About Our Students

Emma Bolf has completed her second year of law school at Osgoode Hall Law School.

As an aspiring labour and employment lawyer, Emma wants to build a career advocating for workers’ rights while pushing for progressive policy changes. Prior to law school, she worked in a variety of settings, including the service industry, retail, film, and theatre production. There she experienced first-hand the safety and financial vulnerability workers can experience due to the inherent power differential in an employment relationship. She has also seen these power dynamics shift for individuals and communities with representation and community organizing.

Prior to working at Cavalluzzo LLP, Emma also worked at Unified LLP within their labour practice, assisting with legal research, document drafting, and administrative support for labour arbitrations and disciplinary hearings in the education sector.

While at Osgoode, Emma completed the Feminist Advocacy Clinical Program with a placement at the Barbara Schlifer Commemorative Clinic. There, she contributed to providing legal support to survivors of gender-based violence through a trauma-informed anti-oppressive approach to providing legal support. Emma is interested in the intersection between labour and feminist issues, and has worked with sex-worker lead support networks to understand the impact of by-law enforcement and federal criminal legislation on the lives of sex workers. During her first year of law school, Emma worked with the Fair Change Community Clinic, a student-run community clinic that assists street-involved people with appealing provincial offence tickets. Emma was also a Dean’s Fellow in Contract Law, supporting students in their first year of legal studies.

Following her summer term at Cavalluzzo LLP, Emma looks forward to further developing her experience supporting workers as a caseworker with Parkdale Community Legal Services in the Workers’ Rights division.

Ali is entering his third year at Osgoode Hall Law School. His interest in the law spans across various areas including Indigenous rights, labour and employment, human rights, class action litigation, technology, constitutional, and international law. What unifies these interests is Ali's passion for justice in all its forms and a steadfast commitment to advance its cause.

Ali is a proud alumnus of the Parkdale Community Legal Services student program, where he served as a caseworker in the Workers' Rights division. Ali has developed his advocacy skills through mooting, including as a member of the Tort Law Moot team during his second year, where he received the award for best factum. In the summer of 2021, Ali worked with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association where he helped produce a nationwide report on vaccine passports and conducted research on the civil liberties implications of regulating social media. Ali has written blog posts about the intrusive state of modern surveillance and algorithmic management in the workplace in Osgoode's Online Journal of Law and Technology, Ipilogue. He hosts a legal podcast, is an editor of the Transnational Legal Theory Journal, and has volunteered with the FCJ Refugee Centre.

Prior to law school, Ali obtained his BA and MA in philosophy at the University of Toronto and University of Alberta, respectively. He wrote his master’s thesis on the limits of prevalent recognition theories and human rights discourses.

Clémence is a JD candidate at the University of Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin territory. Clémence is pursuing a combined bachelor’s degree in political science alongside her JD in common law, and previous work in political spheres and grassroots initiatives underlies their approach to legal issues. This background informs a broad perspective on advocacy and drives a belief that every legal issue engages socio-legal factors that require the same care and attention as their strictly legal counterparts.

Clémence is committed to a critical legal framework that centers communities in her work and is a dedicated learner of trauma-informed lawyering. Their personal experiences further deepen their interest when examining how the law, legal institutions, and legal discourse can influence, shape, and oppress communities. Clémence recently presented a paper on this topic, Beyond Linguistic Binaries: Queering Linguistic Minority Rights, at the Ottawa Law Review’s inaugural Emilio Binavince Colloquium. Her experience as an intern for LEAF, in particular, has highlighted the importance of collaborative community consultation when engaging in substantive equality litigation.

Various clinic experiences have strengthened Clémence’s commitment to an anti-capitalist, decolonial, and intersectional praxis, including her time as a caseworker at the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic’s Tenant Division, as a volunteer with the Capital Rainbow Refuge, and as a human rights intern with the Equality Law Clinic. In this last role, Clémence worked alongside the Atikamekw community of Manawan, contributed to a factum in the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society case against the federal government, and researched issues relating to the intersections of disability and climate change.

Newsha is a JD candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School and is living, working, and learning on Dish With One Spoon Territory. Newsha earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and embarked on a career in executive search for five years before pursuing her legal education. This work afforded Newsha a unique perspective into the ways in which governance structures, manifestations of capitalism, and other vectors of power impact the systemic and everyday experiences of working people. Newsha's personal experiences as an immigrant from a working-class family inform a deep commitment to learning, unlearning, and social advocacy through a reflective decolonial, anti-oppressive, and feminist praxis. Newsha recently completed a placement within the Workers' Rights division at the Parkdale Community Legal Services and is currently serving a one-year term on the clinic's Board of Directors.

Newsha has held a number of research assistant positions in the areas of labour and employment law, human rights, and Indigenous legal orders and governance. She is currently conducting research and writing for a joint project of the Law Society of Ontario, the Indigenous Bar Association, and the Advocates' Society: The Guide for Lawyers Working with Indigenous Peoples, which is a publication for lawyers and others in the justice system to learn about Indigenous cultures and understand the interplay between Indigenous legal orders and the Canadian legal system. Beyond her academic pursuits, Newsha is a Planning Committee Co-Chair for Homeless Connect Toronto, a volunteer-run charity supporting people across the GTA in ending homelessness in their lives.