About
Professor Adam Dodek is a Full Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). He has taught Public Law, Constitutional Law, Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility, Torts, and a seminar on the Supreme Court of Canada. He served as Vice Dean Research from 2012 - 2014 and as Dean of the Common Law Section from 2018 - June 2021.
Professor Dodek is the author of more than 50 academic articles and book chapters. He has authored or co-edited ten books in his areas of research interest: public law, the legal profession, the judiciary and legal ethics.
His book The Canadian Constitution (Dundurn) was named by The Hill Times as one of the Best 100 Books in Politics, Public Policy and History of 2013. A French version of the book was published as La Constitution Canadienne (Dundurn, 2019) with Professor Yan Campagnolo.
Professor Dodek recently completed a SSHRC-funded project studying the rise and fall of the Heenan Blaikie law firm, published by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and UBC Press in October 2024.
Professor Dodek's Solicitor-Client Privilege (2014) won the Walter Owen Book Prize in 2015. His book The Charter Debates: The Special Joint Committee on the Constitution, 1980-81 and the Making of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was published by U of T Press in 2018.
Dodek co-edited Regulating Judges: Beyond Independence and Accountability (Edward Elgar, 2017) (with Richard Devlin); In Search of the Ethical Lawyer: Stories from the Canadian Legal Profession (UBC Press, 2016); Public Law at the McLachlin Court: The First Decade (Irwin Law, 2011) (with David A. Wright); Judicial Independence in Context (Irwin Law, 2010) (with Lorne Sossin); and The Sacred Fire: The Legacy of Chief Justice Antonio Lamer / Le feu sacré: l’héritage d’Antonio Lamer, juge en chef du Canada (with Daniel Jutras).
Professor Dodek has received several honours including the Canadian Association of Law Teachers’ Prize for Academic Excellence (2018); the Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal Writing (2017); the Walter Owen Book Prize (2015); and the Law Society of Ontario’s Law Society Medal (2015). In 2014, Canadian Lawyer named Dodek as one of Canada’s Most Influential Lawyers and in 2012 Professor Dodek was awarded the Capital Educators Award as one of the top teachers in Ottawa.
Professor Dodek graduated from McGill University and Harvard Law School and then received a Fulbright Scholarship to research Israeli constitutional law while clerking for the Supreme Court of Israel. After being called to the bar in California, Professor Dodek practiced law in San Francisco and then clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena, California.
Professor Dodek returned to Canada and clerked for Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada. After being called to the bar in Ontario, he joined the Public Law Working Group in Borden Ladner Gervais LLP's Toronto office where he practiced until the fall of 2003. At that time, he joined the staff of Ontario's Attorney General, first as Senior Policy Adviser and then as Director of Policy and from 2005-06 as Chief of Staff. He received his LLM from the University of Toronto.
He is a member of CanLII’s Board of Directors.
Dodek previously served as a governor of the Law Commission of Ontario, a member of the Advisory Committee to the Office of the Public Service Integrity Commissioner of Canada, a trustee of the Ontario Bar Foundation and a Commissioner on the Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression.
For Professor Dodek's research, visit his SSRN page.
