Affiliation: Professor, University of Victoria
Country: Canada
Abstract: Embodiment as Critical Reflection: Images and Art in the Law School Classroom
A thick and diverse approach to legal education should enable students to learn to live at ease with multiple truths, irresolvable conflicts, abundant ambiguities, and ironies galore (Arthurs, Connecting the Dots, 94). And at the same time, it needs to include at its heart the means through which to revisit and reconsider prior commitments in light of other commitments, changed circumstances or new information (Gewirtzman, Our Founding Feelings, 668). Drawing upon a 2024 survey that asked graduates of UVic Law to connect the courses and teaching methods that they encountered during their law degrees with the competencies that are most important to their day-to-day practice, this paper reflects on a series of exercises where students put their bodies into the learning of law. It then posits these innovative acts of reflective practice as moments of transformation learning; acts of social justice integral to the work of training students to be both humane professionals and good human beings.
Bio: Gillian Calder is a Professor and former Associate Dean at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law, where she teaches Constitutional Law, Family Law and related seminars from feminist, queer and anti-colonialist perspectives. Gillian’s research has focused on questions of legal imagination, theories of constitutional law, law's impact on our understanding of the family and family formation, performativity and storytelling. Her recent work queries law and emotion, where she is weaving connections between teaching, embodiment and social location. Throughout, she is keenly interested in critical legal pedagogy and is working on a monograph that examines the role creativity, ethical imagination and empathy should play in a legal education.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor of Law, Director of Experiential Learning, University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law
Country: Hawaii
Abstract: Reflection as Resistance: The Personal-Professional Identity Dialectic and Political Agency
As the accelerating and interlapping crises around us unfold, we find ourselves simultaneously overwhelmed and compelled to act. Yet as their interconnections clarify—between the climate emergency and fascism, between racism and war, between imperialism and poverty, between freedom and the right to control women’s bodies and choose whom we love—we also find ourselves needing perspective, analysis. In this article, I explore reflection as resistance, or the revolutionary act of contemplation, of the need to transform reflection into strategic action. In particular, in this article, I focus on our identities and multiple consciousness to inform action—in historicizing ourselves and our community’s struggles to examine the contingencies of history and, therefore, political agency.
Bio: Eduardo R.C. Capulong is a professor of law and director of experiential learning at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law. He taught previously at CUNY School of Law, University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law, NYU School of Law, and Stanford Law School. His recent scholarship addresses professional identity formation, legal education, reflection, democracy, and the rule of law.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Junior Legal Researcher, Radboud University
Country: Netherlands
Abstract: The Ethical Lawyer of the Future: Challenges and Opportunities for Fostering Reflection on Broader Societal Context in a Law School
This presentation is co-presented with Anna Pivaty. Reflection on the broader social context of legal problems is increasingly recognized as essential in legal education, particularly during rule-of-law crises. However, traditional legal education models are ill-fitted to integrate such reflection. This presentation is a case study of obstacles and opportunities for embedding reflection on societal context at the law school of Radboud University (Netherlands), based on interviews with staff and students and our experience at the Radboud Law Clinic. Although the law school adheres to the traditional positive law-oriented teaching model, both staff and students acknowledge the importance of reflecting on broader societal issues. Challenges for integrating such reflection include not only curricular inflexibility and traditional assessment methods, but also failure to demonstrate relevance and connect reflection to students' personal experiences. Radboud Law Clinic seeks to address these challenges by offering experiential learning opportunities that foster critical global citizenship. Understanding these challenges and opportunities can help traditionally oriented law schools embed meaningful reflection on societal context into their curricula.
