DLS50

The family unit

Nexus/Spring 2022
by Michael McKiernan

Six years on from her law school graduation, Faria Soutter (JD 2016) feels like she has never really left the Downtown Legal Services (DLS) family division.

The family lawyer, who practises with Toronto firm Beaton Burke Young LLP, is transported back to the Fasken Building at 655 Spadina Ave. every time she starts a family case in court on behalf of a client.

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Advocating for workers’ rights

Nexus/Spring 2022
by Paul Fraumeni

When Sukhmani Virdi (JD 2020) was a student in the Employment Law program at the Faculty of Law’s Downtown Legal Services (DLS), she learned a lot. But there was one lesson that really struck home.

A DLS client disclosed to Virdi that she was a survivor of sexual violence. She had filed charges and participated in the legal proceedings against the accused. When he was found not guilty, the woman told Virdi she had felt the legal system had not supported her. She felt extremely let down.

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A collaborative pursuit of justice

Nexus/Spring 2022

Fifty years ago, a group of idealistic students organized to provide desperately needed legal services to impoverished Torontonians. Their courageous work laid the foundation for what has grown to become Downtown Legal Services (DLS), the Faculty of Law’s leading public interest clinic for low-income clients. That original spirit of improving access to justice carries on with the students who step into DLS today.

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