The Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) and Osgoode Hall Law School are pleased to announce that Dr. Jake Okechukwu Effoduh will be the inaugural fellow of the Raj Anand LCO Access to Justice Research Fellowship.
The LCO received many strong applications for the Fellowship and thanks everyone who submitted a proposal. We were encouraged by the breadth of ideas and research addressing important and emerging access to justice issues in Ontario.
Dr. Effoduh brings extensive research, teaching and community-engaged experience at the intersection of artificial intelligence, law and access to justice. His work includes Black Futures by Design, a national initiative examining AI regulation through a Black racial justice lens, and an ongoing research and teaching program focused on what he describes as “technological access to justice.”
During the Fellowship, Dr. Effoduh will develop A Draft Ontario Algorithmic Accountability Framework for Administrative Justice. His research will examine access to justice and algorithmic accountability in Ontario’s administrative justice system, with particular attention to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Landlord and Tenant Board, and Social Benefits Tribunal.
The project will develop practical guidance for the transparent, fair, accountable, accessible and rights-respecting use of algorithmic, automated, data-driven and digital decision-support systems that may affect access to justice. The work will be grounded in the experiences of people who interact with these tribunals, particularly those most likely to experience the consequences of poorly governed technology.
Dr. Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is an Osgoode Hall Law School alumnus, having received his LLM in 2018 and his PhD in 2026. His research focuses on the intersection of technology, human rights, racial justice and access to justice.
We congratulate Dr. Effoduh on his appointment and look forward to sharing his research through the Fellowship.