Catherine Dunmore receives U of T Law alumni award

The University of Toronto Faculty of Law Alumni Awards biennially recognize the exceptional contributions of valued community members.

The Ann Wilson and Robert Prichard Alumni Award for Community and Professional Service honours recent graduates who demonstrate the highest standards of professional integrity, excellence and leadership, and who has made a significant contribution to the legal profession and community.

Past recipients include the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Arif Virani (LLB 1998); Cornell Wright (JD/MBA 2000), President of Wittington Investments; and Atrisha Lewis (JD 2012), Partner at McCarthys and a recognized advocate for diversity within the legal profession.

Catherine Dunmore (LLM 2017) is a Solicitor of England & Wales, fluent in English and French, specializing in the fields of international criminal law, human rights, rule of law and gender.

Catherine currently works with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Ukraine Monitoring Initiative. She is also a Gender, Conflict & Stability Expert with the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Stabilisation Unit (Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative) providing technical expertise in contexts such as South Sudan and Ethiopia. Catherine is a Senior Expert to the EuroMed Justice Programme, and a member of the United Nation’s Ending Violence Against Women Roster. Catherine has volunteered as a Trustee of Peacebuilding UK, and as an election observer with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Moldova, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan.

Previously, she was a Human Rights Officer / Gender Adviser to the Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen and a Technical Specialist on Judicial Affairs and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence for the United Nations in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. She was a Programme Lawyer for the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and a Humanitarian Sexual and Gender-based Violence Advisor for Save the Children. Catherine also has experience working for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Legal Action Worldwide, DIGNITY’s International Accountability Platform for Belarus, Human Rights Watch, REDRESS, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice and has worked on death penalty cases through Amicus in Florida.

Catherine completed her training contract at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, including a secondment to Oxfam’s legal team, and subsequently practised in international arbitration with Hogan Lovells in Paris.

Catherine’s academic background includes a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Essex, a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from BPP, and a Master of Laws with Collaborative Program in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto.

The U of T Law alumni awardees will be recognized during U of T Alumni Reunion on May 29, 2025. Alumni and colleagues are welcome to attend, and to join us in congratulating the 2024 recipients.

For nomination details or more information, please contact alumni.law@utoronto.ca.