Two Queen’s JD students will have full-time jobs this summer conducting research alongside faculty members while participating in the Queen’s Undergraduate Student Summer Research Fellowship (USSRF) program.
Shanzay Ahmad and Li Yang Qu will work with Professors Nicolas Bala and Samuel Dahan, respectively, on research projects selected for the USSRF program through Queen’s Law’s internal competition. The program combines central university support with faculty members’ own research funds to hire USSRF students over 16 weeks during the summer. The experience provides students with meaningful opportunities to engage in discovery-based learning and to develop research and presentation skills.
“The USSRF is a terrific opportunity for our JD students to spend a summer honing their research skills alongside our renowned researchers at Queen’s Law,” says Dean Colleen M. Flood. “We are delighted to participate in this program.”
Reporting to Professor Bala, Ahmad’s research will be on a project intended to develop an integrated, trauma-informed, culturally sensitive approach to the practice of family law that considers the interests of the children of adult clients. Titled “Harmonizing Ethics, Empathy and Professionalism: A New Paradigm in Trauma-Informed Lawyering,” the project’s goal is to promote meaningful access to justice, and to recognize the intersectional vulnerabilities and risks clients face, particularly in family courts.
The project is part of a larger research initiative, “Ethics and the Professional Practice of Family Lawyers,” which Bala is undertaking with Toronto family lawyer Archana Medhekar. The Ontario Bar Association Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies (“Fellowship in Studies”) 2024-2025 is supporting Medhekar and her work with Ahmad.
“Shanzay will participate in both bibliographic and empirical research, and working with Ms. Medhekar and I will provide excellent mentorship for her,” says Bala, who will be Ahmad’s primary supervisor.
Ahmad’s research will involve locating, summarizing, and analyzing family law cases and Law Society of Ontario discipline dealing with issues of professional ethics of lawyers, including litigation abuse and cost decisions; reviewing relevant literature on professional ethics and family lawyering; and participating in interviews with key informants in the family justice system, principally family lawyers, about ethical issues in the practice of family law and possible proposals for reform. Bala anticipates her research will lead to opportunities for co-authorship on project papers and presentations, including at the 2026 Ontario Bar Association Ethics Conference and other professional and scholarly conferences.
“This will be a really significant educational experience for Shanzay,” Bala says. “She will have the opportunity to interact and network with family lawyers, develop her research skills, and deepen her understanding of the ethical challenges in the practice of family law.”
Ahmad says that working on this project is an ideal fit for her. “Wanting to advocate for better integration of intersectionality in the legal system is what led me to law school. I am incredibly excited to work with Professor Bala and Archana Medhekar in researching how considering the best interests of children and the intersectional vulnerabilities of clients can improve justice in family law.”
Reporting to Professor Dahan, Director, Queen’s Conflict Analytics Lab (CAL), Qu’s project will see him investigating methods of integrating structured reasoning into generative AI. Central to this endeavor is OpenJustice, an open-source legal platform designed to teach language models how to perform nuanced legal reasoning.
“Li Yang will work closely with the CAL research team to develop a best practice guide for creating graph-based reasoning and natural language, known as reasoning flows,” Dahan says. “Reasoning flows convert natural language into executable code to instruct the AI to perform legal reasoning tasks and interpret case law and other essential legal contexts.”
Specifically, Qu’s project will include collaborating with PhD candidates to test new methods of structuring instructional prompts and creating graph-based reasoning on OpenJustice; creating reasoning flows for evaluating substantive legal topics in employment law and presenting progress updates and findings; applying insights gained to design custom reasoning flows for law firm partners; working with legal professionals to integrate and evaluate OpenJustice’s performance compared against other proprietary solutions; and compiling a final report detailing the best practices methodology, and for creating reasoning flows and evaluating the performance of various generative AI tools. He will have the opportunity to present findings to the OpenJustice Consortium, a network of international academic and non-profit legal organizations.
“Throughout the project, Li Yang will engage with Canadian law firms to gain insight into professional workflows, establish valuable connections with leading practitioners, and apply complex legal reasoning within the reasoning flows,” Dahan says. He’ll also have a unique opportunity to learn about termination negotiation, merger and acquisition transactional processes, and other substantive legal topics.
“I'm very thankful for the USSRF program for providing me with this opportunity,” Qu says. “I'm greatly looking forward to doing research with Professor Dahan and the Conflict Analytics Lab on the emerging field of law and AI over the summer!”
The USSRF program will provide funding for up to 67 students across the university this year. Last year, participating Queen’s Law faculty members were Professors Lisa Kelly and Ashwini Vasanthakumar, who supervised research conducted by Wardah Anwar and Sandra Malinouskaya.
By Tracy Weaver