Windsor Law mourns the passing of Professor George Stewart on May 17, 2024.
Professor Stewart was a beloved Professor, colleague, friend, and mentor who co-created the Windsor Law Dual JD program, and the Community Legal Aid program, and played key leadership roles throughout his time at Windsor Law. To declare that Professor Stewart has been instrumental in the evolution of Windsor Law would be an understatement.
Professor George Stewart, who joined the faculty in 1970, facilitated the original Legal Aid Society, served as both Assistant and Associate Dean and helped coordinate cross-border initiatives including the Dual Juris Doctor Program and the Intellectual Property Law Institute (IPLI). He was instrumental in the formation of the school’s clinical program, arguably the most vivid embodiment of Windsor Law’s access to justice mandate. Initially conceived in 1969, when it was called the Student Defender Programme, the Student Legal Aid Society (later renamed Community Legal Aid) allowed volunteer students to offer legal services to the university and community at large while gaining practical training. By 1973, Student Legal Aid was handling 1200 cases a year. Windsor wasn’t the first to include such programming—it had already emerged in American law schools—but it was among the first in Canada.
Additionally, the Canadian and American Dual JD Program, originally known as the Joint JD/LLB, was a North American first when it launched in 1982. Yet, the program dissolved in the 1990s because it did not comply with new American Bar Association rules. Despite the involvement by the Canadian Consulate in Detroit, and a trip to Washington to lobby the ABA by a team of Windsor Law professors, the program was shut down. Students who had already graduated were grandfathered in, but if the Windsor-Detroit collaboration was to continue, it needed a major overhaul. The cross-border experience was soon upgraded by professors George Stewart, Brian Mazer, Neil Gold and Leon Lysaght. In 2001, the program relaunched, featuring a new slogan— “Three Years. Two Degrees. One Distinctive Program.”— and a new name, the Canadian and American Dual JD Program.
Professor Stewart will be dearly missed by his colleagues, alumni, friends, and family
If you would like to make a donation to the Stewart & Lysaght Scholars Award in memory of Professor Stewart, please contact Val Kuri at lawalumni@uwindsor.ca.
The Stewart & Lysaght Scholars Award, named in honor of the co-founders of the Dual JD Program—Professor George Stewart of University of Windsor Faculty of Law and Professor Leon Lysaght of University of Detroit Mercy School of Law—financially supports exceptional Dual JD students each year.
https://windsorstar.remembering.ca/obituary/george-stewart-1089812542