Patrick Monahan is the Vice-President, Academic and Provost of York University and an affiliated scholar with the firm. He advises clients of the firm in corporate commercial transactions and litigation matters, particularly those with a constitutional or public law aspect.

Patrick served as a law clerk to the Right Hon. R.G.B. Dickson, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, from 1980-1981. He joined the Faculty of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1982. During a leave of absence from the Faculty of Law from 1986-1990, he served as a senior policy advisor in the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General and in the Ontario Premier's Office. He was appointed Dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in 2003. He has been invited to present evidence as an expert witness before numerous Parliamentary Committees as well as before legislative committees in a number of provinces. He has also been retained as legal advisor by the federal and provincial governments, by a number of federal Royal Commissions, by the Law Society of Upper Canada and by the Auditor General of Canada. He has also appeared as counsel in numerous public law cases at all levels of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

As an affiliated scholar with the firm since 1993, Patrick has provided advice to clients of the firm in relation to a wide variety of public law-related issues arising in the context of litigation matters and commercial transactions. Presently, his practice is focused primarily on constitutional and Crown liability issues, the regulation of pensions and employee benefits, the restructuring of Ontario's electricity sector and the regulation of gaming activities.

Articles and Publications

Patrick is the author or co-author of numerous books, reports and articles, including: Constitutional Law (2nd edition, 2002); Liability of the Crown (3rd edition, 2000) (with Peter W. Hogg); Meech Lake: The Inside Story (1991); Storming the Pink Palace: The NDP in Power - A Cautionary Tale (1995); Cooler Heads Shall Prevail: Assessing the Costs and the Consequences of Quebec Separation (1995); and "Is the Pearson Airport Legislation Unconstitutional? The Rule of Law as a Limit on Contract Repudiation by Government", 33 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 411 (1996).

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