Adam Schenk
Professor Schenk was called to the Bar of Ontario in 2016 after graduating with his Juris Doctor degree as part of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law’s inaugural cohort. He previously received an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Lakehead University, double-majoring in History and Political Science. In 2023, Adam completed his LLM at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, specializing in administrative, criminal, and constitutional law.
Prior to transitioning to teaching and academia, Adam practiced law in Thunder Bay with Atwood Labine LLP, focusing on family law and civil litigation.
Adam began teaching courses for Lakehead’s Department of Political Science beginning in 2018, and has been an External Adjunct Professor of that department since 2020. Adam designed and taught a wide range of political science courses, with a particular focus on areas of overlap between law and politics. Courses taught for the Department of Political Science included Introduction to Law, Human Rights and Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Mass Media and Politics, Religion and the Law, Canadian Constitutional Politics, Canadian Political Thought, Freedom and the Law, and Public Policy and the Law.
Adam also taught Tort Law for the Faculty of Law in 2024/2025.
Adam’s research interests span a wide range of topics, with previous publications exploring issues pertaining to administrative, constitutional, and criminal law issues (see select publications below). Adam is keenly interested in the relationship between religion and the law and sports and the law. Research that is planned or in progress includes an exploration of the past, present, and possible future of the law of negligence in the recreational sports context and a review of the law pertaining to courtroom demonstrations in Canada.
Select Publications:
“Determining Indigenous Identity for the Purposes of Gladue Sentencing Considerations” (2024) 6:1 LLJ 1.
https://llj.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/1838
“Ward By the Numbers: Application of the Seminal Decision on Charter Damages” (2024) 45 NJCL 55.
"Insulated from Justice? Religious Expulsion Before Canadian Courts in the post-Highwood Era" (2021) 44:2 Dal LJ 585.