Your Community Legal Clinic

 

Our Executive Director

Michele Leering

Michele is the Executive Director and also provides services to clients (her specialties have been workers' compensation, social assistance and more recently criminal injuries compensation). She also does community development and law reform work. In the past, she chaired the Belleville Task Force on Hunger and was involved in several anti-poverty organizing initiatives. More recently, she was a founding member of the Affordable Housing Action Network (AHAN). She has been the author/editor of several publications including Surviving the Nineties: The Guide to Living In a Low Income in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, Beyond Band-aids: A Community Response to Homelessness, and Community Legal Needs Assessment: Examining the Need for Access to Justice for Low-Income Residents of Lennox & Addington County. In 2009 she was awarded a Community Leadership and Justice Fellowship from the Law Foundation of Ontario and sojourned at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.  She has been employed by the clinic for more than 20 years.  She received both her law and political science degrees from the University of Western Ontario. She was called to the Bar in 1985.

Our Lawyers

Gina Cockburn

Called to the bar in 1990, Gina worked in private practice, primarily in family law, until 2001 when she joined the clinic staff.  She was the Children's Lawyer for five years while in private practice.  Her focus in clinic work is social assistance and housing law.  She is the supervising lawyer of our housing team and is also the Chair of the Three Oaks Foundation Board of Directors.

David Little  (currently on temporary leave of absence from the clinic)

 

David was raised in Waterloo and obtained his bachelor's degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and his law degree from the University of Western Ontario.  He practiced commercial law in Toronto before coming to the Belleville area about 20 years ago.  He has been at the clinic for about 12 years, where most of his practice has been in the area of employment rights, especially workers' compensation.  He teaches social welfare and employment law courses at Loyalist College and is a frequent presenter at legal clinic conferences.

Samantha Hayward

Samantha was called to the bar in 2008.  She graduated from York University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2003 and obtained her law degree from Queen's University in 2007.  Samantha previously worked as a summer student in our clinic in 2006-2007.  Her current work at the clinic focuses on the area of housing and ODSP appeals.  Prior to joining the clinic in 2009, Samantha worked in private practice, mainly in the area of family law.

Deirdre McDade

Deirdre obtained both her honours degree in Political science and her law degree from Queens University. Called to the bar in 1995, Deirdre was in private practice doing litigation until she joined the clinic in September 1999.  Her work at the clinic focuses on social assistance cases, human rights and Criminal Injuries Compensation Board appeals.  She is active in the movement to end violence against women.  She is a past Board member of the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre in Kingston (1987-1996), a past Board member of 3 Oaks Shelter for Abused Women (1996-2000), a former volunteer coordinator at the SACQD (1991-1993), and a former member of the Quinte Coordinating Committee against Violence (2001-2005) and the Dedicated Domestic Violence Court (2003-2004).

Jessica Michael

Jessica joined us in 2004, working primarily in the area of housing law.  Her clinic work currently focuses on employment law, human rights, workers compensation and CPP disability.  She received her law degree from Dalhousie University.  She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2004.

John No

John obtained his honours degree in Sociology and Political Science from Queen's University and his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School. From 2005-2006, he worked in the Workers' Rights Division at Parkdale Community Legal Services. He then articled at United Steelworkers, where he practiced labour law. John is also an active member and volunteer of the Workers' Action Centre, a worker-based organization committed to improving the working conditions of people in low-wage and unstable employment. John joined our clinic in 2008 and his work at the clinic focuses on employment law, human rights, and social assistance.

Victoria Watts

Victoria Watts was called to the Bar in 2002. She articled and practiced in the areas of union/labour law, human rights and employment law at a private law firm in Ottawa before coming to the clinic in August 2006. While at law school, she worked as a caseworker in the women’s division at the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic, and was a summer law student at our clinic (1998 & 1999). Victoria provides legal advice and representation primarily in the areas of social assistance, WSIB and housing law.