Professor O'Byrne is pictured here with Philip Nichols (R), president of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Robert Sprague (L), outgoing editor-in-chief of the American Business Law Journal, and a professor at the College of Business at the University of Wyoming.
University of Alberta Faculty of Law Professor Shannon O'Byrne's legal research, in a paper entitled "Feminism(s), Progressive Corporate Law, and the Oppression Remedy", has earned her third place in the Academy of Legal Studies in Business' prestigious Holmes-Cardozo Award competition. The Holmes-Cardozo Award is presented at each annual meeting of the Academy - which took place this year August 8-11, 2016 in San Juan, Puerto Rico - to "recognize significant, unpublished original legal research." Prof. O'Byrne's research also earned her the "Best Paper Award" at the May 2016 annual conference of the Canadian Academy of Legal Studies in Business.
The Academy of Legal Studies in Business is an international association of teachers and researchers in the fields of business law, legal environment, and law-related courses outside of professional law schools. Its members teach primarily in schools of business at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The Academy also publishes two top-tier journals: the American Business Law Journal and the Journal of Legal Studies Education.
Professor Shannon O'Byrne has published and delivered papers in the areas of good faith in contractual performance; recovery of mental distress damages in a breach of contract action; discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; disclosure duties; economic justice; 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. Professor O'Byrne has earned the Hon. Tevie H. Miller Teaching Excellence Award (2002) and the University of Alberta's highest teaching award, the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2002). In 2014, she received the Distinguished Service Award for Contributions to Legal Scholarship, awarded by the Law Society of Alberta and the Canadian Bar Association (Alberta branch) and was recognized with a University of Alberta Alumni Award of Excellence.