The Law of Work
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

RIP: Professor Emeritus (Queens U. Law) and Labour Law Giant Bernie Adell

by David Doorey July 25, 2014
written by David Doorey July 25, 2014

We had very sad this sumer that a labour law giant passed away.  Professor Bernie Adell, former Dean of Queens Law School, passed away while visiting his daughter in Japan.   Queens University will be holding a memorial service for him on Saturday, September 13 in Kingston, which sadly I cannot make.   Change of Plans: I am going!  Hope to see some of you there.  

RIP Bernie Adell:  A Labour Law Giant

RIP Bernie Adell: A Labour Law Giant


I met Bernie in person for the first time in the Queens’ Law Faculty Lounge back in early 2000’s.  I was teaching Labour Law as an adjunct at the time, while completing my law Ph.D in Toronto.  Bernie was getting a drink of water. I introduced myself as an ex- labour lawyer trying to forge a second career as a labour law scholar.  Of course, Bernie was already a labour law legend by then.  I was a complete stranger.  Bernie asked what I’ve been working on, not out of politeness, but from genuine interest.
An hour later, Bernie had solicited two of my half written papers for his journals, one for the Queens Law Journal, and the other for the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal (CLELJ).   After the legendary “Bernie-fication” editing  process, the QLJ paper on employer bullying received the David Watson Award for contribution to legal scholarship, a recognition for which I’m sure Bernie played no small role. He wrote me around then to tell me he’d used the paper to make a point to his Rabbi.
For the entire time I had the great pleasure to know Bernie, he went out of his way to support me.   He invited me, still a grad student, to join the Labour Law Casebook group for which he acted as head editor and zoo-keeper, and had the confidence to assign me the longest chapter in the book, on industrial conflict.   He invited me to join him (and Kevin Banks) as editors of CLELJ. When he decided to step down from his role as Graduate Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s professional LLM in labour and employment law, he recommended to the administrators that I take over for him.  I have done so since, though Bernie had already done the heavy lifting, and I have just rode his curtails since.
I saw Bernie at a conference in Barcelona a couple of summers ago, and in the course of small talk at coffee break, a small legal point came up.  I mentioned to Bernie some cases I’d read on the point.  He nodded thoughtfully, and said he’d have to think about it, before we moved on to other topics.  Weeks later, I received a long email from Bernie citing the cases I’d mentioned, and noting others he’d looked up on his own.  He’d written a short treatise on the subject on his “spare time” because he was interested, but no doubt too because he thought it might be useful to me at some point in the future if I chose to follow up the topic in future research.
That was Bernie.  Endlessly kind.  Exceedingly supportive.  Boundlessly energetic, right until all to sudden end.  I have tried to deal with students in the same patient and supportive manner as Bernie treated me, beginning the moment I interrupted his water break over a decade ago.  I cannot say that I always meet that ridiculously high standard.  The Canadian and global labour law community has suffered a huge loss.  I have lost a great friend.
RIP Bernie.
 

3 comments
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

previous post
Congratulations to My Amazing Spouse as She Enters U. Ottawa Law's Honour Society!
next post
The Academics Strike Back: Windsor Faculty Union Plots Its Next Move

You may also like

This Blog Entry is About the Lunacy of...

July 21, 2019

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

The Folly of Not Voting to Strike in...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 338 other subscribers

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

David J. Doorey🇨🇦Follow

Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law #Gig to the masses. Alpaca ❤️ @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @LWPHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

David J. Doorey🇨🇦
Retweet on TwitterDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦 Retweeted
AnthonyForsyt10Anthony Forsyth@AnthonyForsyt10·
3h

If you missed my ⁦@RMIT⁩ lecture on Tuesday here is the text with a recording to follow … Legislating to Rebuild Worker Power: The Industrial Relations Reforms We Need from the Albanese Labor Government - Labour Law Down Under ⁦⁦@RMITCoBL⁩ https://labourlawdownunder.com.au/?p=1042

Reply on Twitter 1560086376703750144Retweet on Twitter 15600863767037501444Like on Twitter 156008637670375014410Twitter 1560086376703750144
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
7h

Old law school friend now works as a lawyer in the Office of the JAG. She is doing basic training, getting crazy fit. I wasn’t aware these lawyers must basically go thru basic training.

Imagine if there was a fitness test for labour and employment lawyers?

Reply on Twitter 1560028418015522817Retweet on Twitter 1560028418015522817Like on Twitter 15600284180155228178Twitter 1560028418015522817
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
7h

You’ve seen this article?

Adrienne Cuoto, ‘Clothing Exotic Dancers with Collective Bargaining Rights’, 2006 38-1 Ottawa Law Review 37, 2006 CanLIIDocs 63, <https://canlii.ca/t/2913>

ryan white@ryandwhite12

One of my COVID projects has been working on a history of the Canadian Association of Burlesque Entertainers, the only case I am aware of in which dancers sought unionization in Canada - so I will be watching this carefully (it is rare and exciting) https://twitter.com/grimkim/status/1559995539999031297

Reply on Twitter 1560023264759615499Retweet on Twitter 15600232647596154991Like on Twitter 1560023264759615499Twitter 1560023264759615499
Load More...

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Climate and Just Transition
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Sports Labour
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.