Sophie Nunnelley

Sophie Nunnelley comes to the Lincoln Alexander School of Law with a range of legal academic and practice experience. Prior to joining us she was Associate Director of the University of Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics (external link) , where she brought together interdisciplinary researchers to tackle difficult health policy problems, engaged in knowledge translation to bring research to policymakers and the public; and provided innovative health law education to students and professionals. 

Nunnelley’s scholarship especially takes up issues of health and mental health law, legal capacity and decision-making, human rights, and the regulation of health artificial intelligence. As a 2023-2024 AMS Fellow in Compassion and Artificial Intelligence (external link) , she is investigating the implications of mental health AI for rights such as informed consent and non-discrimination. She is also part of a CIHR-funded research project, Machine MD: How Should we Regulate AI in Healthcare (external link) , conducting research and convening cross-disciplinary case studies on specific health-AI technologies and their regulatory requirements. Nunnelley also writes on issues of mental health law, public health law, and equality, and is keenly interested in law reform, for instance, having contributed to a Law Commission of Ontario project on legal capacity, decision-making, and guardianship. She received her SJD from the University of Toronto where her work was supported by numerous awards, including a Vanier Canada Scholarship, a CIHR Fellowship in Health Law, Ethics and Policy, and a Lupina Fellowship in Comparative Health & Society. She received her LL.M. from Yale University as a Fulbright Scholar. 

Nunnelley also practiced law with the Constitutional Law Branch of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General under the McGuinty government, where she argued cases before every level of court in Ontario, and the Supreme court of Canada. She was also counsel for a major public inquiry (the “Gomery Inquiry”), a litigator at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, and a law clerk for the Hon. Mr. Justice Gonthier at the Supreme Court of Canada.