For Camille Cameron, the opportunity to become the Schulich School of Law’s dean was attractive for several reasons. “It’s an excellent law school in a great city that I consider home,” she says.
Dean Cameron officially assumed her duties on September 1, just one day after moving from Ontario, where she had been Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor.
Born in Cape Breton, Dean Cameron earned an LLB from the University of New Brunswick and an LLM from the University of Cambridge. But she’s no stranger to the Schulich School of Law. Before moving to academia, she was a practicing lawyer at Stewart McKelvey in Halifax from 1982 to 1992, and during that time she taught civil trial practice and gave guest lectures on negotiation at the law school.
Dean Cameron is the sixteenth dean of the law school and the third woman to serve in the position, following Kim Brooks (2010–2015) and Dawn Russell (1996–2005). She brings more than two decades of international consulting and advisory experience to Schulich, including on World Bank, Australian Agency for International Development, and Asian Development Bank projects in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Her research interests include administration of and access to civil justice, dispute resolution and class actions.
The road ahead
Prior to her deanship at the University of Windsor, Dean Cameron held numerous appointments at the University of Melbourne (including Director of the Civil Justice Research Group and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies) and at the City University of Hong Kong. “What can I say?” she laughs. “I’ve been around.”
Dean Cameron is excited about developing a vision for the road ahead. “Schulich Law is Canada’s most national law school,” she says. “I want to build on the school’s strengths and promote the excellent research that is being done here in ways that attract the attention of various audiences, including potential students and faculty, policy-makers and decision-makers.”
“Offering a first-class education is at the heart of what we do,” Dean Cameron continues. “With changes in the way that legal services are being delivered, and with pressing access to justice concerns, legal educators have to ensure that they are teaching and preparing students for the future.” She is looking forward to embracing that challenge and opportunity with her colleagues.
Dean Cameron is also looking forward to returning to Halifax’s legal community, albeit in a new capacity. “In my 10 years of practice here I made a lot of great friends and connections,” she says. “It will be great to renew those in person again. That’s another nice part of the job that I’m really looking forward to.”