Dr. Frances Chapman completed her BA in sociology at Waterloo in 1998 and then went on to receive her law degree at Western University.
Admitted to the bar in 2003, Frances articled at Cohen Highley LLP in London, where she gained a broad range of experience in family, criminal, personal injury, administrative and contract law. Working as an associate in the department of the senior litigation partner, Frances practiced in the areas of property disputes, mortgage actions, wrongful dismissals, and class actions.
She returned to school in 2005 to pursue her passion for criminal law, focusing specifically on automatism, duress and necessity as criminal defences. She taught part-time at Fanshawe College while completing a Master of Laws degree at Western, and then went on to complete her PhD in law at Osgoode Hall Law school in Toronto.
In 2007, Frances returned to the University of Waterloo, where she began teaching in legal studies at St. Jerome’s University and became a full-time Assistant Professor in 2009. During her teaching career at St. Jerome’s, Frances received the 2012 UW Legal Studies Society Distinguished Professor Award and the 2013 John Bonsignore award for outstanding teaching from the Academy of Legal studies in Business.
In July 2013, Frances relocated to Thunder Bay, Ontario, where she became a founding professor in the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University.
Photo: Ryan Walker Photography