Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law
Associate Professor
Education: B.A. (St. Thomas University) 1977; LL.B. (Dalhousie University) 1981; LL.M. (Cambridge) 1985.
Admitted to the New Brunswick Bar in August, 1982 and to the Nova Scotia Bar in February 1983.
Telephone: (902) 494-7115
E-mail: dawn.russell@dal.ca
Biography:
Professor Russell practiced law in Halifax for five years with the Atlantic law firm of Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales before beginning her career as a law teacher in 1987 as an Assistant Professor. She received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 1992. She was the first female Dean of Dalhousie Law School. She served as Acting Dean of Dalhousie Law School from May 1, 1995 to March 31, 1996 and as Dean from April 1, 1996 to June 30, 2005. She was appointed to the Purdy Crawford Chair in Business Law on July 1, 2006.
She has taught in the areas of International Law, Law of the Sea, Corporate Law and Securities law. Her writings have focused on international and comparative oceans law and policy, particularly on topics such as domestic fisheries management, the role of international fisheries organizations, high seas fishing of straddling stocks, and maritime boundary delimitation. She has also written in the fields of Corporate Law and Securities Regulation. She has done international development work throughout Southeast Asia.
Professor Russell was President and a member of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia from 1994 to 2002; Secretary of the Canadian Council of Law Deans from 1997 to 1998, and President from 1998 to 1999; a member of Nova Scotia Bar Council from 1995 to 2005; a member of the Executive Board of the Canadian Council on International Law from 1994 to 2001; a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute of Resources Law from 1999-2005; and a Public Governor of the Canadian Investors Protection Fund from 1998-2006. She served on the National Board of Directors of Lawyers for Social Responsibility for many years and as a member of the National Advisory Board of Lawyers for Social Responsibility from 2000-2005.
She currently chairs the Maritime Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. Professor Russell is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Ocean Yearbook. She has served as a consultant to the Government of Nova Scotia and to the Government of Canada. She reviewed the Nova Scotia Framework for Action on Domestic Violence in 2001; was co-counsel with Yves Fortier, Jean Bertrand, and Phillip Saunders for the Province of Nova Scotia in the Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador Maritime Boundary Arbitration (2001-2002); and served with Art May and Derrick Rowe on a Ministerial Advisory Panel on the Sustainable Management of Straddling Fish Stocks, which was appointed in December 2004 to advise the Canadian Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. In May, 2007 Professor Russell was appointed by the Nova Scotia Minister of Labour and Environment to a three-member Panel to Review the Atlantic Lottery Corporation Ticket Lotteries in Nova Scotia. The Panel delivered its report to the Minister in October, 2007. From 2005-2007 she was a member of the Crawford Panel on a Single Securities Regulator, and in February 2008 was appointed by the Federal Minister of Finance to a seven member Expert Panel to Review Securities Regulation in Canada.
Professor Russell was recognized by the Nova Scotia Association of Women and the Law in November 1999 when she was awarded the Francis Fish Award for Excellence and Leadership in the Legal Profession. She received the designation of Queen’s Council in May, 2001, and was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the legal profession and to the advancement of the law in Canada when was made an Honorary Fellow of the Canadian Bar Law for the Future Fund in April, 2004.
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