Directors: Professor Michael Saini (Social Work) michael.saini@utoronto.ca and Sara Faherty (Law) sara.faherty@utoronto.ca.

The JD/MSW program combines the law school’s inter-disciplinary teaching environment with its commitment to public interest law. Offered by the Faculty of Law and the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, the program gives students who wish to practise in the areas in which law and social work interact (for example, child welfare, mental health, social policy, human rights) an opportunity to participate in a coherent program leading to both the JD and MSW degrees.

This combined program allows students to complete the two degrees in four years, rather than the five it would take to pursue them independently. Students who enter with a BSW will be given advanced standing and are exempted from completing the first year of the master's program (MSW) in social work and, therefore, complete years one, three and four of the combined program only, completing the JD/MSW program in three years. 

Requirements

  1. Year One: Faculty of Law: Complete the first year of the JD program.
  2. Year Two: Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work: Complete the first year of the MSW program, except students entering the MSW program with a B.S.W. degree who are exempted from completing the first year of the MSW program (normally year two of the 4-year combined JD/M.S.W. Program)
  3. Years Three and Four - combined years:
    1. Faculty of Law: Successfully complete 35 upper year credits at the Faculty of Law in courses approved by the Director. Three of these credits must be earned in the required course, Exploring the Intersections of Law and Social Work.  These 3 required credits are integrated credits.  Course selection depends on the student's interests. Complete all graduation requirements in Law, including a moot, administrative law, an upper year ethics course, a perspective course, an intensive course, and an international/comparative/ transnational perspective course.
    2. Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work: Successfully complete 4 half-courses. Students must complete all the requirements within their specific course of study.  Courses depend on specialization. Students are required to complete a practicum in second semester. There is a wide range of choices for practicum locations and the exact placement depends on each student's individual interests.
    3. In the third year, satisfy a field practicum placement (equivalent to 8 law credits). This placement enables students to work in a field setting for at least 450 hours, two days per week, for an entire academic year. Students are placed with organizations whose work in some manner touches upon the disciplines and practices of both law and social work. Past placements have included the Office of the Children's Lawyer, the special prosecutorial team assigned to child sexual abuse cases, the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped, and the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation. Students should register in their practicum under a law school number when possible, bringing their  upper year law credit count to 43, in addition to integrated credits described below.
    4. Successfully complete equivalent of 3 additional "integrated" credits through a directed research project, a Directed Readings course OR courses at Law and Social Work that the student designates as integrated courses and which are approved by the co-Directors of Law and Social Work.

Note: Notwithstanding the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work's course selection process, students must meet the Faculty of Law course selection deadline.

Students must submit their proposed course selections for years three and four of the program to the Director prior to the applicable course selection deadlines in each year in each Faculty. Any changes must also be approved by the Director.

Students enrolled in combined programs MUST complete the requirements of both programs in order to graduate in a combined program. No diplomas will be awarded until all the requirements for a combined program are fulfilled.

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Practicum Requirements

Students are required to participate in practicum placements in the second year (MSW year), and in the third year of the program. Please see above points for details.

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Summer Employment

In the past, students have found summer employment in various locations. Some students have worked at law firms of varying size and practice areas, others at community legal clinics, not for profit organizations or other community based organizations. Other students have done research with a professor, received a fellowship or completed an internship with a community of governmental agency.

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Law Articling

Graduates from the combined program have articled at many places. For example, students have articled for the government, for mid to large size firms, for smaller boutique firms and with family law firms.

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Admissions

Applicants to the JD/MSW  program must apply for admission to both faculties independently within the time periods prescribed by the respective faculties. Students must meet the full admission requirements of both the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Social Work. Students are admitted into the  program upon successful admission into both faculties.

Students may also apply for admission to the combined degree program while enrolled in either the first year of the JD program or the first year of the MSW program. To gain admission, students must meet the normal admission requirements of the other Faculty and, upon admission, must notify the faculty registrar at the Faculty in which they are presently enrolled.

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Contact

To apply to the JD Program at the Faculty of Law, see Application Procedure for the JD Program on this Web site.
For more information about this combined program, contact the:
 
Admissions Office
Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
84 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 2C5
Telephone: (416) 978-3716
Fax: (416) 978-7899

Also, application forms and/or calendars for the MSW program can be obtained from:

Michael Saini, Co-Director, Combined JD/MSW Program
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work 
University of Toronto
246 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON  M5S 1V4
Tel. (416) 946-5027
Fax. (416) 978-7072
E-mail: michael.saini@utoronto.ca
Web site: http://socialwork.utoronto.ca/

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Note:  Students should ensure that they remain on the listserv of both schools at the end of every academic year.

Tuition for the JD/MSW Program

Students in the combined program pay JD tuition in the first, third and fourth years of the program, and MSW tuition in the second year. For more information see: www.fees.utoronto.ca

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