Faculty of Law

The Architecture of Impact

Message from the Dean

  • a man in a blue suit jacket stands arms crossed in front of a concrete wall

  • The Faculty of Law’s 2026–2029 Strategic Map, MomentUM: The Architecture of Impact, presents a clear vision of Robson Hall as a connected legal ecosystem in which education, research, professional practice, and community engagement strengthen one another. It reflects our conviction that a law faculty must do more than transmit legal knowledge. We must create knowledge that responds to pressing legal and social challenges, prepare students to use that knowledge with skill and judgment, and work alongside communities and partners to translate ideas into meaningful change. The map therefore captures both who we are today and the direction in which we intend to move together.

Our strategy is organized around three mutually reinforcing pillars: creating knowledge that matters, empowering learners, and reimagining engagement. Faculty research informs teaching and professional practice; experiential learning places students in clinics, courts, community organizations, competitions, and public-facing projects; and those experiences generate new questions for scholarship, policy development, and law reform. This continuous cycle is supported by our scholarly publications, research hubs, clinical programs, judicial and community partnerships, alumni networks, and expanding capacity for rapid and accessible knowledge mobilization. The result is an integrated legal education that connects the classroom to the courthouse, the academy to the profession, and Robson Hall to the communities we serve.

Reconciliation, access to justice, equity, and public service are woven throughout this work rather than treated as separate initiatives. Guided by Indigenous knowledges, the principles of Wahkohtowin, and sustained relationships with Indigenous communities, the Strategic Map commits us to structural and lasting change in our governance, curriculum, physical spaces, research, and clinical programming. It also calls us to deepen our engagement with rural, northern, Francophone, newcomer, and justice-involved communities while preparing our students to lead in a rapidly changing legal landscape. Through MomentUM, we affirm that the Faculty of Law is not simply observing changes in law and society. We are building the relationships, knowledge, and institutional capacity needed to help shape them.

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MomentUM: The connected legal ecosystem

  • Lisa Griffin talking students through their options in the Career Development Office.

  • Welcome to MomentUM: The Connected Legal Ecosystem, an Impact Report and Ecosystem Showcase demonstrating how the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law transforms traditional education into a continuous cycle of knowledge, practice, and community engagement.

Three pillars of systemic legal impact

Creating knowledge that matters

Generating solutions through diverse disciplines, Indigenous knowledges, and rapid mobilization.

Reimagining engagement

Advancing reconciliation and bridging the campus-community divide alongside external partners.

Empowering learners

Translating theory into practice through innovative clinics and community-informed course delivery.

Research informs Practice. Practice drives Engagement. Engagement inspires Research.

Deploying knowledge through a multi-tiered publishing network

Mobilizing expertise via live exchange and structural reform

Academic and Graduate Forums

  • Master of Human Rights (MHR) Symposium – students present to NGOs
  • Conference of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Indigenous Inaakonigewin

Rapid Professional Exchange

  • MBA Robson Hall Lightning Rounds – evening mobilization with lawyers and faculty
  • Judicial Lunch and Learns and Pitblado Lectures

Funded Institutional Reform

  • Legal Research Institute – Leveraging MB Law Foundation funding for JD student research
  • MB Law Reform Commission – Utilizing Faculty expertise for provincial legislative reform

An ecosystem of clinical practice

  • two law students meeting with an advisor to discuss opportunities within the law school.

  • Indigenous and northern communities

    Office of the Director of Indigenous Legal Learning and Services overseeing the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic.

    Innovation and enterprise

    Manitoba Legal Clinic for the Arts (protecting emerging creators) and the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic (advising start ups and family-owned businesses)

    Justice-involved and human rights

    Prison Law Clinic at Robson Hall (advocacy and litigation to address prisoners' conditions of confinement) and the Rights Clinic (human rights think tank)

    Public and family welfare

    University of Manitoba Community Law Centre (partnering with Legal Aid for criminal, family and prison matters), UM Law Library Hub (assistance for civil/family law), and the Legal Help Centre of Manitoba.

Classrom-to-Courthouse experiential pipeline

Deep immersion and systems navigation

  • Dr. Amar Khoday teaching in the Moot Courtroom

  • Piece 1: Judicial Proximity

    Court Externship Programs
    (Court of Appeal, King's Bench, Provincial). Students work directly with judges on legal research and writing to support judicial decision-making at the Courthouse.

    Piece 2: Agency Embeddedness

    Field Placement Programs
    Deep policy work within organizations like Manitoba Justice, Public Interest Law Centre, and LEAF.

    Piece 3: Modern Knowledge Translation

    Podcasting Program
    Students translate complex legal seminars into public information via production, screenwriting, and broadcasting.

Physical and structural reconciliation footprint

1. Governance Centre: Truth and Reconciliation Action Team (TRAT)

TRAT (made up of community members and chaired by DILLS) advises on Faculty governance, curriculum and admissions. Elder opens community events, orientation and consults with Dean and leaders and DILLS.

2. Cultural Centre: Elder in Residence Programme 

Opening events, orientation, and Dean consultations.

3. Student Space: MILSA Office Allocation

Permanent physical space granted to the executive.

4. Visual IP Architecture: Turtle Island Mural Project

Sacred turtle mural serving as a structural catalyst to redraft central counsel IP contracts respecting Indigenous creators.

The integrated law experience

Themes do not exist in isolation. They are interwoven threads.

  • Students attending the Indigenous People and the Criminal Justice System workshop

  • The Wâhkohtowin Thread

    • Knowledge: We research Indigenous Economic Reconciliation.
    • Learners: Students apply this in the Indigenous Rights Clinic.
    • Engagement: Governed continuously by TRAT and the Elder in Residence.
    • Result: A comprehensive sturctural approach to changing the legal landscape.

Bridging campus and community infrastructures

The MomentUM flywheel in action: A case study in Reconciliation

  • Creating Knowledge

    The Genesis

    The Professorship of Indigenous Economic Reconcilation leverages UNDRIP to develop research-based change.

  • Empowering Learners

    The Application

    Scholarly foundation directly informs the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic, where JD students train in these novel frameworks.

  • Reimagining Engagement

    The Impact

    Trained students are deployed via the Vickar and Arts Clinic to provide direct, on-the-ground public legal education.

UM Law does not silo its excellence.
Research is forged into curriculum, which is immediately deployed as community service.

Conclusion The engine of societal change

The Faculty of Law is more than a centre of academic excellence; it is an active architecture of impact. By transforming profound knowledge into empowered advocacy, we are not just observing the legal landscape – we are actively rebuilding it.