Our Staff

Jack.Fleming@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 226

Jack Fleming manages our community legal clinic, working under the direction of our board of directors. He joined our legal clinic as executive director in 2001. Jack has been a lawyer since 1984, after graduating from the University of Toronto Law School. He is the author of Ontario Landlord and Tenant Law Practice and Residential Tenancies in Ontario, 4th ed. He has taught at Queen’s University Law School and has previously worked at legal clinics in Toronto, Halton, Peterborough and Ottawa as well as at Legal Aid Ontario.

Norma.English@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 224

Norma English has been a lawyer since 1989, graduating from the University of Ottawa Law School.  Norma has worked at our clinic since 1991 and prior to that was a lawyer in the private bar.  Over the years, Norma has done all of the various areas of law our legal clinic practises.  Currently Norma does Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and housing law cases.

In her personal and professional life, Norma has been involved with a variety of organizations in various capacities, including membership on boards of directors (as president, member and committee member). Additionally, Norma has also participated in various advocacy projects, made law reform presentations, and provided community public legal education trainings.

Fintan.Lee@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 230

Fintan does housing law cases for our clients. He has been a lawyer since 1995, after graduating from University of Ottawa Law School.  He joined the legal clinic system in 2002 from private practice, and has worked at legal clinics in Ottawa, Moosonee and Toronto prior to joining our legal clinic in 2009.

Jennifer.Goodfellow@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 229

Jennifer Goodfellow helps our clients with immigration cases. Jennifer has been a lawyer since 2012, and joined our legal clinic in 2014. Since her first year of law school, Jennifer has been involved in the legal clinic system, first as a student caseworker at Parkdale Community Legal Services in the housing division, and later as an articling student at the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario where she gained experience in a variety of practice areas.

Jennifer has appeared before the Immigration Appeal Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board, the Landlord and Tenant Board and the Social Benefits Tribunal. Jennifer holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia University. Prior to joining us, she worked as a lawyer in various legal clinics in Toronto.

Mandeep.Gill@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 245

Mandeep Gill is the first line of contact for clients with housing law problems. She provides advice and other assistance and does the first assessment of all housing law matters. She first joined our legal clinic as a Law Practice Program student. She became a lawyer in 2017 and joined our team that same year.

Daniel.Gordon@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 244

Daniel Gordon helps our clients with employment law and social assistance cases. Daniel joined our clinic as a Law Practice Program Candidate (equivalent to articling) in 2017 and assisted clients with their ODSP appeals. He joined us as a lawyer in 2018.

Prior to joining our clinic, Daniel participated in two legal clinics in Detroit, where he worked in the areas of mortgage foreclosure defense and mediation.

Daniel holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of  Detroit Mercy School of Law, a Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree from the University of Windsor, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A. (Hons.)) degree from Western University.  Daniel is also a member of the State Bar of Michigan and the District of Columbia Bar Association.

Akina.Tamang@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 246

Akina helps our clients with housing law cases. She provides legal advice and representation to tenants and co-op members. Prior to joining the housing team at our legal clinic, she worked at Halton Community Legal Services. She also worked at ARCH Disability Law Centre as a summer law student, and completed her articles at the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, where she gained experience in many areas of law.

Akina has a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from University of Windsor, and an Honours Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree from University of Toronto, with a specialization in Cell and Molecular Biology and a minor in Psychology. She was called to the bar and became a lawyer in 2017. Akina is also fluent in Hindi, Nepali and Urdu.

Ritu.Gupta@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 236

Ritu Gupta assists our clients with Immigration and Employment law cases. She has many years of experience in the community legal clinic system. She joined our team in 2021.

Michael.Daoud@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 250

Michael Daoud became a lawyer in 2022 and joined our legal clinic then, having earlier been with us as an LPP student. Michael assists our clients with income maintenance matters, including the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), Ontario Works (OW), Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security.

Naila.Hussain@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 235

Naila Hussain joined our team as a lawyer in 2023, shortly after being licensed as a lawyer by the Law Society of Ontario and after having completed an LPP placement with our legal clinic. Naila is part of our Housing Law Team.

Taylor.Thomson@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 232

Taylor is a paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Ontario. She is part of our team dealing with ODSP applications and represents clients denied ODSP benefits in their appeal hearings at the Social Benefits Tribunal.

Sheiba.Manso@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 242

Sheiba Manso joined us in 2024, after completing an LPP placement with our legal clinic and in anticipation of being licensed as a lawyer in late 2024. Sheiba is part of our DAU Team, where she helps clients with appeals of denial of ODSP benefits.

Gail.Buckley@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 222

Gail does ODSP cases, appealing denials of ODSP eligibility and assisting clients with ODSP applications. Gail initially started with the clinic in 2013 as a Social Service Worker student completing her placement practicum. She then joined the team upon graduation as a client service representative staff doing intake work in 2014.

Gail is a registered social service worker, and holds a diploma in both Social Service Work and Early Childhood Education.

Christa.Merlin@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 234

Christa is part of our ODSP Disability Denial Team – handling appeals of denials of ODSP. Christa Merlin manages all of the cases for this Team. Every ODSP client begins with Christa. Christa started with our legal clinic in 2015 as a Social Service Worker student. Following graduation with her SSW diploma, she returned to the legal clinic as our ODSP case manager.

Alison.Blackman@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 231

Alison Blackman has been the office manager for North Peel & Dufferin Community Legal Services since 2014. Prior to moving to Canada in 2012, Alison taught high school science, math and technology education (M.Sc.). She describes the change in her career path as a unique opportunity to incorporate previous skills. Her experience in curriculum delivery and student evaluation has helped in the management of the Social Service Worker Student Placement Program at our legal clinic. She considers herself a lifelong learner and attained class L3 RCIC-IRB license for unrestricted practice at the Immigration and Refugee Board in 2022.

Since 2016, Alison has been extensively involved in training and support of the case management and other software for our legal clinic and others across the province.

Akanksha.Tripathi@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 227

Akanksha initially joined the NPDCLS team in 2018 as a practicum student while completing her Social Service Worker diploma. Akanksha rejoined NPDCLS in March 2021 after working at the Co-operative of Specialty Community Legal Clinics of Ontario as their administrative assistant.

In her role as a Client Service Representative, Akanksha is one of the first points of contact, which involves completing intakes and providing clients with referrals to community agencies as needed. Akanksha is also fluent in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Maria.Deray@NPDCLS.clcj.ca

Tel: 905-455-0160 Ext 249

Maria initially joined the NPDCLS team in 2021 as a practicum student while completing her Social Service Worker diploma. Maria rejoined NPDCLS in May 2022 as our Client Service Representative after working as a Support Worker at the Family Law Service Centre-North York.

In her role as a Client Service Representative, Maria is one of the first points of contact, which involves completing intakes and providing clients with referrals to community agencies as needed.  Maria is also fluent in Filipino, Ilocano, Ibanag and Itawis.