About — A2AJ

Our Mission

We aim to help foster a non-profit, open-source, and rights-enhancing legal tech ecosystem in Canada.

The A2AJ is a research project based in Toronto, Canada, and is co-hosted by York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law, with support from the Law Foundation of Ontario.

We research and advocate for a fairer, more accessible justice system as technology reshapes the law. Our work includes developing legal datasets, legal AI benchmarks, and open-source legal tech tools—all focused on improving access to justice, especially for marginalized and low-income communities in Canada. We support law reform to ensure that legal tech empowers the public, not just well-resourced individuals and institutions. We also create interdisciplinary learning opportunities for law students and for students in tech-related disciplines.

Ultimately, we aim to help foster a non-profit, open-source, and rights-enhancing legal tech ecosystem in Canada.

Our Team

Simon Wallace

Co-Director

Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law

Simon Wallace is an Assistant Professor at Lincoln Alexander School of Law. His research employs computational methods to read law at scale, drawing on methodologies used in the digital humanities. He maintains Obiter.ai, an open-source Python library for legal research. Prior to obtaining his PHD from Osgoode Hall Law School, Simon ran a practice as a refugee, tenants’ rights, and prisoners’ rights lawyer. He also served as the first full-time immigration detention staff lawyer at Legal Aid Ontario’s Refugee Law Office. He has litigated before the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Federal Court of Canada, the Ontario Superior Court, and the Supreme Court of Canada. He is particularly proud of his advocacy on behalf of clients detained in solitary confinement.

@simon-lawyer

Sean Rehaag

Co-Director

Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School; Director, Refugee Law Laboratory

Sean Rehaag is an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Director of the Refugee Law Laboratory. He previously served as Director of York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies and as Academic Director at Parkdale Community Legal Services. He is an expert in immigration and refugee law, administrative law, legal analytics, computational law, and access to justice. His interdisciplinary academic research examines immigration and refugee law decision-making processes, including studies about how sexual minority refugee claims are adjudicated. Much of his research involves empirical quantitative methodologies using computational methods to examine factors that influence outcomes in Canadian refugee adjudication.

@seanrehaag.bsky.social @srehaag

Clifford McCarten

Associate Director

Lawyer and Graduate Student, Osgoode Hall Law School

Clifford McCarten is a lawyer and graduate student at Osgoode Hall Law School. Before joining A2AJ, he led national technology transformation initiatives at Canada’s largest administrative tribunal to accelerate and scale quality decision making. His designs underwrite the decision-making workflow of hundreds of refugee adjudicators deciding tens of thousands of claims a year. He has been part of Canadian delegations to international forums on technology in the global asylum system and served as refugee adjudicator. He previously had a practice in immigration and refugee law, where his work focused on detention, criminal inadmissibility and deportation.

Our Partners

The A2AJ draws on research supported by: