Understanding, interpreting and implementing labour and employment law is complex but critical to the needs of the business community, unions, and indeed of the majority of Canadians who are in the workforce. This need is exactly what the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace (CLCW) responds to. The first of its kind in Canada, the Centre opened in November 2010 and was made possible by $185,000 start-up grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario (LFO).
The Centre provides an intellectual home for the Canadian labour and employment law community. Focusing on research, curriculum development, teaching, and outreach, the CLCW trains the next generation of labour and employment law practitioners, researchers, teachers and scholars. It identifies emerging trends and provides a conduit for active knowledge exchange among business, law practitioners, worker representatives, government, researchers, students and faculty.
In March 2012, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, one of Canada’s largest law firms, gave $250,000 to the CLCW, a significant donation kick-starting a larger fundraising campaign. In recognition of this generosity the front entrance to Macdonald Hall, Queen’s Law’s home building, was named “Gowlings Atrium.â€
Professor Kevin Banks (right), CLCW Director, and other expert panelists at a workshop held in Macdonald Hall’s videoconferencing facility.
