Get to Know your Executive – Emad Mahdavi Ardekani, Member-at-Large

  • March 28, 2019

In our continuing efforts to introduce you to your OBA Executive, we wish to introduce you to Emad Mahdavi Ardekani. Read on to learn more about Emad’s practice, his experiences, and his motivations for serving on the OBA Citizenship and Immigration Section Executive.

Tell us a little about yourself

I was born and raised in Iran until the age of 7, at which time my family and I immigrated to Canada. I lived in Vancouver for three years. In 2000 we migrated once again, this time to Ottawa. I attended Carleton University for my undergraduate degree where I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations with a minor in Psychology. Following this, I attended the University of Ottawa for Law School. This is where I became passionate about immigration law. There seemed to be a natural transition and relationship between the subjects I enjoyed the most in my undergraduate degree and immigration law: the role immigration policies at home played in relationships with other countries; the relationship between immigration and refugee policies and human rights; the domestic ‘political-ness’ of immigration law; and implications of immigration policies on politics and elections in Canada. I decided to focus on this area of law in law school and followed by completing my articling program at a national firm in Toronto practicing exclusively in immigration law.