Universities

Paliare Roland has a long history of working in the university sector.

We know universities. We recognize the intricacies involved in acting for a public institution with diverse stakeholders—from university administrators to faculty and staff to students. We help our clients navigate complex issues, often involving balancing varying interests, including academic freedom, free speech on campus, and accommodations. We assist behind the scenes, providing advice on internal policies or counsel to administrators and adjudicators, as well as take on public facing roles, as prosecutor or counsel in litigation, both within a university’s internal process and in court.

We recognize that our work does not exist in silos. Most recently, for example, we acted for a number of universities responding to challenges by students to mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies. These challenges have taken a number of forms, including civil actions (often involving injunctions), judicial reviews, complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and internal appeals. Our expertise is as broad as it is deep. We assemble our teams based on the needs of the client to provide efficient, cost-effective and practical advice.