Media Releases

Norton Rose Fulbright and U of T Law collaborate with Innovation Law Clinic

October 4, 2013

TORONTO, ON — Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law (U of T Law) are pleased to announce their col­lab­o­ra­tion in the Inno­va­tion Law Clin­ic (ILC) at MaRS Dis­cov­ery Dis­trict. The ILC is a unique stu­dent clin­ic ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing high qual­i­ty busi­ness and IP legal ser­vices to start up and ear­ly-stage busi­ness­es. Stu­dents’ work will be super­vised by Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright lawyers, who will pro­vide their Cana­di­an and glob­al exper­tise in all aspects of inno­va­tion law.

The ILC will be staffed by select upper year U of T Law stu­dents with busi­ness and sci­ence back­grounds and an inter­est in entre­pre­neur­ship. Most clin­ic clients will be from sev­er­al sources that are sup­port­ed by Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright’s inno­va­tion prac­tice.

Antho­ny de Fazekas, part­ner at Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright in Toron­to said: “This is how inno­va­tion can hap­pen in Cana­da. Work­ing togeth­er, the aca­d­e­m­ic, pro­fes­sion­al and entre­pre­neur­ial worlds can cre­ate new oppor­tu­ni­ties for all part­ners. The clin­ic reflects how we work with inno­va­tion clients at our firm and how we col­lab­o­rate with oth­er lead­ers in the area.”

Mayo Moran, James Mar­shall Tory Chair and dean at Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law, said: “We are proud to part­ner with Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright and MaRS to bring anoth­er expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing clin­ic to our law stu­dents. Inno­va­tion law is a rapid­ly grow­ing, excit­ing new legal area. Our stu­dents will be engaged in the vibran­cy of the tech world while learn­ing from among the legal lead­ers in the field.”

U of T Law stu­dents will work direct­ly with Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright lawyers in advis­ing and assist­ing start up clients with the busi­ness, IP and employ­ment law issues they face. Stu­dents will expe­ri­ence the unique fea­tures of advis­ing entre­pre­neur­ial clients. Entre­pre­neurs admit­ted to par­tic­i­pate in the ILC will receive high val­ue advice at no cost, as well as access to Nor­ton Rose Fulbright’s con­nec­tions to fund­ing and com­mer­cial­iza­tion part­ners.

Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright senior part­ner Richard Sutin will lead the ILC. Richard is co-chair of the firm’s Cana­di­an clean­tech team and a past mem­ber of the advi­so­ry com­mit­tee to the Ontario Secu­ri­ties Com­mis­sion. For more infor­ma­tion, see U of T Law’s Clin­i­cal Legal Edu­ca­tion Inno­va­tion Law Clin­ic at MaRS: Advis­ing Entre­pre­neurs and Inno­va­tors.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Lucian­na Cic­co­ciop­po, direc­tor, exter­nal rela­tions
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Fac­ul­ty of Law
Tel: +1 416 946 0334
lucianna.ciccocioppo@utoronto.ca

Peter Zvan­i­ta­js, senior pub­lic rela­tions advi­sor
Nor­ton Rose Ful­bright
Tel: +1 416 216 1871; Mob: +1 416 553 5789
peter.zvanitajs@nortonrosefulbright.com