Article

Cecil Augustus Wright

Published Online December 18, 2007

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Cecil Augustus Wright, "Caesar," educator (b at London, Ont 2 July 1904; d at Toronto 24 Apr 1967). Called Canada's most influential law teacher and the architect of LEGAL EDUCATION in Ontario, Wright taught at Osgoode Hall Law School from 1927, becoming dean in 1948.

Wright, Cecil Augustus

Cecil Augustus Wright, "Caesar," educator (b at London, Ont 2 July 1904; d at Toronto 24 Apr 1967). Called Canada's most influential law teacher and the architect of LEGAL EDUCATION in Ontario, Wright taught at Osgoode Hall Law School from 1927, becoming dean in 1948. In 1949, when the Law Society of Upper Canada rejected changes in legal education for which he had been campaigning for years, he and most of the teaching staff at Osgoode Hall resigned. Wright, Bora LASKIN and John Willis then converted the undergraduate law department at U of T into Ontario's first professional university law school, and Wright served as its dean 1949-67. He wrote many articles, edited an important book on tort law, the Canadian Bar Review and several law reports, arbitrated labour disputes, provided legal advice to many lawyers, and strove to increase awareness of N American legal thought.