Michael Pal

Michael Pal has recently obtained his SJD at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, where he was a SSHRC Canada graduate scholar and an instructor in the legal research and writing program. Since August 2014, he is assistant professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. Mike is originally from Moncton, New Brunswick.

Michael Pal holds degrees in political science from Queen's University (BA) and the University of Toronto (MA), and law degrees from the University of Toronto (JD) and New York University's Law School (LLM- legal theory). He is called to the Bar of Ontario. He previously clerked at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and worked in a national law firm in Toronto.

Michael's main area of research is the comparative law of democracy, including electoral boundaries, campaign finance, political speech, party funding, election administration and the right to vote. He was recently invited to appear as an expert witness before the House of Commons and Senate Committees studying the Fair Representation Act, which added more seats to the House of Commons. He has worked with Elections Canada to assist the 2012 federal electoral boundary commissioners tasked with redrawing the federal electoral map.

Pal has published in the McGill Law Journal, IRPP's Choices, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review. He co-authored a research report for the Mowat Centre's Employment Insurance Task Force, among others. He is a past board member of the South Asian Legal Aid Clinic of Ontario, was president of the University of Toronto Students' Law Society, and was senior editor of the Faculty of Law Review. He has worked as a policy advisor in federal and provincial politics.