Elizabeth Hyde

Like many LLM students, Elizabeth Hyde was looking for a change of direction in her career. “I was moving my practice from more litigation-based to a mediation practice, so I wanted the extra credentials,” she says. She earned those credentials by taking OsgoodePD’s LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Today, the 2013 OsgoodePD grad is the executive director of Mediate393 Inc., a service provider for government-subsidized mediation in the Greater Toronto Area. She is also running her own practice, Riverdale Mediation Ltd.

Her reasons for choosing to study at OsgoodePD were simple: it’s one of the few schools to offer an LLM in ADR, the downtown Toronto campus was close to work and home, and she knew many former students who gave positive feedback on the program.

Adding coursework to the juggling act that comes with a fulltime job and family commitments can, at first, seem overwhelming. “I think people are afraid of going back to school,” she says, admitting that, “the last time I was in school I did my studying in the library, not on a computer.” But speaking with colleagues who’d already taken the OsgoodePD LLM put her at ease. “Everyone I talked to just loved being back in school.”

She counts herself among that number. “It’s nice to challenge yourself after you’ve been doing the same thing for a while. It’s difficult when you’re trying to write the papers and balance everything, but it’s not too overwhelming.”

The program is set up in a series of five, weeklong sessions, with about six weeks off between each course for students to complete a paper. This format definitely appeals to professional students including those from out of town.

Does having an LLM make a difference? Hyde certainly thinks so. “When people see an LLM in ADR, it gives them more confidence that I’m not just another lawyer who says they’re a mediator, but that I actually took it seriously and did the schooling to back it up. I think it was a really good choice.”