004); Clerked for Justice Moldaver at the Supreme Court of Canada
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Mother Tongue: English
Second Languages: French
“What I enjoy most about the DCL program is the atmosphere of collegiality and being surrounded by a network of interesting, diverse, smart and friendly people, both in terms of peers and professors. The program offers all the support needed from day one, on a professional level and a social one. What I look forward to most, in addition to working under some of the brightest and most accomplished legal minds in the country, is the pedagogical training and support offered by the program’s teaching mentorship and fellowship programs, as well as the wide array of interesting and varied professional opportunities available to us.”
Ghyslain Raza (BCL/LLB’11)
Programme: LLM (avec thèse)
Drecteur de thèse: Le professeur Lionel Smith
Thèse: “Au-delà de la codification : naissance et évolution des fondements du droit civil québécois”
Intérêts: Les racines de la tradition juridique québécoise
Études prédécentes: BCL/LLB (McGill) 2011
Ville d’origine: Trois-Rivières, Québec
Langue maternelle: Français
Langues secondes: Anglais
“Pour moi, revenir à McGill était naturel. Je savais que j’y trouverais une faculté de droit à la croisée des traditions juridiques; un univers académique empreint de liberté intellectuelle, porté vers une vision moderne et élargie du domaine du droit. Mes intérêts de recherche ayant en partie été façonnés par la formation au BCL/LLB, je savais que McGill allait être un endroit idéal pour poursuivre des études avancées.”
Pattarapas Tudsri (LLM’10)
Program: DCL
Supervisor: Professor Lionel Smith
Interests: The foundations of the law of unjust enrichment, the scope and meaning of rights and value to be restored in an enrichment action, with a comparative analysis drawn also from English and Australian jurisprudence. Hopefully, this will shed light on some of the controversial areas that continue to perplex unjust enrichment lawyers.
Fellowships and Awards: SSHRC, Graduate Excellence Award
Previous Studies: LLM (McGill) 2010; BA (Cambridge) 2009
Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand
Mother tongue: Thai
Second Languages: English, French
“After completing my LLM at McGill, I became a junior lecturer/researcher in law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and continued to work on the comparative private law projects I have been interested in ever since my undergraduate law studies at Cambridge. The theoretical research and legal education I engaged in at Chulalongkorn definitely pushed me to reapply to McGill for the DCL program. The whole McGill experience has not failed me in any respect. During my LLM, I had tremendous support from the Nahum Gelber Law library and from my supervisor, Professor Lionel Smith, who spent countless hours fully engaging with students while also producing copious first-rate publications. After talking to many colleagues, I found out this is simply a norm among McGill law faculty, and it truly inspires me.”
Photos: Lysanne Larose More information about graduate programs at McGill Law can be found on the Graduate Studies website.
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