New Ryerson Law School Dean passionate about social justice
January 8, 2020
Donna Young relocated to New York City nearly three decades ago to become a member of the Bar and seek out teaching opportunities.
Twenty seven years after joining Albany Law School, the eminent legal practitioner has returned home to become the founding Dean of Ryerson University’s Faculty of Law.
The first-generation Canadian tenure began on January 1.
It was through her husband of 26 years that Young learnt early last summer of the opening.
American-born Peter Halewood, who has undergraduate and Master’s degrees from the University of Toronto and McGill University respectively and a Law degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC), is the Governor George E. Pataki Distinguished Professor of International Commercial Law at Albany Law School.
“I did some research, reached out to see if they were taking applications and what was involved and then went through the process,” she said. “The more I learnt about the new faculty, the more I was intrigued. It is an incredible program and opportunity.”
Ryerson’s Faculty of Law reimagines legal education to create a new kind of lawyer, driven by a curriculum designed to increase the career readiness of graduates, to enhance diversity in the legal profession and to improve access to justice.
As the inaugural Dean, Young is expected to provide dynamic and thoughtful leadership, vision and strategic acumen to shape the new school’s mission of being a model for the future of legal education.
The new challenge excites the Osgoode Hall Law School graduate.
“As I learnt more about the program, I really wanted to be part of it,” she said. “Part of the reason for that is that it is really offering from the ground up this kind of social justice-oriented legal program. There are not many law schools that do that. I think Canadian law schools, in particular, are really strong in terms of providing programs for access, but Ryerson’s program is going to do it in a slightly different way. So the new Dean along with the founding faculty and staff are going to have this amazing opportunity to learn from other programs and to try and design a program that will really fit what we want to do.”
With the first cohort of law students entering Ryerson in September 2020, a total of 24 practitioners will soon be hired to teach in the first year.
The full-time tuition fees are $21,168 for Canadian citizens and permanent residents and $31,168 for international students.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Science (honours) in Psychology from the University of Toronto, Young spent a year at UBC pursuing Law studies before transferring to Osgoode in 1988 for personal reasons.
She and Patricia DeGuire were the only two Black females in their graduating class in 1991.
“Donna evinced a keen interest, passion and perspicacity in social justice, especially race and gender issues,” said the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers co-founder. “She helped to create the Women of Colour group, ‘VOICE’, when we were excluded from mainstream feminism because of our ‘otherness’ and refusal to give way to erasure, and was active in assisting to bring erudite academics to Canada such as bell hooks, Patricia Williams and Kimberle Crenshaw who shared her innovative concept of ‘intersectionality’ to advance our knowledge of social justice. I recall fondly, sipping hot chocolate in a dingy greasy-spoon restaurant on Oakwood Ave. early one morning as Donna, bell hooks and I passionately engaged in discourse about racial and gender discrimination. I admired her passion and steely resilience, especially towards her goals. She is a loyal and caring person with the highest of ethical standards.”
Prior to joining the oldest independent law school in the United States, Young worked in litigation at Cornish Roland, a labour law firm in Toronto, as a consultant at the Ontario Human Rights Commission examining the procedural and adjudicatory treatment of race discrimination cases in Canada and at the City of New York Mayor’s office of Labour Relations & Legal Department.
She became intrigued with the academy while at Law school.
“I saw the amazing things that my professors were doing both in practice and their own research,” said Young who took a leave of absence from teaching in 2014 to join the American Association of University Professors Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance. “I also saw the potential with Law which I didn’t know I had such an interest in and thought this is what I want to spend my life doing.”
Her teaching at Albany Law focused on criminal law, employment regulation, federal civil procedure and gender & race discrimination. She also held leadership positions on core faculty committees and was a member of the Board of Directors of non-profit organizations dedicated to women’s health, civil rights and civil liberties.
A visiting scholar at Osgoode’s Institute of Feminist Legal Studies and an Italian university and a consultant to the International Development Law Organization in Rome a decade ago, Young – who conducted fieldwork in Uganda on the interaction of women’s property rights and HIV/AIDS -- had resolved to remain in the United States and continue to visit her family in the Greater Toronto Area until she applied for the Ryerson position.
“I really loved working at Albany Law,” she said. “My students were wonderful, supportive, smart and committed and they became all of those things once they became alumni. I just love seeing generations of law students go out and do amazing things. Also, my colleagues were incredibly supportive and I was given a lot of freedom to pursue the kinds of academic pursuits I wanted.”
Donna Young (Photo by Mitch Wojnarowicz)
Named to the Lawyers of Colour 50 Under 50 list in 2014, Young teamed up with Janell Hobson, who chairs Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Albany, to produce a two-credit seminar class, ‘Race, Rape Culture and the Law’, that examines the extent to which law and social attitudes contribute to normalizing and/or trivializing sexual harassment and assault against women.
Using case studies and historical examples, the course addresses the difficult questions of how to move towards an anti-racist and anti-rape society while examining the social and cultural causes preventing this progression.
Young -- whose professors at Columbia University School of Law included Crenshaw who coined the term, ‘intersectionality’, that she says is ‘a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides and where it interlocks and intersects -- considers the production of this course one of her highlights at Albany Law School.
“This course was by design intersectional, combining critical analysis of race and gender,” she pointed out. “It takes a really historical perspective and ultimately it is designed to show students how the legal system in the United States has always reflected racial and gender hierarchy. It is really important for our students to understand how the law tries to ameliorate inequality, but also contribute to inequality. I just love that part of my teaching.”
Hobson, who is of Kittitian heritage, is confident Young will thrive in her new role.
“Donna will bring energy, enthusiasm and commitment to social justice issues and how those intersect at racial justice as well as gender concerns,” she said. “Her students absolutely loved her. She is a great teacher and someone with strength to advocate for anyone she cares about.”
The third of four siblings, Young and her husband – who last year were among nearly 2,400 law professors in the United States that signed a letter published in the New York Times asking the Senate to reject the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh -- have two sons.
The eldest is in his last year at Yale University while the youngest is spending a gap year with his maternal grandparents – Robert and Lilethe Young are immigrants from Belize and Jamaica respectively -- in North York.
The older son plans to seek job opportunities in Toronto while his brother starts his post-high school studies next fall at the University of Toronto.
Young is the second Black Dean of a Canadian law school after Juanita Westmoreland-Traore who broke the barrier at the University of Windsor in 1996.
