Darren Thorne

Darren Thorne (International Lawyer, Human Rights Expert and Development Consultant), B.A., LL.B, LL.M

Educated at the London School of Economics and Political Science (Master of Laws Degree, Public International Law and International Human Rights), and Osgoode Hall Law School (Bachelor of Laws Degree), Darren Thorne is an internationally experienced lawyer specializing in human rights law (Canadian and International), Canadian Constitutional Law, international legal development and public international law.

Mr. Thorne is a recent Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, where he judged legal cases of alleged human rights violations. Prior to this, upon his return to Canada in recent years, after having worked internationally, Mr. Thorne joined the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General’s Constitutional Law Branch, where he practiced law in his area of domestic expertise, Canadian constitutional law and human rights. In particular, this involved providing in-depth analysis, vetting and review of the constitutionality of existing and proposed government policy and legislation, including advising on how to bring key initiatives into constitutional compliance, as well as defending the province in constitutional litigation cases. Accordingly, issues of Constitutional equality and human rights are a specific area of expertise. From there, he was recruited to join the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, becoming Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Deputy Attorney General of Ontario, where he provided oversight of the operation of the Ministry’s non-criminal law departments and operations, and advised the DAG in relation to the Ministry’s legal services operations and policy directions. Mr. Thorne left the DAG’s Office when he was recruited to head an international development project in the area of child justice, and served as the Executive Project Director for this project, which had operations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, from 2013-2015.

Mr. Thorne has had an extensive history of onsite international development work in the area of rule of law enhancement, and has been involved in project work in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Mongolia and Italy, among other places. He has worked collaboratively on international development projects with organizations such as the WTO, World Bank, UNDP, GTZ and a number of regional governments, donors and development agencies. Mr. Thorne also serves as an annual lecturer on the Master of Laws programs at the University of the Western Cape, and the University of Pretoria, in South Africa, and has formerly served as an Adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, teaching in the areas of international and constitutional law.

Mr. Thorne is an expert in Canadian Constitutional law, Human Rights (both domestic and international) and international law & relations. Beyond his work in law and international development, he is extremely well traveled and versed in the politics, culture and the day-to-day realities of life in not only Canada, but a range in foreign countries. Closer to home, as noted, he has expertise in Canadian constitutional law, with equality and human rights being a longstanding area of interest and practice experience. In the field of human rights, Mr. Thorne also has an interest and background in relation to issues of systemic discrimination, institutional leadership and management. He also has extensive expertise in the area of Negotiation skills, and has trained internationally on the professional level with respect to this discipline. Finally, Mr. Thorne also has a corporate law background, having begun his legal career at a ranking, international full service corporate law firm.