Professor Claire Houston joined Western Law in 2018. She teaches and researches primarily in family law and children’s law. Her scholarship explores the rights of children in family law disputes, feminist legal theory and family law, and access to family justice. Professor Houston was the 2021 recipient of the Western Law Dean’s Research Fellowship for her project on spousal support for men. She is an award-winning teacher, having received the Western Law Award for Teaching Excellence in 2024 and the university-wide Marilyn Robinson Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2025.

Professor Houston’s work has been published, or is forthcoming, in the McGill Law Journal, Canadian Journal of Family Law, Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, and Family Court Review. Her scholarship has been supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Law Foundation of Ontario, and University of Western Ontario. She is co-editor (with Mary-Jo Maur and Nicholas Bala) of the casebook Family Law: Text, Cases, Materials & Notes, 10th Edition. Professor Houston is a frequent presenter at judicial education seminars and professional education programs for family lawyers.

Professor Houston completed her S.J.D. at Harvard Law School where she was a Byse Teaching Fellow and Julius B. Richmond Fellow at Harvard University’s Centre on the Developing Child. She also holds an LL.B. from Queen’s University and a B.A. (Hons) from Trent University. She articled at the Ontario Office of the Children’s Lawyer before clerking for Justices Goudge, Laskin, Rosenberg, and Simmons of the Ontario Court of Appeal.