Areas of expertise: Prosecutions, administrative hearings, contaminated site liability, land use planning, SLAPPs (Strategic Law Suits Against Public Participation), environmental approvals.
Biography:
Ramani Nadarajah joined the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) as legal counsel in 1994. She is certified by the Law Society of Ontario as a Specialist in Environmental Law. She received her LL.B. (1989) and her LL.M. (2007) in administrative law from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Prior to joining CELA, Ramani worked as counsel at the Legal Services Branch of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and counsel with the Crown Law Office of the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. From 2022-2023, she was on secondment as Policy Counsel with the Law Commission of Ontario where she headed the Environmental Accountability: Rights, Responsibilities and Access to Justice project.
Ramani represents clients before administrative tribunals and the courts on a broad range of public interest environmental cases. She has appeared before all levels of Ontario courts and the Supreme Court of Canada. Ramani was co-counsel for local residents at the Walkerton Inquiry, for which she and other CELA counsel received Legal Aid Ontario’s GEM Award for Outstanding Achievement. In 2022, Ramani also received Osgoode Hall Law School’s Gold Key Award for Public Sector and the South Asian Bar Association’s Award for Legal Excellence.
Ramani has served on multiple government advisory bodies and has testified before Standing Committees of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the Canadian House of Commons. Ramani is co-editor of the Canadian Environmental Law Reports, and has taught environmental law at the LL.M. Program in Administrative Law at Osgoode Hall Law School. For the past two decades, Ramani has mentored law students at Osgoode Hall Law School’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic.
Ramani and her partner live in Toronto with their two teenagers and their dog, Tilly. In her spare time, Ramani enjoys yoga and being outdoors with her family exploring nature.