How this lawyer is spearheading innovation in his industry

Ara Arzumanian loves electricity. “It’s foundational to human life,” he explains. “There’s water, there’s food and then there’s energy.” He wasn’t always so passionate about this topic. In 2008, when he first joined Hydro One as legal counsel, he worked diligently on a range of legal tasks, such as negotiating major technology purchases and dealing with supply-chain issues. Though he had a firm grasp on the technological side of his work, he lacked expertise in the electricity sector.

In 2012, he decided to overcome that gap in his knowledge. So he enrolled in the energy and infrastructure law specialization of the Osgoode Professional LLM, a rigorous graduate program that he could complete on a part-time basis. In his coursework, one of the topics he explored was how innovation in his industry could improve lives and create a greener power grid.

The experience re-energized — pardon the pun — his career. “Today, I’m pursuing a lot of exciting projects,” he says. He has supported electrical vehicle charging in the province, and he’s worked on a pilot project that allows consumers to track their energy consumption through a user-friendly app.

Arzumanian was so pleased with the program that he chose to return as an instructor. He now teaches a course that examines the legal, policy, regulatory and financial barriers to energy innovation. “This is what I do every day now,” says Arzumanian. “And I trace a lot of it back to Osgoode.”