Media Releases

New research Chair for investor rights—the first of its kind—to investigate better protections for Canadians

January 27, 2016

Toron­to, ON — Pro­fes­sor Ani­ta Anand, a cor­po­rate law and gov­er­nance expert, is the new J. R. Kim­ber Chair in Investor Pro­tec­tion and Cor­po­rate Gov­er­nance at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law—the first research chair for investor rights in North America—thanks to a gen­er­ous gift from well-known phil­an­thropist, the Hon. Hal Jack­man, LLB 1956, a law school alum­nus, for­mer U of T chan­cel­lor and for­mer lieu­tenant gov­er­nor of Ontario.

The Chair is named after J.R. Kim­ber, author of the foun­da­tion­al Report of the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s Com­mit­tee on Secu­ri­ties Leg­is­la­tion in Ontario (March 1965), which laid the foun­da­tion for Canada’s mod­ern secu­ri­ties reg­u­la­to­ry regime. A chair is the high­est aca­d­e­m­ic hon­our for schol­ars, and allows them to pur­sue research in a high-pri­or­i­ty area.

One of the pur­pos­es of secu­ri­ties reg­u­la­tion is to ensure that investors are pro­tect­ed. Yet, while advances have been made, Canada’s secu­ri­ties reg­u­la­to­ry sys­tem has his­tor­i­cal­ly been crit­i­cized for inef­fec­tive­ly deter­ring finan­cial mar­ket abus­es. Fur­ther­more, tech­no­log­i­cal advances, such as the rise of equi­ty crowd­fund­ing, and high pro­por­tions of trans­ac­tions in the less-reg­u­lat­ed pri­vate mar­kets, have increased oppor­tu­ni­ties for invest­ment fraud

“We can­not and should not under­es­ti­mate the impor­tance of investor pro­tec­tion in today’s cap­i­tal mar­kets,” says Anand. “More than 50 per­cent of Cana­di­ans are invest­ed in our mar­kets out­side a reg­is­tered retire­ment sav­ings or sim­i­lar plan. Ensur­ing that investors are ade­quate­ly pro­tect­ed is fun­da­men­tal to the well-being of our soci­ety.”

Anand’s research exper­tise focus­es on cap­i­tal mar­kets reg­u­la­tion and cor­po­rate gov­er­nance, cap­i­tal-rais­ing tech­niques, and sys­temic risk, as well as legal ethics and the cor­po­ra­tion. Since 2010, Anand has served as the aca­d­e­m­ic direc­tor of the Cen­tre for the Legal Pro­fes­sion, and in this role has led the devel­op­ment of its new Pro­gram on Ethics in Law and Busi­ness. She is cross-appoint­ed to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to’s School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy and Gov­er­nance and in 2015 was appoint­ed by Ontario’s Min­is­ter of Finance to the Expert Com­mit­tee to Con­sid­er Finan­cial Advi­so­ry and Plan­ning Pol­i­cy Alter­na­tives.

“Investor pro­tec­tion is based on an under­stand­ing of the pub­lic inter­est,” explains Anand. “My research focus­es on investor pro­tec­tion includ­ing investors’ rights and reme­dies. Among oth­er things, I plan to inves­ti­gate whether new reme­dies for investors, includ­ing a rem­e­dy where­by investors gain back lost funds, are war­rant­ed giv­en the poten­tial con­tri­bu­tion of these reme­dies to bol­ster­ing con­fi­dence and effi­cien­cy in our mar­kets.”

“I am enor­mous­ly grate­ful to Mr. Jack­man for his remark­able and con­tin­u­ing gen­eros­i­ty to the Fac­ul­ty of Law,” says Dean Edward Iacobuc­ci, “and for his ded­i­ca­tion to the pro­tec­tion of investors that moti­vat­ed this gift. I am delight­ed that Prof. Anand will be the inau­gur­al chairhold­er. Not only is she a reg­u­lar and impor­tant con­trib­u­tor to schol­ar­ship on investor pro­tec­tion and gov­er­nance mat­ters, but also to law and pol­i­cy on the ground.  She will be out­stand­ing in bring­ing her research to bear on legal reform in this area.”

-30-

Read Ani­ta Anand’s bio

Twit­ter: @AnitaAnand2

Con­tact:
Anita.Anand@utoronto.ca
Office: 416–946-4002