Desautels Business Law Accelerator launches new website

The Desautels Business Law Accelerator at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Law has officially launched its newly redesigned website, marking a significant milestone in the Accelerator’s continued growth and national reach. The launch coincides with the organization’s recent transition from the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law to the Desautels Business Law Accelerator, a rebrand that illustrates its expanding mandate and forward-looking focus on innovation and impact.

Developed after months of strategic planning, research, and design, the new platform reflects the Accelerator’s evolution into a modern hub for business law education, interdisciplinary scholarship, and community engagement. Beyond a visual redesign, the website is a dynamic digital home for collaboration and innovation among students, scholars, practitioners, and community partners throughout the province and across Canada.

“The launch of this new website marks a significant milestone for the Desautels Business Law Accelerator and for business law scholarship in Manitoba and beyond,” said Dr. Laura Reimer, Director of the Desautels Business Law Accelerator. “We designed it to be more than a digital platform — it is an interactive hub that actively convenes students, scholars, practitioners, and community partners around a shared commitment to strengthening business law in Canada.”

At the centre of the new website is the Scholar Idea Accelerator, a dedicated portal where faculty and students can submit proposals for research funding, conference support, and collaborative initiatives. A newly formalized Blog Submission Portal provides a structured pathway for publishing timely legal commentary at the intersection of law and private enterprise.

“As Western Canada’s premier Business Law Accelerator, our work is grounded in scholarship, innovation, and entrepreneurship,” Reimer added. “This new platform brings those commitments to life and invites the broader business law community to engage, collaborate, and build with us.”

The website itself emerged from an extensive student-led marketing audit and research initiative exploring the legal needs of Manitoba. It was built collaboratively by third-year law student Jayden Kyryluk and in-house graphic designer Evgeniya Lapanov.

“The process mirrors the core of the Accelerator: rigorous, entrepreneurial, and deeply collaborative,” Reimer said.

Students remain central to the work of the Accelerator. During the academic year, the program typically hires up to ten law students whose research and project work spans areas such as business law, artificial intelligence and technology, negotiations, legal education, and emerging issues in private enterprise. In the summer, the Accelerator expands this cohort by hiring four to five additional students, while also supporting Indigenous economic development research through the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic by employing an additional three to five students. These opportunities provide hands-on research, writing, and project experience that connects legal education directly with real-world legal and policy challenges.

To support these student initiatives, the new website features a dedicated “Get Involved” section brings together key opportunities in one place. It includes information on the Business Law Group, Research Assistant positions, the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic, the Canadian National Negotiation Competition, and other opportunities that shape the Robson Hall student experience. The platform also introduces a “Get Connected with a Business Law Lawyer” mentorship feature, designed to match students with practicing lawyers in areas such as corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, start-ups, and commercial practice.

Beyond its new features, the website also consolidates the Accelerator’s reports, publications, conferences, and student programming into a single accessible platform. Visitors can explore annual State of Business Law Reports, Impact Reports, Indigenous Economic Development resources, as well as major initiatives.

“This website reflects the growing maturity and national reach of the Accelerator,” Reimer said. “By highlighting our partnerships — including the Canadian Forum for Business and Human Rights, the Prairie Business Law Collaboration and its Justice Grows Here programming, the Stu Clark Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Canadian Academy for Legal Studies in Business — it demonstrates that meaningful business law innovation happens in networks.”

Reimer emphasized that the platform also brings visibility to the people driving the work. “It also showcases the scholarship of our Desautels Jurists, Dr. Bruce Curran, Dr. Katie Szilagyi, Dr. Opeyemi Bello, and of Professor Darcy MacPherson. Highlighted also are the impactful student research assistants past and present, and the tremendous contributions they have made to our expanding work.”

Reimer situated the launch within the broader evolution of legal education, saying, “the site also presents the opportunities of our Business Law Group, the law school’s largest student association, and the expanding Indigenous economic development work within the L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinic. Business law education today must be dynamic, connected, and outward facing to respond to the increasing complexities of the marketplace. This platform is an open invitation to participate in shaping the future of business law in Manitoba and across Canada.”

Readers are invited to explore the Desautels Business Law Accelerator’s website.

For information and inquiries, please contact Laura.Reimer@umanitoba.ca.