Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP have announced the appointment of Professor Cynthia Williams to the Osler Chair in Business Law – Osgoode’s first endowed Chair, made possible by a $1 million donation from Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
Right: Cynthia Williams
Williams, currently Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois College of Law where she has worked for the past 12 years, will join Osgoode in July for a two-year period. A world-class expert in securities law and corporate law, with a particular emphasis on corporate social responsibility, Williams’ appointment is the culmination of an exhaustive 18-month international search.
Osler’s $1 million donation – the largest gift to date that Osgoode has received from a law firm – will be supplemented by matching income from York University and the law school, creating a $2 million endowment for scholarship and teaching in business law.
"As the Osler Chair, Professor Williams will help to enhance our considerable faculty strength in business law and prepare our students for leadership and service in the legal profession, in business, and in a wide variety of other occupations," said Osgoode Dean Patrick Monahan.
Williams, who has a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from New York University School of Law, has been a visiting professor at Fordham University School of Law, a visiting associate professor and Research Fellow at the Georgetown-Sloan Project on Business Institutions at Georgetown University Law Center, and a visiting research Fellow at the University of Cambridge Centre for Business Research. At the University of Illinois, she was a Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Cultural Values & Ethics.
"I am honoured to be asked to join the Osgoode Hall Law School faculty, which is extremely well-regarded for the quality of its scholarship, teaching and public engagement," Williams said. "I look forward to having my own scholarship on comparative corporate governance and new forms of global regulation enriched by my association with colleagues at Osgoode."