Gail Henderson is the Director of the Business Law Program at Queen’s Law. She researches and teaches in the areas of consumer financial protection, financial literacy and investor education, securities regulation, corporate law and contracts. Her research focuses on the regulation of financial products and services aimed at vulnerable consumers. She was principal investigator on an interdisciplinary SSHRC-funded research project on financial literacy in Ontario elementary schools and a co-investigator on the Canadian Financial Diaries Project. She is a frequent media commentator on financial literacy and consumer protection.

Professor Henderson was recently appointed to the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investor Advisory Panel. She recently completed a five-year term on the Consumer Protection Advisory Committee of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. She also serves as a volunteer board member and treasurer of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network. She served a two-year term as Queen’s Law Associate Dean (Faculty) from July 2020 to June 2022 and interim Associate Dean (Academic Policy) from January 2022 to June 2022.

Professor Henderson graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School as Gold Medalist in 2005 and served as law clerk to The Honourable Louise Charron of the Supreme Court of Canada. Prior to pursuing graduate studies at the University of Toronto, she practiced commercial litigation and environmental and municipal law at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto. Prior to joining Queen’s Law in 2016, she was Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law.

Recent research projects

“This Little Piggy Went Banking: Examining Conflicts of Interest in Financial Literacy Education Materials”, funded by SSHRC Insight Development grant, awarded June 2017. For more information about the project, please see: https://finlitproject.org/   

Canadian Financial Diaries project. For more information, please see: https://financialdiariesca.wordpress.com/.  

Recent Publications & Presentations

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

  • “The New Criminal Rate of Interest and What it Means for Financial Consumers” (2025) 69 Canadian Business Law Journal 308 (peer-reviewed).
  • Gail E Henderson and Katlin Abrahamson, “Informing the Debate on Lowering the Criminal Rate of Interest” (2024) 47:1 Dal LJ 121 (peer-reviewed, open access: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/dlj/vol47/iss1/).
  • “Securities Regulators and Investor Education” in Stephanie Ben-Ishai, ed, Dangerous Opportunities (University of Toronto Press, 2021).
  • Gail E Henderson, Pamela Beach and Andrew Coombs, “Financial Literacy Education in Ontario: An Exploratory Study of Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions, Attitudes, and Practices” (2021) 44:2 Canadian Journal of Education 308-336 (peer-reviewed, open access: 2.-4249-Henderson-et-al.-June-24_308-336.pdf (cje-rce.ca)).
  • Kevin Akrong and Gail E Henderson, “COVID-19 and the Regulation of Alternative Financial Services”, (2021) 46 Queen’s Law Journal 357-372. (open access: https://journal.queenslaw.ca/issues)

Presentations

  • “Banking Law as Poverty Law,” “Financial Vulnerability,” and “The Nunavut Law Program: Providing Opportunity for Legal Education in Nunavut,” Canadian Association of Law Teachers annual meeting, Saskatoon, June 9-11, 2025.
  • With Micheline Gleixner, “The Trials and Tribulations of Regulating the Consumer Credit Industry,” The Purdy Crawford Conference on Contemporary Issues in Business Law, Halifax, September 27-28, 2024.
  • “From Financial Inclusion to Financial Resilience: Access to Basic Banking and Beyond”, Faculty Colloquium, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, March 14, 2024.
  • “‘Dare to Dream of a Feminist Dean’: The Story of Mary Jane Mossman and the Human Rights Complaint Against Osgoode Hall Law School,” Queen’s University Feminist Legal Studies annual conference, Kingston, March 8, 2024.