Priyanka recently graduated with a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School and is currently working on lands governed by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant. Priyanka strongly believes that survivors of systemic violence are the experts of their own lives and leaders of social movements; accordingly, Priyanka is learning how to use the law to either help or get out of the way. She was a summer student at Cavalluzzo in 2021 and is excited to be back at the firm for articling.
In their final year of law school, Priyanka competed in the Julius Alexander Isaac Moot melding legal doctrine with critical race theory and also conducted research on the application of United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Canadian law. Priyanka also held several positions at Parkdale Community Legal Services, including as a Workers’ Rights caseworker, the summer caseworkers’ union steward, and member of the Board of Directors where they co-chaired the Anti-Discrimination and Personnel Committee of the clinic. At Osgoode, Priyanka was often seen running down Gowlings Hall (or popping into Zoom meetings) from one student meeting to the next, including for: the Journal of Law and Social Policy, TheCourt.ca, Student Caucus, OUTLaws, and Osgoode Hall Law Union. Priyanka received several awards recognizing her contributions to the law school, including the Dean’s Gold Key Award, OWN Osler & Bennet Jones Women Supporting Women Award, Jean-Alexandre De Bousquet Award for the Advancement of Human Rights, and Cassels Brock & Blackwell Prize for Professionalism.
Before law school, Priyanka earned an MA in Criminology & Sociolegal Studies and a BA (Honours) with a specialist in Criminology and major in English from the University of Toronto. At UofT, Priyanka served as the president of their faculty students’ union, teaching assistant for a prison abolition course, and supported labour, anti-colonial, and anti-ableist politics on campus. Outside of work Priyanka sits on the collective Board of Directors at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, is a peer support volunteer with LGBT Youthline, and a legal observing coordinator with the Movement Defense Committee of the Law Union of Ontario. When not in the office, Priyanka can be found zooming down Toronto bike lanes, bouldering, geocaching, doodling, and fiddling around with their twin-lens reflex camera.