Doug Sarro

Welcome! I'm a law professor at the University of Ottawa, pursuing research on corporate law, securities regulation, and the relationships among innovation, law, and politics.

My recent work appears or is forthcoming in the McGill Law Journal, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Capital Markets Law Journal, Canadian Business Law Journal, UNB Law Journal, and Law Teacher. I've also commented on business law issues for Bloomberg, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Press, and other media outlets.

My research on public company disclosure obligations has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, and my current work on financial innovation and regulatory design is funded by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 

Before pursuing an academic career, I clerked at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, practiced corporate law at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, and was a senior advisor at the Ontario Securities Commission. I stay engaged with the capital markets sector as Academic Director of the uOttawa Startup Law Clinic and a member of CFA Societies Canada’s Advocacy Council.

I hold a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, where I graduated as gold medallist, and an SJD (doctorate in law) from the University of Toronto. I'm a member of the bars of New York and Ontario and am a CFA charterholder.

See below for some of my recent publications, as well as background on my teaching history, conference presentations, and service to academic journals. My academic CV is available here. You can reach me at dsarro@uottawa.ca.

Selected Publications

“Sandbox Fictions” (2026) 62 Osgoode Hall Law Journal [forthcoming].
- Featured in the Oxford Business Law Blog.

“Artificial Intelligence in Legal Education: A Scoping Review” (2026) 60 Law Teacher [forthcoming] (with Steve Lorteau).

“Sustainable Investment Management in Canada” (2025) 20 Capital Markets Law Journal [forthcoming].

“Transactional Legal Clinics and the Public Interest” (2025) 76 UNB Law Journal [forthcoming].

“Judicial Review of Rulemaking” (2025) 70 McGill Law Journal 53–94.

“Material Change Standards in Securities Law” (2024) 69 Canadian Business Law Journal 1–32.
- Quoted in Lunding Mining Corp. v. Markowich, 2025 SCC 39.

“Corporate Veil-Piercing and Structures of Canadian Business Law” (2022) 55 UBC Law Review 203–50.

“Incentives, Experts, and Regulatory Renewal” (2021) 47 Queen’s Law Journal 38–77.
- David Watson Memorial Prize for most significant contribution to Queen’s Law Journal volume 47.
- Featured in the Legal Theory Blog.

“Proxy Advisors as Issue Spotters” (2021) 15 Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law 371–419.
- Featured in the Oxford Business Law Blog.

Additional publications available on SSRN and Osgoode Digital Commons.

Teaching

Currently, I teach the following courses at the University of Ottawa:
- Securities Law and Regulation
- Secured Transactions, Bankruptcy, and Insolvency
- Law for Startups
- Startup Law Clinic

Previously, I've taught Business Associations at Osgoode Hall Law School and "Securities Regulation and Corporate Finance" in the University of Toronto's Global Professional Master of Laws program.

Presentations

I've presented drafts of my academic work at conferences hosted by the law schools at the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, University College London, the University of Toronto, and McGill University, among others.

I've also presented at practitioner-oriented conferences hosted by the Global Financial Innovation Network, the Canadian Securities Administrators, and CFA Societies Canada.

Peer Review/Journal Work

I've been a peer reviewer for the Canadian Business Law Journal, Ottawa Law Review, Alberta Law Review, Griffith Law Review, and Banking and Finance Law Review, among other journals. During my doctoral work, I served as Managing Editor of the University of Toronto Law Journal.