Shannon O'Byrne, BA (Regina), MA, LLB, LLM (Alberta)

About

Professor O'Byrne has published and delivered papers in the areas of good faith in contractual performance; director and officer liability; recovery of mental distress damages in a breach of contract action; discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; disclosure duties; economic justice; feminism(s); law and emotions; public law theory as well as the relationship between law and literature. Her work has been recognized and cited by courts across the country, including by the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions. Shannon has published in a diverse range of journals including the American Business Law Journal, the Canadian Business Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, the Canadian Bar Review, the UCLA Women's Law Journal as well as the Journal of Law and Inequality. Professor O'Byrne was the 1995 recipient of the Southwestern Publishing Distinguished Proceedings Paper Award through the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. Shannon was the 2002 Tevie H. Miller Teaching Excellence Award recipient. In 2002, she also received the University's highest teaching award, the AC Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2014, Professor O'Byrne received the Distinguished Service Award for Contributions to Legal Scholarship, awarded by the Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association (Alberta branch). She was also recognized in 2014 with a University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence.

Research

• Contract Law
• Corporations Law
• Remedies
• Corporate Governance

Recent Publications

• Shannon O'Byrne and Avner Levin, "It Shouldn’t be Small Potatoes: The Future of Civil Damage Awards under Canada’s Personal Information Protection Legislation” forthcoming in the Advocates' Quarterly (2022).
• Canadian Business & the Law 7th ed (Toronto: Nelson, 2020) 700 pages. Co-authored with Dorothy DuPlessis, Philip King, Lorrie Adams, and Steve Enman.
• Shannon O’Byrne and Cindy Schipani, “Personal Liability of Directors and Officers in Tort: Searching for Coherence and Accountability”, (2019) 22 U of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 82-132.
• Hector MacQueen and Shannon O’Byrne, “The Principle of Good Faith in Contractual Performance: A Scottish-Canadian Comparison”, (2019) 23 Edinburgh Law Review 301-331.
• “The Oppression Remedy versus the Derivative Action”, Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) seminar publication (Shareholder Disputes)(Fall, 2019).