On March 20, 2025, the Law Society of Ontario announced that 6 people have been awarded the Law Society Medal for 2025. They include Osgoode Society Editor-in-Chief Jim Phillips. The citation reads:
Professor Jim Phillips: is a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Department of History, and a former law clerk to Madam Justice Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada. He is an intellectual leader who helped transform the field of Canadian legal history from a peripheral sub-field of both law and history to a significant field in both disciplines. His scholarship, especially his two – soon-to-be three – volume History of Law in Canada, written with two colleagues, has transformed the field of legal history in Canada by deepening our understanding of Canada’s legal system. That work meticulously uses the history of law to interrogate Canada’s past, present and national identity within the multi-juridical nature of our country’s legal system, based on common and civil law, as well as Indigenous legal traditions. He has served as editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History since 2006. As editor, he has overseen the publication of more than 60 books, expanded and diversified its oral history program and led seminars for the legal profession and the public.
Professor Phillips is motivated by a deep passion to promote legal history and a selfless desire to serve the legal profession and improve the law. He has been widely recognized for his scholarly contributions to Canadian legal history including the Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal writing and more recently was elected as an honorary fellow of the American Society for Legal History and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
The official announcement can be found here:
https://lso.ca/news-events/
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