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The Schulich School of Law welcomes Leanna Katz as a Schulich Fellow for the 2025-2026 academic year. She will be teaching Contracts and Judicial Decision-Making.

Schulich Fellows contribute to teaching in the JD program, advancing their research, and participating in the intellectual life of the law school in a way that supports their development as scholars and teachers.

Her research connects social welfare and financial laws. As a doctoral candidate at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, her thesis analyzes welfare state transformation, especially the role of investment firms as owners and investors in social services. 

Tell us about your academic and legal background.

I am joining the Schulich School of Law as I complete my doctorate in law at McGill, where I also served as the founding director of the Transnational Justice Clinic. Before that, I earned my LLM at Harvard Law School, my JD at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, and my Bachelor of Arts and Science at McMaster University.

I practiced law for several years prior to my doctorate, clerking at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as litigating at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.

Bringing together my background in commercial law and social welfare law, which are typically treated as separate domains in private and public law, my thesis examines welfare state transformation, specifically the growth of investment firms as owners and investors in healthcare, childcare, education and other social services. I am interested in how social welfare laws constitute markets for these services. My research also proposes ideas to adapt financial regulation to support the aims of the welfare state.

What appealed to you about doing an academic teaching Fellowship at the Schulich School of Law?

I am excited to teach. I love being in the classroom and am looking forward to guiding students through learning about judicial reasoning and the common law of contracts. 

The academic community at the Schulich School of Law seems particularly warm and lively. I have been impressed by colleagues’ and students' obvious respect and care for one another, and I am motivated to contribute to this learning community. 

I am also drawn to Schulich Law’s commitment to the Weldon Tradition of unselfish public service, which resonates with my path and goals. Wherever one aspires to go with one’s law degree, I firmly believe we have opportunities and responsibilities to serve the communities we are a part of. Given the complex environmental, technological, and societal challenges we face, the law school confronts a tall order in identifying what ideas and approaches will meet these challenges. Both inside and outside of the classroom, I believe the commitment to public service at Schulich Law can help people come together and respond to such problems.

What will you be working on while you’re here?

I am currently finishing my thesis, which examines social and financial laws that have created conditions for the rise of investment financing in social services. The project began because I was interested in the Canadian government’s increased funding for childcare and the legal and regulatory framework around the use of these public dollars.

In a series of articles, I ask questions such as: How does social program design influence investor participation? What are the consequences of closely regulated public sector pension funds as major investors in private social services, as in Canada? Why have principles more familiar to financial regulation, such as transparency and non-dominance, become part of the social welfare regulatory framework? In the longer-term, I am interested in a book-length project on the themes of finance in the welfare state.

I am also keen to participate in the ÑÇÖÞ91ÊÓƵ Health Justice Institute, where scholars work on emerging issues in health law that intersect with my research. The conversations I have already had with professors and students about these topics have been a great way to start the academic year.