Rate My Professor Trevor Farrow

Trevor C.W. Farrow, holding an AB from Princeton University, BA/MA from Oxford University, LLB from Dalhousie University, LLM from Harvard University, and PhD from the University of Alberta, is the Dean and a Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. He assumed the deanship on September 1, 2023, overseeing all external and internal academic and administrative affairs of the law school, including financial responsibilities. Prior to this, he served as Associate Dean at Osgoode Hall Law School and practiced as a litigation lawyer in Toronto. Professor Farrow chairs the board of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice and has been actively involved in advancing access to justice initiatives internationally.

Professor Farrow is internationally recognized as a leading scholar on access to justice, legal ethics, civil justice, and civil procedure. His seminal book, Civil Justice, Privatization, and Democracy (University of Toronto Press, 2014), critiques the privatization of civil justice systems and their impact on democracy. Key articles include "What is Access to Justice?" (51 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 957, 2014), which presents findings from a public survey developing a public-centered understanding of access to justice; "Sustainable Professionalism" (46 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 51, 2008), challenging traditional lawyering visions and proposing a new professionalism discourse; "The Good, the Right, and the Lawyer" (2013); and "Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community" (2013). He has co-authored international reports on community legal services for better access to justice and participated in Canada-U.S. Supreme Court meetings and OECD global roundtables on equal access to justice. Professor Farrow has received teaching awards from Harvard University and Osgoode Hall Law School. His work has shaped legal policy reforms in Canada and abroad, emphasizing sustainable legal practices and public perspectives on justice.