Western Canada’s Premier Business Law Accelerator
Welcome to the Desautels Business Law Accelerator at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law. As an accelerator, we fast-track the development of legal knowledge, practical skills, and innovative thinking in business law. Through experiential learning, research, and collaboration with community partners, we help future lawyers understand the business of law while fostering leadership, integrity, and economic growth across Manitoba and beyond.
Our three
pillars
Students
We prepare future lawyers through real-world experiences—from the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic to case competitions and the Business Law Group.
Scholars
We support cutting-edge research across business law, including labour, negotiation, technology, and AI, and we help scholars kickstart new projects and ideas that strengthen business law in Manitoba.
Support
We strengthen community networks through national competitions, major conferences, and partnerships that connect the Prairies with business law professionals across Canada.
NEWS
Manitoba Law Journal 45.2: The inaugural issue of Desautels Review of Private Enterprise & Law – Fall 2022
Introduction MacPherson, Darcy L., In Memoriam – Marcel André Desautels Torrie, Virginia; Jonsson, Connor; Schmidt Ty, Desautels Review of Private Enterprise & Law: Introduction Articles McCamus, John D., The Supreme Court of Canada and the Development of a...
Faculty of Law thankful for Desautels legacy of Private Enterprise and the Law
The Faculty of Law joins the University of Manitoba community in remembering its extraordinary benefactor and alum, Marcel A. Desautels, CM, OOnt, OM. A former business leader and one of UM’s, and the Faculty of Law’s most distinguished benefactors and alumni, he passed away on January 31, 2023, at age 88.
Bridging the Gap: Access to Justice in Manitoba’s Rural Communities
By Arieana Daniels Everyone is impacted by our justice system, however different groups of people have unequal access to justice. Though efforts have been made to correct the issue, we are still far from a place where everyone, regardless of where they live in the...
AI is reshaping Canadian Criminal Law – a podcast
Produced by third-year Robson Hall law students Jayden and Andreas for Robson Crim, this episode looks at how AI is reshaping Canadian criminal law from both directions at once: the state’s growing use of AI in policing and surveillance, and criminals’ use of AI to...
A Meeting with ICC Judge Kimberly Prost
By Jayden Kyryluk, B.A. and J.D. Candidate (2026) On October 21, 2025, I took a short train ride from Nijmegen to The Hague. A ninety-minute train ride across the Netherlands felt surreal; for a Canadian, it’s like crossing a province before lunch. Much like home,...
Competition Teaches Robson Hall Students Vital Negotiation Skills
By Bruce Curran, Organizer of Competition, and Desautels Jurist: Workplace Law and Negotiation Sixteen teams of Robson Hall students competed in the twentieth annual Robson Hall Negotiation Competition on the evening of October 14th, 2025. These upper-year students...
Events
Canadian Academy of Legal Studies in Business
The Marcel A Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and Law is pleased to support the Canadian Academy for Legal Studies in Business. The CALSB’s mission is to promote and encourage scholarship and superior teaching of business law in Canadian universities and colleges, to foster a better understanding between university and college administrators and those engaged in teaching and research in the field of business law, to develop and maintain a friendly and cooperative relationship among teachers and scholars in the area of business law and to encourage and promote high ethical standards in the conduct of business.
Ready to get involved?
Be part of Manitoba’s growing business law ecosystem.