Bio: Aurora L.M. Canova is a Junior Legal Researcher at Radboud University, contributing to several projects led by Dr. Anna Pivaty, including on AI fairness in criminal justice and on critical perspectives in legal education. Combining expertise in European Law (LLB) and Forensic Sciences (LLM, cum laude, Honours), she focuses primarily on vulnerability and procedural rights of suspects in EU law. Building on her teaching experience in international, European, and comparative law at Maastricht University, Aurora is also particularly passionate about innovative approaches to legal education and problem-based learning.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor of Practice, University of California, Los Angeles
Country: USA
Abstract: Refined Reflection: A Second Look at Models of Reflection
This paper will review and update a previous work, Reflective Practice: The Stages of Reflection (Casey, Clin. L. Rev. 2014). The “Stages of Reflection” model envisioned six stages of reflection, each building on the prior stage. The model provides a useful tool for experiential educators who seek structure for reflections. The model also provides guidance – and examples – for students. But the model may need revision. This paper seeks to expand and further develop the cognitive basis underlying the model and to further explain the process of cognitive development among both undergraduate and graduate students. For example, the Stages of Reflection paper noted development along an axis from “binary thinking” to “contextual thinking.” This paper takes a deeper dive into the application of cognitive science to our experience in teaching in experiential legal education.
Bio: Prof. Casey's seminal work (2014) on RP in clinical legal education is the most internationally cited RP article in Law. He regularly teaches lecture courses in Legal Ethics and experiential seminars in criminal law to Juris Doctor level students. He also regularly presents at regional, national and international conferences on RP. A former Fulbright Scholar and legal aid lawyer, he has taught at five American law schools and two law schools in Argentina. He is a member of influential law teaching networks like the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE), the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education (IJCLE), and is currently on the Editorial Board of the US Clinical Law Review.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Associate Professor, University of Melbourne
Country: Australia
Abstract: Reflective Practice and Fostering Creativity and Embedding Essential Human Qualities in Legal Education
Associate Professor Gary Cazalet proposes to contribute an article exploring the role of creativity in fostering reflective practice. Across a range of subjects—including trial advocacy, future lawyering, law and technology, and law and literature—he has embedded reflection as a core element of teaching, learning, and assessment. His presentation will examine how practices such as in class handwritten note-taking and handwritten and illustrated journalling have supported students in developing their professional identity, clarifying their values, and enhancing their wellbeing. He will also reflect on how cultivating reflective practice helps embed essential human qualities in legal education at a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping the legal profession.
Bio: Associate Professor Gary Cazalet has been a member of Melbourne Law School for over 20 years. He is the Co-Covenor of the Education Focussed Careers Community of Practice at the University of Melbourne and has been the Director of Teaching at the Law School. Prior to joining the Law School, he was a barrister, mediator and solicitor. Gary has been invited to teach and give workshops and papers nationally and internationally on experiential learning, creative thinking and reflective practice. He is currently writing a book on how creativity supports not only better legal thinking and problem-solving but also greater resilience, satisfaction, and purpose in the legal profession.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
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Affiliation: Reader, Warwick Business School (WBS), University of Warwick
Country: England
Abstract: A Collaborative Reflection on Approaches to Reflective Learning for Students of Law
This presentation is co-presented with Hannah Gibbons-Jones. Interdisciplinary collaboration is becoming an increasingly important workplace skill (Rowe & Zegwaard, 2017) but the approaches to cross disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning depends on the teaching context. It is proposed that this context can provide professional learning for the student of law as well as for the legal academic teaching them.
As academics from different institutional backgrounds and different law-based programmes, our research focuses on how reflective learning is both interpreted and experienced by students from diverse backgrounds (Burkett 2012). The design of reflective practice undertaken has been informed by Brookfield’s student-centred “Letters to Successors” reflective approach (2017) and used in an undergraduate interdisciplinary module, and this is compared with co-operative collaboration as a method of introducing opportunities for individual professional reflective learning for LLM students (Race 2006).
This reflective presentation will share the teacher and learner journeys, and the commonalities identified regarding the impact of reflective learning between two groups of students and their teaching focused academics. Selected theoretical frameworks will be discussed pertaining to reflective practice (Brookfield, 2017; Harvey, Coulson & McMaugh 2016). Our thematic analysis methodology (Braun & Clarke, 2006) can be adapted and implemented by delegates from any discipline/institution.
Our presentation will share how in partnership with students we use and adapt reflective learning to improve student confidence, criticality, and meta-cognition within our respective programmes. Professional Learning here is based on the intentional communication with a colleague and the curation of a balanced and supported conversational space, which creates that opportunity for authenticity, recognition of feelings, mentoring, and peer connection, as well as future planning and development (Baker, Jensen & Kolb 2002). This collaborative reflection aims to share with fellow educators how reflection can underpin lifelong learning for both the student and teacher.
Bio: Leela Cejnar is a Reader at the Warwick Business School (WBS), University of Warwick, where she teaches in the undergraduate business law program. Leela has also previously held academic positions in Australia. Her background includes experience in legal practice in Australia. Leela’s current scholarship focuses on the use of reflective practice to understand why and how non-law students study law, with the aim of identifying ways to improve student learning and teaching practices. She is also engaged in scholarship focusing on interdisciplinary effectiveness in enabling the transferability of skills into the workplace and the future of legal education. Leela holds a PhD in Law and has previously researched and published in competition and consumer law. Leela is currently an Editor in the Policy and Educational Developments Team of The Law Teacher and is a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy.
Where presenting: Nottingham Trent Centre for Legal Education Conference (NTCLE)
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Affiliation: Professor of Professional Legal Education, Nottingham Trent University Faculty of Law and Director, Centre for Legal Education
Country: United Kingdom
Abstract: Professional Adolescence: Towards a Terminology for Liminality in Legal Education
On qualification, the new lawyer looks backwards, drawing on their educational experiences so far including in particular of work experience/training contract/articles. They also look forward, to their burgeoning career. For English solicitors, this requires a balancing between the regulatory drive for minimum competence marked by the competence statement (SRA, 2022) and the personal drive to extend their “scope and quality” (Eraut, 1994: 167) towards expertise and independence (Ching, 2012; Ching et al., 2015). Especially where professional formation is sequential, developing terminology for this and other liminal stages helps young and aspiring lawyers (and other professionals) succeed in the classroom and especially in the workplace. It provides a benchmark for educators and supervisors to reflect on our own practices and how we seek to equip our students to transcend their professional adolescence and to thrive. how this can be fortified in those entering the profession who feel a vocation to the law.
Bio: Dr. Jane Ching is Professor of Professional Legal Education at Nottingham Law School, UK, where she is Director of the Centre for Legal Education and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research on the regulatory and cultural structures and experiences of early career professional legal education has led her to work in over twenty countries, including as a member of the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR) research team in England and Wales. She has a particular interest in the use of reflection techniques with practising professionals.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
Country: USA
Abstract: Reflective Practices in Restorative Legal Pedagogy
This presentation is co-presented with Inga Laurent. This article explores fostering enhanced capacity for reflective inquiry and practice in legal education through a restorative pedagogical approach. Teaching restoratively employs self-reflection, regulation, and consensus-based decision-making. It engages reflective practices to teach collaboration, tolerance of ambiguity, complex problem-solving, questioning the status quo, prefiguration, and resistance to binary thinking. Restorative pedagogy builds skills vital to a healthy legal profession: emotional intelligence, cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, and dialogic skills. The use of holistic, reflective, and circle-based practices grounded in the pillars of restorative justice (respect, self-reflection, relationship, community, and dialogue) can mitigate the elements of legal education contributing to our current “polycrisis.” Restorative practices develop emotional awareness and self- compassion, build skills for respectful and effective communication, elevate and honour the voices and experiences of historically marginalized people, and protect against the burnout and dehumanization that can amplify the worst aspects of our adversarial legal system.
Bio: Olwyn Conway is an Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at the American University Washington College of Law. She previously taught criminal clinics at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Prior to teaching, Professor Conway spent seven years as an Assistant Defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. Her scholarship focuses on narratives and storytelling in the criminal system, restorative justice, and restorative legal pedagogy.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Legal Education, Murdoch University
Country: Australia
Abstract: Reflection Will be the Thing That Saves You: Linking Reflective Practice to Wellbeing and Happiness in Graduating Students
This presentation will outline the links between reflection and wellbeing in practice and explore the approach taken with one cohort of graduating law students. More and more students are understanding the long-standing links between legal practice and negative impacts on wellbeing, including depression, substance abuse and unhappiness. In trying to undermine the tendency of graduates to see unsustainable work practices as simply ‘part of the job’, reflective practice plays a crucial role. This session will explore that role and suggest some ways to harness this insight to improve both the wellbeing and the practice of graduating lawyers. An added bonus is that students approach reflection with a new enthusiasm when they understand that, rather than something else they have to do or learn, it is their lifeline and key to a sustainable and happy legal career.
Bio: I have been teaching in a clinic for two and a half decades, and a fundamental part of my teaching is ethical and reflective practice. Since writing the chapter on reflection in Australian Clinical Legal Education 2017 (Evans et al.), I have developed a clinical curriculum and continued to research and publish in this area. Most recently publishing “Ethics, Clinics and Unbearable Hierarchy of Law’ in Wellness for Law: Reflecting on the Past Shaping the Future” (2024, Marychurch et al.) I am also active in clinical and broader teaching networks, particularly around the use of reflection to fundamentally change the institution of law teaching from one that maintains the status quo, to one that embraces change and seeks justice. Through this process, we can change the legal profession and take the long resident ‘thumb’ off the scales of justice.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual symposium
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Affiliation: Associate Professor Clinical legal Education & Research Impact Lead Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University
Country: England
Abstract: Reflective Practice: Its Value in Creating Improvements in Service Delivery and Advancing People Centred Justice
Reflective practice is used in research and evaluation to respond to systemic challenges. Drawing on integrated practice studies, particularly Health Justice Partnerships, Curran shows its influence on practice change, funding, and service delivery improvements that advance people-centred justice. It underpins her evaluation method, with collective reflection strengthening communication and collaborative problem solving. Reflective Practice Conversations and professional development journals, guided by prompting questions, enable staff and managers to pause and consider what they do, why, and what works. Described as transformational, the approach builds capability in integrated service delivery, effectiveness, access to justice, and social determinants of health outcomes. The paper details how this work has shaped practice, organizational culture, workforce issues, structural impediments, and the resilience of staff and communities.
Bio: Dr. Curran is a legal practitioner of 30+ years in private and public law. Her research spans access to justice, integrated practice, health justice partnerships, legal empowerment, legal ethics, and effective practice across Australia, the UK, and Canada. She has worked in NGOs, government, consultancy, senior advisory roles, and directed charities, human rights organizations, legal practices, and clinical legal education programs. She is the sole author of “Better Law for a Better World” (Routledge UK), has written five book chapters, 30 peer-reviewed articles, 80 non-refereed publications, and at least 25 industry reports. Her work focuses on client-centred and trauma-informed practice, effective legal practice, ethics, and legal education since 1995. She has influenced policy and funding and contributes to policy, law reform, research, legal empowerment, and UK government advisory bodies.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor Honorary, School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland
Country: Australia
Abstract: Student Voice and the Evaluation of Reflexive Legal Pedagogies in an Automated Age
This presentation is co-presented with Julie Copley. Evaluative human judgment is essential to analysing, shaping and defending legal claims, and to law’s role in securing safety and human flourishing in modern democracies. The growing use of synthetic intelligence creates a watershed for law, and for educating future lawyers in traditional substantive law courses using established pedagogical strategies. The wider literature indicates that reflexive pedagogies for enhanced evaluative judgment can limit generative artificial intelligence’s compromise of analytical abilities and capacities for critical assessment. Relevant to law, these reflexive pedagogies might steer legal education through and beyond the watershed, especially if situated within employability learning. This presentation shares key findings of a funded, interdisciplinary employability learning research project. It evaluates quantitative and qualitative data from the students’ voices and experiences of reflexive educational practice in two Priestley 11 Torts courses, undergraduate and post-graduate. The mixed methods analysis of the data demonstrates student engagement in a reflective process concerning their values, emerging professional identity, and well-being and resilience; namely, their ontological insecurity. The pedagogies of reflection included active, problem-based learning which involved reflection on GAI as a tool for error-based learning and the ethical use of synthetic intelligence by future graduates in the modernising world of employment and industry.
