MICHELLE LANGLOIS | ADVISOR
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As an Advisor, Michelle contributes to our work analyzing companies’ human rights reporting and is part of the team that developed Shift’s UN Guiding Principles Reporting Database. She also works across our main program areas, leading and supporting work with a range of business, government and civil society partners.
Michelle is a lawyer specializing in international human rights law and clinical legal education. During her studies at Université du Québec à Montréal, she served as case manager and program coordinator at the university’s International Clinic for the Defense of Human Rights. Michelle regularly spoke on human rights and experiential learning, and supervised the drafting of parallel reports on children’s rights, gender-based discrimination and violence in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean. Her special interest for Southeast Asia brought Michelle to volunteer with the Extrajudicial Killings Unit of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) and the Faculty of Law at the University of Phayao, Northern Thailand, for the opening of a street law clinic. In her first year of law school, Michelle and her colleague won the award for Best Memorial at the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C. She now coaches the Moot Court team at Université du Québec à Montréal.
After her articling position at Blake, Cassels & Graydon, a Canadian corporate law firm, Michelle graduated summa cum laude from the Master of Laws program in International Human Rights Law at the University of Notre Dame. Her thesis focused on the ethical and practical challenges faced by corporate law firms in the implementation of the Guiding Principles. Michelle’s Bachelors degrees are in Law and International Relations from Université du Québec à Montréal and she has a Certificate in Asian Studies. She was admitted to the Québec Bar in 2014. Michelle is a Canadian national and speaks English and French.