Faculty of Law assistant professor Daniel Del Gobbo has been selected as the recipient of the 2024-25 Ontario Bar Association Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Research.

Professor Del Gobbo’s research project, “Towards a Restorative Approach to Legal Ethics in Canada,” explores the possibility of re-orienting legal ethics around restorative justice principles as the foundation of a more public interest-minded approach to the lawyer’s role in Canadian society.

Del Gobbo considers whether restorative justice can offer more than just an alternative path for lawyers in criminal law settings, but instead support a new approach to legal ethics within communities and across systems that can raise the moral consciousness of lawyers, facilitate collaboration, promote social justice, and redefine the role of lawyers as change agents.

His paper “Legal Ethics and the Promotion of Substantive Equality,” published in the Canadian Bar Review, received the 2023 Scholarly Paper Award from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, the 2022 Best Paper Award from the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics, and the 2021-22 OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies.