Benjamin Ries

Benjamin Ries, BA (Hons.) (Waterloo, 2006), JD (Toronto, 2009), LLM (Toronto, 2011) is Executive Director of South Etobicoke Community Legal Services, a non-profit community legal clinic serving low-income residents of Toronto’s far west end. He leads a small team of legal professionals, staff and students providing advice and representation in the areas of housing, social assistance, employment, and immigration. Formerly the supervising lawyer for housing law at Downtown Legal Services from 2014 through 2022, Ben recently served as President of the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education and is almost as passionate about teaching and mentoring students as he is about poverty lawyering. Admitted to the bar of Ontario in 2010 and of New York State in 2015, Ben’s primary expertise is in Ontario landlord-tenant law, housing subsidy systems, equality rights in housing, the right to housing at international law, and the interactions between housing, homelessness, and health.