Practice

Roderick Macdonald is F.R. Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at McGill University, where he was Dean of Law (1984-1989).  In November 2008 he was elected President of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) -- the first law professor ever so honoured -- for the term 2009-2011.  Since 2002 he has been a member of the Canadian delegation to Working Group VI (secured transactions) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.  He was a co-editor of that Working Group's Legislative Guide to Secured Transactions (2008).  In 2003-2004, as a consultant to the World Bank, he assisted in the drafting of the Ukraine Law on Creditors Rights and Encumbrances on Property.  He has published 5 books and over 200 articles in English and French, notably in secured transactions, and administrative and constitutional law.

Professional Involvement

He has been involved in several public-interest projects over the years.  He was co-Director of the Community Law Programme at the University of Windsor (1976-1979), chaired the Task Force on Access to Justice for the Ministre de la justice du Qubec (1989-1991), served as Director of the Law and Society Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1989-1994), was a consultant with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991), participated in the Ontario Civil Justice Review (1995), and chaired the Task Force of the Quebec Ministre de la justice on ant-SLAPP legislation, the key recommendations of which were enacted in 2009.   He served as consultant to both the Ontario Law Reform Commission and the Law Reform Commission of Canada and was founding President of the Law Commission of Canada (1997-2000).

Professional Affiliation and Recognition

He is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada (1977) and the Barreau du Québec (1983).  He was elected a member of the RSC in 1996, and was named a Fellow of the Pierre Trudeau Foundation in 2004.  In April 2007, Professor Macdonald was awarded a Killam Prize, Canada's most distinguished annual award for outstanding career achievement in research. In September 2007, he was honoured with the University of Ottawa Section de droit civil's Ordre du mrite and in November 2007 was awarded the Sir William Dawson Medal for the Social Sciences by the RSC.

Education

Mr. Macdonald is a graduate of York University (B.A. 1969), Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B. 1972), the Civil Law Faculty of the University of Ottawa (LL.L. 1974) and the University of Toronto (LL.M. 1975).