2014 Arts Young Alumni Award Recipient
Ben Ries received his BA in 2006, in Honours Political Science/Applied Studies Co-op. He received the degrees of Juris Doctor in 2009, and Master of Laws in 2011, both from the University of Toronto. Between those degrees he articled and was called to the Ontario bar in 2010.
Ben has dedicated his career to the problems of homelessness and inadequate housing. These interests have taken him from policy work in government to graduate research and teaching. He has spent much of his legal career practicing as a staff lawyer with community legal aid clinics in Toronto and Hamilton, and recently served as co-counsel for a coalition of interveners in constitutional housing rights litigation at the Ontario Court of Appeal. Ben now works as review counsel at Downtown Legal Services, a teaching clinic operated by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, where he trains and supervises law students. He lives in Toronto with his wife Naomi Steenhof (BSc 2006).