Affiliation: Assistant Professor, ֱ, Faculty of Law
Country: Canada
Abstract: The Critical Case Comment: Integrating Reflective Practice in a Substantive Upper-Year Course
Law students learn to read and brief appeal court decisions. They seldom see the whole decision or engage with the decision of the court of first instance, where procedural and evidentiary features of the case set the foundation for the appeal court’s work. The story of the case and the people impacted by it recede into the distance. This presentation describes a case comment assignment used in an upper year seminar course that allows students to engage critically with a first instance decision from a range of perspectives. The assignment itself includes critical and self-reflection. Through peer-review of class presentation of the assignment, students engage in critical reflection to provide constructive feedback. Through receipt of anonymized feedback from peers, students engage in self- and integrative reflection as they finalize the written assignment. This presentation engages with two of the foundational concerns shaping the Symposium’s scope and purpose: developing critically reflective praxis and advancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Bio: Debra M Haak is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University, Canada, where she teaches courses on Criminal Law, Constitutional Law and Feminist Legal Studies. Debra’s research focusses on how the state contends with interests, rights and values in tension. She is particularly interested in how courts contend with women’s rights in tension and in the intersection of law and evidence about the social world. Debra is co-director of Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s, an interdisciplinary research group that critically examines how legal systems and practices have excluded, devalued, or harmed women and other marginalized groups. Her current SSHRC funded research project - Sex in the Age of Gender - looks at how the integration of gender into the human rights landscape may impact how we understand and protect women’s rights. Dr Haak’s research and teaching draw on 20 years' practice experience as a commercial litigator.
Where presenting: Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Conference
Affiliation: PhD Student, Charles Darwin University
Country: Australia
Abstract: Epistemic Urbanism and Law’s Reflective Governance
Epistemic injustice involves control of knowledge systems, standpoints, and critique. Practices of epistemic injustice, and their power formations, carry out adverse discrimination and subordination world-wide and locally. This paper applies ‘lawyering in three dimensions’, encapsulated by Lucie White, to suggest reflective and reflexive tools to help counter epistemic urbanism in law school and in legal practices. Epistemic urbanism applies majoritarianism and utilitarianism to de-value human rights inclusion of people, people and groups in remote and rural areas. However, lawyering in three dimensions can be a powerful counter-pedagogy which uses the law when it is propitious (first dimension), tries to reform the law when it isn’t (second dimension), and tries to build the power of subordinated groups to withstand and ultimately permanently overcome (third dimension).
Bio: Judith’s PhD research is exploring whether human rights are optimised for rights and inclusion of peoples, people and groups in 4Rs areas. Judith was admitted to legal practice in 1981, has decades of experience as a senior lawyer in non-profit legal assistance sectors (including multiple Australian jurisdictions), national NGO leadership, praxis- focused legal academic, law reform, legal policy and consulting - especially justice and access to justice. Cross- cutting themes include women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, regional, rural, remote and very remote areas. Currently co-convenor of the National Network of Regional, Rural, Remote and Very Remote Community Legal Services (‘4Rs Network’) - about 85 organizations. Celebrating the UN Commission on the Status of Women 70th session (March 2026), priority theme on access to justice for women and girls, and the 2026 International Women’s Day theme ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls' (especially the word ‘ALL’!).
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: LLM Student, University of Windsor Faculty of Law
Country: Canada
Abstract: Integrating Traditional Indigenous Learning Styles in Legal Education: Creating Reflective Learning in Law
Although clinical and experiential education is not mandatory in most law schools in Canada, clinics are an important site of learning essential intellectual and emotional skills. Many clinics in Canada include a (usually mandatory) seminar. These seminars take many forms, from “case rounds” to critical reflection on the law. Based on a review of publicly available syllabi from these seminars, this presentation analyzes, first, the content of these seminars. The paper will explore integrating traditional Indigenous learning styles, such as oral traditions, as a way to encourage reflective legal practice. The paper will focus on how reflective practice is understood in seminars and the pedagogies and assessments used to encourage reflective practice. Examining the current standard of self-reflection, proposing that introducing Indigenous styles of learning can open students up in a safe space to express personal reflections and share what they have learned about the practice of law and themselves with their classmates. The ability to share the struggles as well as shared experiences will create more reflective lawyering in the future.
Bio: As a Haudenosaunee woman in the LLM program at Windsor Law, my research focuses on experiential learning opportunities and clinic opportunities in partnership with First Nation communities to work towards meaningful reconciliation. Approaching my research from traditional Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe teachings, I aim to create positive change in the realm of legal education, providing opportunities for open dialogue in the classroom where students can express their feelings of imposter syndrome, the learning curve and mental/emotional difficulties that come with starting work in the legal field.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: No current affiliation, graduated from the McGill University Faculty of Law
Country: Canada
Abstract: Situating Law within Systems of Power: Promoting Critical Reflexivity Through Curricular Reform
This presentation is co-presented with Safeera Jaffer. As Foluke Adebisi observes, “law is very strategically placed as a discipline and profession to contemplate the transformation of the world.” Indeed, Canada’s existence is built on legal tools that facilitated colonialism, including the doctrine of discovery and terra nullius. Law and legal education are thus critical sites of power, yet students are rarely prompted to grapple with critical legal history, interrogate whose interests law serves, or reflect on their roles as future practitioners within these systems. Confronting today’s legal and social challenges, which are connected to the law’s ongoing institutional violence, requires students to situate law within systems of power and to reflect critically on their responsibilities in this field. To address this, law schools should require an introductory course on critical legal history and integrate relevant histories into all substantive courses, ensuring that law is taught in the context of its broader societal and structural impacts. Curricular reform should be paired with engagement with legal pluralism and the adoption of critical pedagogies and reflexivity, fostering the recognition that law is socially produced.
