From: Trevor Young, Vice-President and Provost  
Date: January 14, 2026 
Re: Appointment of Professor Christopher Essert as Dean, Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law (PDAD&C #21) 

I am delighted to announce that the Agenda Committee of Academic Board has approved the appointment of Professor Christopher Essert as Dean, Henry N.R. Jackman Faculty of Law from February 1, 2026 to December 31, 2030, after an extensive international search.  

Christopher Essert is a Professor whose research focuses on private law, property and tort theory, and legal and political philosophy. Professor Essert received his BA from McGill University, his JD from the University of Toronto, and his LLM and JSD from Yale Law School.  

An innovative scholar, Professor Essert joined the University of Toronto in 2018. Prior to that he was at the Queen’s University Faculty of Law. At the University of Toronto, he served as the Associate Dean, JD Program from 2020 to 2025.  He also served as a Visiting Academic at Auckland Law School (2024) and a Visiting Professor at UCLA School of Law (2017). 

As a sought-after NSERC and SSHRC funded researcher, Professor Essert is the author of over thirty articles, editor of two different collections, co-author of the main Canadian textbook in tort law, and author of a monograph, Property Law in the Society of Equals (OUP 2024). He has published articles in Philosophy & Public Affairs, Legal Theory, Law & Philosophy,  Jurisprudence, the McGill Law Journal, and the University of Toronto Law Journal. 

I am grateful to the Advisory Committee for their engagement over the course of this search, and to University Professor Jutta Brunnée for serving an additional month to facilitate this transition. Professor Essert’s commitment to innovative legal education and the future of the profession will be key to the Faculty’s success in the years ahead.  

Please join me in congratulating Professor Christopher Essert.