Bio: Professor (Honorary) Lynda Crowley-Cyr SFHEA has over 30 years’ experience in legal education at the University of Southern Queensland and previously at James Cook University, and is admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: Honorary Adjunct Academic, Institute for Communities and Regional Development, University of Southern Queensland
Country: Australia
Abstract: Student Voice and the Evaluation of Reflexive Legal Pedagogies in an Automated Age
This presentation is co-presented with Lynda Crowley-Cyr. Evaluative human judgment is essential to analysing, shaping and defending legal claims, and to law’s role in securing safety and human flourishing in modern democracies. The growing use of synthetic intelligence creates a watershed for law, and for educating future lawyers in traditional substantive law courses using established pedagogical strategies. The wider literature indicates that reflexive pedagogies for enhanced evaluative judgment can limit generative artificial intelligence’s compromise of analytical abilities and capacities for critical assessment. Relevant to law, these reflexive pedagogies might steer legal education through and beyond the watershed, especially if situated within employability learning. This presentation shares key findings of a funded, interdisciplinary employability learning research project. It evaluates quantitative and qualitative data from the students’ voices and experiences of reflexive educational practice in two Priestley 11 Torts courses, undergraduate and post-graduate. The mixed methods analysis of the data demonstrates student engagement in a reflective process concerning their values, emerging professional identity, and well-being and resilience; namely, their ontological insecurity. The pedagogies of reflection included active, problem-based learning which involved reflection on GAI as a tool for error-based learning and the ethical use of synthetic intelligence by future graduates in the modernising world of employment and industry.
Bio: Dr Julie Copley SFHEA is a hybrid legal educator with extensive experience spanning academia, parliamentary service, the public sector, and industry, and is admitted to legal practice in the Supreme Court of Queensland. Together, they lead an interdisciplinary project team exploring the value of employability learning in law programmes.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: National Legal Aid (Australia)
Country: Australia
Abstract: Trauma-Informed Lawyering: Reflective Practice Crucial to Safety for Clients and for Lawyers
Lawyers for clients with trauma histories are crucial intermediaries between individuals and the opaque legal system. A lawyer who can recognise and respond to their client’s trauma can be effective, safe and protect dignity. Reflective practice is key to lawyers practising sustainably and safely in high trauma contexts. However, there are numerous barriers to implementation in legal assistance services, despite their importance in serving clients with the most complex needs. Barriers include the relative novelty of reflective practice to the legal profession, underfunding and high achieving cultures that undervalue emotional awareness. This presentation draws on Australian case studies to examine how reflective practice has been successfully implemented across legal assistance services. It identifies the conditions that enabled uptake, as well as practical lessons for embedding reflective practice in similar settings. Jennifer’s work at National Legal Aid has involved encouraging reflective practice through initiating a groundbreaking pilot in three Australian states/territories, ongoing advocacy with leaders and by disseminating examples of best practice. In 2024, she completed a Churchill Fellowship regarding trauma-informed lawyering for clients experiencing marginalisation. Her international research was built on analysis of 78 interviews with 111 participants across the Philippines, Thailand, the UK, Scotland, and Canada.
Bio: Jennifer Chen leads the National Legal Aid With You Training Project, which delivers trauma-informed, rights-based training for lawyers, allied professionals and support staff working with people experiencing distress, mental ill-health or suicidality. The project supports practice change across Legal Aid Commissions, Community Legal Centres, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services. A strong advocate for co-design, Jennifer has led the development and delivery of training in partnership with people with lived experience of trauma. The With You has been recognised by awards, including the LearnX Platinum Award. An independent evaluation (2025) found the project led to significant improvements in trauma-informed practice knowledge and confidence across the legal assistance sector. Jennifer is a Churchill Fellow who explored trauma-informed approaches for clients experiencing marginalisation, interviewing 111 stakeholders across five jurisdictions. She is a regular conference presenter, including at the International Mental Health Law Congress and the Australian Trauma Informed Law Conference.
Where presenting: TBA