Bio: Ashna Hudani (HBSc, BCL/JD) completed her legal education at McGill University, where she learned both common and civil law systems. Her interests in research and law include critical legal history, systemic advocacy, and anti-oppression.
Where presenting: Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Legal Education (NTCLE) Conference
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Affiliation: Director of Admissions and Education, Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
Country: Canada
Abstract: Reflective Practice Across the Lawyer Lifecycle: From Bar Admission to CPD
This presentation is co-presented with Barbara Bailey. This session will explore how reflective practice is being embedded across the continuum of legal professional development. Drawing on examples from the Law Society of Alberta and the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, the presenters will examine how structured reflective exercises are being used to support both entry-to-practice learning and post-call continuing professional development (CPD). The session will highlight Alberta’s competency-based CPD model, including its Professional Development Profile and CPD Tool, which guide lawyers through self-assessment, goal setting, and year-end reflection. It will also profile how reflective practice is embedded within Newfoundland and Labrador’s bar admission program, supporting student reflection on professional identity, competency development, and challenging experiences throughout the articling term. Together, these perspectives will show how reflective practice can be meaningfully integrated into legal education and regulation to enhance competence, self-awareness, and professional growth.
Bio: I am the Director of Admissions and Education with the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador and a member of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada’s Admissions and Education Working Group. I have also served as President of the Association of Canadian Legal Education Directors. In my current role, I oversee bar admission and continuing professional development programming in Newfoundland and Labrador. I recently completed a Master’s Degree in Education (Post-Secondary Education), during which I focused on legal education and competency-based approaches to professional development.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Executive Director, Professional Development and Competence, Law Society of Ontario
Country: Canada
Abstract: Encouraging Reflective Practice at the Law Society of Ontario
This presentation explores how reflective practice is embedded within the Law Society of Ontario’s continuing professional development programs to support professional competence and growth. Drawing on Foundations of Sole Practice and Shared Pathways, it highlights how structured reflection – though guided prompts and self-reflection journals – helps lawyers and paralegals assess risk, make informed decisions, and adapt their practice over time, while also advancing broader goals such as culturally responsive practice and reconciliation.
Bio: Naomi Horrox is the Executive Director, Professional Development and Competence at the Law Society of Ontario. She leads departments responsible for licensing, accreditation, quality assurance reviews, continuing professional development, practice supports and resources, and legal information services for Ontario’s legal professions. Her experience spans professional credentialing, practice management, adult education, and regulatory modernization. She also contributes to national initiatives through her work with the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Naomi holds a certificate in Adult Training and Development from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and has taught Professional Responsibility at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Where presenting: ֱ Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle, Australia
Country: Australia
Abstract: Creative Assessment as a Site of Reflective Practice in Legal Education
This paper is co-authored with Sarah Hook and Sheridan Clark. As automation and generative AI increasingly shape legal practice, ethical judgment, critical reflection, creativity, collaboration, and care remain important professional capacities. Reflective practice offers a valuable framework for humanising legal education, yet remains unevenly embedded in legal curricula, particularly through assessment design. This paper examines how creative assessment can cultivate critically reflective praxis in legal education for both law students and law teachers. Drawing on a cross‑institutional study of two Australian private law electives, Internet Law (University of Newcastle) and Intellectual Property Law (Western Sydney University), the paper analyses student and marker experiences of a creative assessment task informed by open pedagogy. Students produced creative works that critiqued legal issues for non‑expert audiences, wrote reflective commentaries on their work, and participated in peer learning through a public showcase. Drawing on survey data, qualitative interviews, and marker reflections, our findings indicate that creative assessments foster risk‑taking, higher‑order thinking, and critical reflection, supporting meaningful communication of legal ideas to lay publics. The findings also highlight the importance of educators clearly articulating assessment criteria, actively supporting students to develop critically reflective perspectives on law and justice, and encouraging them to work through the discomfort of moving beyond familiar or “safe” responses.
Bio: Dr Marie Hadley is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law and Justice, University of Newcastle, Australia. Her teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that creativity is an essential cognitive tool for lawyers, enabling deeper critical thinking and more flexible problem-solving in an AI-mediated landscape. Committed to open, public-facing knowledge practices and to the principle that legal knowledge should circulate back to, and be enriched by, the communities it serves, she employs arts-based pedagogies and multimodal resources to engage learners and foster creative, critical, and socially responsive approaches to law. Dr Hadley is a national award-winning educator, recognised for her arts-based pedagogies, innovative curriculum design, and leadership in skills education. Her integration of Art + Law research into teaching and learning has underpinned multiple teaching awards.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: PhD Candidate, Law School, College of Law, College of Law, Governance and Policy; The Australian National University
Country: Australia
Abstract: Decolonising Legal Education Through Indigenous Perspectives: Towards Reflective Lawyering in Myanmar
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Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: Manager, Education Design & Multimedia, Faculty of Law, Monash University
Country: Australia
Abstract: Using AI to Enhance Metacognition and Reflective Practice in Legal Education
Bio: Dr Craig Horton is the Senior Education Designer for the Faculty of Law at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Several dull years of lecturing in large undergraduate English courses inspired a deeply held commitment to improving the design, delivery, development and evaluation of student-centred teaching & learning in higher education. With a special focus on the importance of reflective practice for both teachers and learners, Craig works directly with professional legal educators in a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. His design focus is built around co-creating and embedding resources, activities and assessments that promote increased learner metacognition and promote reflective practice as a crucial part of legal pedagogy. His recent research explores the role that Artificial Intelligence can play as a Cognitive Companion for learners in a range of Legal education contexts.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference