Affiliation: Lecturer, O.P. Jindal Global University
Country: India
Abstract: From Critique to Praxis: Building Reflective Capacity in Legal Education
Contemporary legal education faces a persistent gap between critical legal scholarship & professional formation. While doctrinal training remains central & critical perspectives are increasingly introduced, law schools often fail to cultivate reflective capacities that enable students to translate critique into responsible legal practice. This paper examines how reflective pedagogy can bridge this divide by embedding ethical judgment & contextual reasoning within legal education. Drawing on clinical legal education, community-based lawyering & judicial training initiatives, the paper analyzes pedagogical practices that institutionalise reflection as a core element of learning. Experiential clinics addressing bail reform, custodial justice & gender-based violence illustrate how guided reflection enables students to examine positionality, professional responsibility & the social consequences of legal intervention. The paper argues that sustaining such approaches requires institutional change that values reflexivity & sustained partnerships. These shifts move legal education beyond critique toward a reflective praxis capable of advancing reform-oriented & people-centred justice.
Bio: Avni Bahri is a socio-legal scholar & educator with extensive experience at the intersection of criminal justice, gender, human rights & institutional reform. Trained in law & grounded in both academic research and field-based practice, her work examines how legal institutions operate in everyday contexts, with a particular focus on prisons, policing, vulnerability, and access to justice. Her research draws on critical legal theory, feminist & caste-critical scholarship & comparative socio-legal methods, with a strong emphasis on translating critique into practice. As an educator, she integrates reflective pedagogy into legal education through clinical learning, experiential exercises & structured reflection, enabling students to connect doctrine, ethics & lived realities of law. Her work is especially attentive to developing self-reflection, collective reflection & critically engaged praxis among emerging legal professionals.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Manager, Education, Law Society of Alberta
Country: Canada
Abstract: Reflective Practice Across the Lawyer Lifecycle: From Bar Admission to CPD
This presentation is co-presented with Christian Hurley. 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 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 was the staff lead on the team that designed and developed the Law Society of Alberta鈥檚 continuing professional development (CPD) program, as well as an online platform (the 鈥淐PD Tool鈥) that guides lawyers in Alberta through the creation of a CPD plan for each year. This process incorporates reflective practice, both in the selection of competencies to focus on each year, and in reflecting on the effectiveness of the learning activities the lawyer has engaged in to develop or enhance those competencies. We also worked with academics specializing in this area to create a course on reflective practice to help lawyers better understand how that process works and how it can benefit their CPD.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Assistant Professor and Education Scientist in the Department of Surgery at McMaster University; Research Associate, College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants
Country: Canada
Abstract: Reflective Practice and Public Protection: Professional Identity Formation in Immigration Practice
This presentation with Megan Marshall and Beata Pawlowska situates reflective practice at the intersection of professional identity formation, professional competence, and public protection. Taking immigration practice as its site of inquiry, it examines how reflective practice enables practitioners to interrogate their own assumptions, exercise judgment under conditions of uncertainty, and remain attentive to the technical, relational, and moral dimensions of practice. In this account, professional competence is not exhausted by technical proficiency; it includes disciplined reflection and the capacity to recognize how professional decisions are shaped by the lived realities of practitioners and those subject to immigration processes. The development of this dimension of competence becomes especially acute in the early years of practice, when the transition from learning environment to professional practice is often marked by uncertainty, readiness gaps, and heightened risk of attrition. From the perspective of a public-interest regulator, the cultivation of reflective competence is therefore integral to supporting professional identity formation, strengthening practice, and advancing public protection.
Bio: Dr. Cassandra Barber, PhD, is an Assistant Professor and Education Scientist in the Department of Surgery at McMaster University and a Scientist at the St. Joseph鈥檚 Healthcare Hamilton Research Institute. She is also an Adjunct Scientist with the McMaster Education Research, Innovation and Theory (MERIT) Centre and an ICES Scientist (Fellow). Dr. Barber is a demographer and health professions education researcher whose work focuses on surgical education, workforce distribution, and the relationship between training systems and patient outcomes. She holds a Master鈥檚 degree in Sociology from Western University and a PhD from the School of Health Professions Education at Maastricht University. Drawing on expertise in psychometrics, competency-based medical education, and population health methods, her research uses large-scale administrative data to examine how education systems influence healthcare quality, physician workforce distribution, and equitable access to care.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
Country: Canada
Abstract: Intersection of Indigenous Pedagogy in Reflective Practice to Create Opportunities for Connection and Solidarity Through Value Clarification and Ethical Engagement
This presentation and subsequent paper will engage with the intersection of Indigenous pedagogy in reflective practice to create opportunities for connection and solidarity through value clarification and ethical engagement. I provide several different examples of this work across different learning modalities, including teaching clinical praxis, Indigenous laws, and other subjects within the Canadian legal framework, such as sentencing and family law, as well as facilitating instruction to prepare law students for their bar exams through the PLTC program here in British Columbia. This presentation contemplates the value of reflective practice to support not just justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, but also decolonization and Indigenization in legal education and student learning in order to disrupt the normative violence of legal education in Canada.
Bio: I am M茅tis from Alberta. I bring both breadth and depth of experience teaching the value of self-reflective practice through a lens that engages Indigenous pedagogies across diverse modalities and to various learners, including law students, articling students, lawyers, civil servants, and judges. My work examines the intersections of justice and law, with an emphasis on the experiences of Indigenous peoples, and disrupting the normative violence of colonial legal education. My research focuses on Indigenous laws, access to justice for Indigenous peoples, decolonizing and Indigenizing law, and using Indigenous pedagogies in experiential learning and skills-based legal education and training. I currently teach in the areas of Indigenous and Aboriginal laws, including M茅tis law, family law, and Indigenous and feminist legal theory. I have also practiced across a broad spectrum of law, including administrative, civil, class action, criminal, child protection, family, and prison law.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health and Access to Justice, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (French Common Law)
Country: Canada
Abstract: From Reflective Learning to Political Engagement: How Can We Get Students Interested in the Law of Marginalized People?
This presentation will be based on individual and collective community involvement experiments conducted as part of my Mental Health and the Law course and at the Outaouais Interdisciplinary Social Law Clinic, which works with people experiencing homelessness. These experiments are based on three premises: the association between social determinants of health and structural legal inequalities, the value of experience-based knowledge, and working directly with community groups. Through community involvement, students go beyond their theoretical knowledge to co-construct a comprehensive conception of justice rooted in community experiences and needs. As they become aware of their privileges and of different ways of transmitting and using their legal knowledge for the benefit of marginalized people and the groups that support them, they also question the role of legal professionals in structural social change.
Bio: I have been teaching Mental Health and the Law for over 10 years in the third year of law school, and I am part of the founding team of the Outaouais Interdisciplinary Social Law Clinic at the University of Ottawa. On the teaching front, I have had a number of community experiences, such as holding part of my classes in a museum featuring an exhibition of artworks by people who have experienced seclusion and restraint, conducting reflective work based on audience observations, and enrolling in the Community Service Learning Program, in which students produce research or documents for the benefit of community groups. I have also carried out several studies in legal clinics focusing on the experiences of students and users.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor, Universit茅 de Sherbrooke
Country: Canada
Abstract: Integrating Reflective Practice and Professional Identity Formation in Week 3 of L1: Too Soon?
This presentation is co-presented with V茅ronique Fortin. In Sept. 2024, Universit茅 de Sherbrooke introduced a new course entitled 鈥淏ecoming a Legal Professional鈥. This 45-hour course was developed in response to the study by Nathalie Cadieux et al. (2022) on the mental health of legal professionals in Canada, which revealed that more than half of the respondents reported experiencing psychological distress, with even higher rates for professionals with less than 10 years of practice. Through various experiential activities, the course aims to foster the development of transversal competencies, and to develop students' reflective practice, with particular attention to professional identity formation and reflections on the role of lawyers in society. Our contribution will outline the structure and objectives of the course, highlighting both its early successes and the challenges encountered in the first years of its implementation. In the Quebec context, where most law students enter law schools at 19 years old without prior undergraduate degree, we will discuss the issue of timing. Is it too soon to introduce professional identity formation as early as the third week of the first year of Law school? Spoiler alert: we think it is not.
Bio: After practicing law in private practice for nearly 10 years and arguing high-profile cases before all of Quebec鈥檚 courts, Claudia B茅rub茅 now devotes her time to teaching law as an adjunct professor at the Universit茅 de Sherbrooke. She also provides legal training to professionals and serves as a consulting attorney. In addition to teaching several undergraduate law courses, she is now involved in various special projects related to professional development and student wellbeing, including the design, implementation, and coordination of the new course "Becoming a Jurist". In her teaching, Ms. B茅rub茅 is particularly interested in active teaching methods and the use of technology to enhance learning.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Georgia Gwinnett College
Country: USA
Abstract: From Bedside Manner to Bar-Side Manner: Adapting Healthcare鈥檚 Emotional Intelligence Training for Legal Education
Through an analysis of these different autonomy models, the paper aims to highlight the distinctive benefits of the proposed approach and the role it can play in not only promoting client autonomy but also being mindful of the fact that lawyers are not merely 鈥榟ired guns鈥 but also have wider societal moral obligations.
Bio: Dr. Danni Bian is an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies in the School of Business at Georgia Gwinnett College. Dr. Bian teaches core business law courses including Legal Environment of Business and Regulation of the Accounting Profession and is admitted to practice law in Georgia and the District of Columbia. Her research examines issues in legal education, public policy, and institutional governance, with a focus on equity and emerging approaches to teaching and professional development.
Where presenting: Nottingham Trent Centre for Legal Education Conference (NTCLE)
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Affiliation: Professor of Legal Education, University of Leeds
Country: United Kingdom
Abstract: 'What Do We Want Them to Know and Do?鈥 Reflecting on the Development of the PRIME (Professions, Reflections, Identities, Motivations and Ethics) Module at the School of Law, University of Leeds
The PRIME module is a compulsory module for LLB Law students at the School of Law, University of Leeds. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only Law module of its kind within England and Wales, encompassing as it does employability-related skills and topics, but with a focus on individual and collective understandings of the self. The module is assessed by way of a reflective assessment, which proved the most difficult part of the module to decide upon during the design process (ahead of the module starting in September 2025). This paper will include the module leader鈥檚 reflections on how she worked through those difficulties, her satisfaction with the results, and her reflections on the first round of assessments written by the students. The paper will consider to what extent the module has achieved its aim of providing students with a space in which to consider not only what they want to be, but also who they want to be (during their studies and beyond), as well how well the assessment has captured their personal and learning gains during their first year of study.
Bio: I am a Professor of Legal Education at the School of Law, University of Leeds, where I have worked since 2005. In that time, I have been Director of Community Engagement (Pro Bono), Director of Academic Personal Tutoring, Director of Community and Belonging, Deputy Director of Student Education, Co-Director of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education, and a Fellow of the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence. I have authored and edited numerous publications focused upon the wellbeing of law students, legal academics and legal professionals, and am currently a Deputy Editor of the Law Teacher: The International Journal of Legal Education. I am also a founding member of Connecting Legal Education, an international community of practice with almost 400 members which to date has held over 70 online events focused upon teaching and learning practices, as well as an in-person conference. I am embedded within, and wholeheartedly committed to, both the student experience and the legal education communities: all of my leadership roles, and most of my scholarship, has been focused upon improving legal education for students, academics and professional services colleagues.
Where presenting: TBA
Affiliation: Lawyer and Assistant Professor at McGill University鈥檚 Faculty of Law
Country: Canada
Abstract: Access-to-Justice Education in Canada: Challenges and Potential for Reflective Practice
This presentation is co-presented with Valerie Le Blanc. Access-to-justice education is at a crossroads. In 2013, the Canadian Bar Association urged the profession to invest in law students as future access-to-justice practitioners through enhanced educational initiatives. Despite meaningful advances, the gap between unmet legal needs and lawyer capacity to fulfill them continues to grow. We must reexamine how current law school pedagogy reflects the broader, interdisciplinary system within which the law operates. Legal education must prepare students for real-world and systemic justice challenges. Building on research from the Access to Justice Education Initiative, we will identify and analyze key access-to-justice competencies. Our cross-jurisdictional research and consultations with scholars and justice system actors will reveal the core knowledge and skills required for people-centred lawyering. Our presentation will outline current and potential learning pathways that shape practice-ready, self-reflective, and resilient legal professionals. Finally, we will share how these findings will help to develop targeted educational materials for embedding access-to-justice competencies in law schools across Canada.
Bio: J茅r茅my Boulanger-Bonnelly is a lawyer and assistant professor at McGill University鈥檚 Faculty of Law, where his research focuses on access to justice in civil matters. He is particularly interested in legal and judicial reforms that promote citizen and community participation. He holds a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from the University of Toronto, where he was a Vanier Scholar and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada and as a civil litigation associate at Norton Rose Fulbright in Montreal. In addition to his research and teaching, he remains involved in several community initiatives, including pro bono constitutional litigation, various committees of the Canadian Bar Association, the National Self- Represented Litigants Project, and the Action Committee on Access to Justice. He is also a research affiliate at the Quebec Institute for Law and Justice Reform.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Queen's University
Country: Canada
Abstract: Rubrics for Reflection: Lessons Learned from a Case Study of an Indigenous Land-based Learning Course
Assessing law students鈥 reflective work presents persistent challenges, particularly within Canadian law schools where bell-curved grading regimes intersect uneasily with Indigenous legal education pedagogies. This presentation explores competing perspectives on whether, and how, reflection can be assessed productively within a mandatory curve that is already widely recognized as pedagogically fraught. Drawing on lessons I learned from the design and implementation of a criterion-referenced assessment in a land-based Indigenous law course, I examine how assessment can both support students鈥 development of meaningful reflective practices and promote fairness within constrained institutional grading structures. The discussion situates this work within broader conversations about decolonial assessment, identifying promising practices as well as the limits and unfinished work of aligning reflective assessment with Indigenous pedagogical commitments in legal education.
Bio: Lindsay Borrows is an Assistant Professor at 黑料吃瓜资源, Faculty of Law, where she teaches Indigenous law. She was named the inaugural holder of the Queen's Law Professorship in Indigenous Law & Governance in 2025. Prior to joining Queen's, she worked as a lawyer and researcher at the Indigenous Law Research Unit (University of Victoria Faculty of Law), and as a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. In both positions, she provided legal support to Indigenous communities and organizations engaged in the revitalization of their own laws for application in contemporary contexts. She has worked on community-engaged projects with different legal traditions, including Anishinaabe, Denezhu, Ha铆色zaqv, Nlaka鈥檖amux, nuu膷aan 虛 u艂, St鈥櫭鈥檌mc, Syilx and Tsilhqot鈥檌n. She is particularly passionate about the possibilities within land-based legal education, and since 2014, she has co-facilitated various 鈥榦n-the-land鈥, community-engaged Anishinaabe Law Camps in partnership with different law schools and communities across Ontario. Her book Otter鈥檚 Journey Through Indigenous Language and Law (UBC Press, 2018) explores the connections between language and law. Lindsay is Anishinaabe and a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Full Professor, University of Ottawa
Country: Canada
Abstract: What Can we Learn 黑料吃瓜资源 Reflective Practice From Cinema and Film Studies
Law reproduces, confronts, competes with, and is inextricably interknit with, other ways of organizing and constituting knowledge about human relationships. Visual media, and movies in particular, are one such competing and complementing mode of knowing about societal inequalities and the law鈥檚 role in advancing or hindering access to justice. Researchers in legal studies and film studies alike have begun exploring how to invite learners and practitioners to engage in reflective inquiry on their daily practices. This paper examines what guidance legal professionals, legal educators and legal learners can gain from the unique modes of reflective practice that cinema affords.
Bio: I have been exploring theories and practices of self-reflexivity and other modes of reflective practice through my research with and for people living at the margins of formal institutions for over two decades. While I do primarily turn to the theories and lexicon of cinema studies in my research, I have also published a book which includes a concrete examination of reflective practice in conflict resolution.
Where presenting: TBA
Affiliation: Adjunct Lecturer, Queen's Law
Country: Canada
Abstract: Reflective Practice in the Graduate Diploma in Immigration and Refugee Law
This presentation is co-presented with Sharry Aiken and Andrea Speltz. This paper describes a multi-year collaboration to design and deliver rigorous reflective practice instruction across the curriculum in the online Graduate Diploma in Immigration and Citizenship Law at 黑料吃瓜资源 Law. Grounded in a program-level learning outcome that requires students to self-assess their developing competencies and develop a concrete plan for ongoing professional growth, we position reflective practice as a skill in itself, one which is central to sustained competency development during and, more importantly, beyond formal study. Our pedagogical approach focuses on the process鈥攏ot the substance鈥攐f reflection: we provide explicit frameworks that model rigorous, evidence-informed inquiry while allowing students to select subject matter from their own learning experiences that they feel warrants examination. The program-wide curriculum begins with a foundational unit on reflective practice theory in the introductory course; incorporates scaffolded formative exercises throughout; and culminates in the creation of a reflective practice portfolio. In this portfolio, students document their own development across courses and articulate a forward-looking plan for continued professional growth after graduation. This paper will share practical educational design strategies and transferable tools to support meaningful integration of reflective practice into course curricula, especially in the context of pre-professional education.
Bio: Christa Bracci teaches legal research and writing and legal practice skills in both the JD and graduate programs in the Faculty of Law at Queen's University. She developed the legal skills curriculum for the Graduate Diploma in Immigration and Citizenship Law and has been the lead skills instructor since the program's inception. As a member in good standing of the Bar of Ontario, and formerly of the Bar of British Columbia, Christa has practiced in both large and small firm settings.
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor of Law Emerita, New York University School of Law
Country: USA
Abstract: Walking in Circles to New Insights: Conducting Reflective Meditations One Step at a Time
In times of chaos, labyrinth walking often sees a resurgence. Today is no different. For some, exerting physical action is the key to quieting the mind for a meaningful reflection and meditation practice. This article describes how labyrinth walking can be used to help law students and other legal practitioners strengthen their professional identities, establish paths to transformational lawyering, set career intentions, improve wellbeing, address feelings of disorientation and confusion, expand empathy, and lead to leadership insights, to name a few. It will describe the history of labyrinth walking. It will provide prompts and journaling exercises that can be embedded into labyrinth walks for law students and legal professionals. It also will address the practicalities of facilitating labyrinth walks. In doing so, this article draws on Prof. Burand鈥檚 training as a labyrinth facilitator and her experience in leading labyrinth walks for law students and legal practitioners -- from a law school in New York City to a convent in Singapore.
Bio: Deborah Burand is a professor of law emerita at NYU School of Law. She also serves as the faculty director for the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, a pioneering initiative she co-founded at NYU Law with fellow professor of law emerita Helen Scott. After a decade at NYU Law, Deborah now teaches globally as a visiting professor on topics related to social entrepreneurship, impact investing and sustainable development. Deborah also leads a hands-on, negotiation course each spring term in NYU Law鈥檚 Paris program that exposes students to common legal and business challenges involved in creating and operating impact investment funds. During her over nearly twenty years in academia, Deborah established the first law school-based international transactions clinics in the United States鈥攁t NYU Law in 2015 and at the University of Michigan Law School in 2008. She was honoured as a Higher Education Ambassador Fellow by the Council on Foreign Relations for 2024鈥2025 and received a Distinguished Teaching Award from NYU Law in 2024. In 2021, she and retired Professor Scott Taitel (Wagner School) were recognized by the Financial Times for their innovative and creative teaching materials in sustainable finance education. Beyond academia, Deborah鈥檚 experience spans the private sector (global law firm), public sector (including the general counsel role for the US Government鈥檚 development finance institution, senior positions at the Federal Reserve Board and Treasury Department), and nonprofit sector (leadership positions in conservation and microfinance organizations). Earlier in her career, Deborah was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship by the Council on Foreign Relations, during which she served in the legal departments of both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Where presenting: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
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Affiliation: Professor Emerita, Georgia State University College of Law
Country: USA
Professor Lisa Bliss will be moderating this panel at the Queen's Law virtual Symposium.
Bio: Professor Lisa Radtke Bliss is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in clinical legal education, experiential learning, and interdisciplinary professional training. She serves as Professor Emerita at Georgia State University College of Law, where she previously served as Associate Dean of Experiential Education and Clinical Programs, Director of Experiential Education, and Director and Co-Director of the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic. Over the course of her career, Professor Bliss played a central role in expanding and strengthening experiential education at Georgia State and in advancing innovative models of justice education in the United States and abroad.
Professor Bliss was one of the founding faculty members of the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic, an award-winning medical-legal partnership clinic that has served as a national and international model for interdisciplinary legal education and collaborative advocacy. Clinic students work alongside physicians, healthcare providers, and social workers to address legal and social issues affecting the health and well-being of low-income children and families. Professor Bliss has been a pioneer in the development of interprofessional education models that prepare students to work effectively across disciplines to address complex social justice problems and the social determinants of health.
A respected scholar and presenter, Professor Bliss鈥檚 work focuses on clinical pedagogy, experiential education, reflective practice, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She is a co-editor and co-author of Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World and has published extensively in leading journals on clinical legal education, medical-legal partnerships, and experiential learning.
Professor Bliss is widely sought after as a consultant, trainer, and speaker by law schools, universities, professional organizations, and justice education networks around the world. She has advised institutions on the design and expansion of experiential education programs, development of law school clinics, clinical teaching methodologies, curriculum reform, faculty development, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her international work has included teaching, consulting, and training initiatives in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
Her leadership in the field has been recognized through numerous honors, including the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) William Pincus Award, the highest honor in clinical legal education, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field. She also received the section鈥檚 M. Shanara Gilbert Award, and was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Palack媒 University in the Czech Republic, where she taught clinics and conducted faculty workshops on teaching methodologies.
Professor Bliss has held significant leadership roles within the clinical legal education community, including serving as Co-President of the Global Alliance for Justice Education, Chair of the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association. Her work has had a lasting impact on the evolution of clinical legal education, experiential learning, and interdisciplinary justice education in the United States and abroad.
Where moderating: Queen's Law virtual Symposium
Affiliation: Lecturer, Melbourne Law School
Country: Australia
Abstract: From Prison Classrooms to Negotiation Tables: Reflective Practice as Core Legal Competency
Legal education has long treated reflective practice as supplementary rather than constitutive of competent practice. This paper argues reflective practice must be reconceived as a core professional competency: essential to ethical judgment and acting well under uncertainty. I draw on experience teaching reflective practice across doctrinal subjects and clinical contexts. At a correctional facility, I supported law students to reflect on encounters with sentenced male prisoners - experiences that disrupted assumptions about justice and the lawyer's role. More recently, I have guided first-year Juris Doctor students through reflection on live negotiation exercises, surfacing the gap between theory and embodied practice. Grounded in experiential learning theory, the paper positions reflection as constitutive of professional identity: if we are serious about forming lawyers capable of navigating systemic disruption and serving justice in its relational dimensions, reflective capacity must be foundational to ethical legal practice.labyrinth walking often sees a resurgence.
Bio: Jeremy Boland teaches in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne, where his subjects include Legal Method and Reasoning, Administrative Law, and Disputes and Ethics. He came to academic life from commercial practice at Phillips Fox (now DLA Piper) and has taught law and criminology for more than twenty years, including a long period at the ANU College of Law where he convened a postgraduate intensive on the law of imprisonment that brought students into sustained engagement with sentenced prisoners at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. His career has also taken him through senior policy work at the ACT Government, workforce design at ACT Corrective Services, merits review at the National Disability Insurance Agency, and the leadership of large residential communities at Ursula Hall (ANU) and Ormond College (Melbourne). His research interests centre on legal education, professional identity formation, and the place of reflective practice in preparing students for legal practice in an AI-integrated profession.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: Associate Professor, School of Law and Society, and Education Transformation Fellow, Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of the Sunshine Coast
Country: Australia
Abstract: Developing and Assessing the Reflective Lawyer: Human Wisdom in an Automated Age
Bio: Dr Kelley Burton FAAL SFHEA, is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Society, and Education Transformation Fellow in the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Associate Professor Burton serves as the Deputy Chair for the Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA), Co-Chair for the Legal Education Associate Deans (LEAD) Network, Executive Committee Member for the Queensland Branch of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), Associate Editor for the Legal Education Review (LER), Lawyer and Nationally Accredited Mediator. With more than 25 years in the higher education sector, Associate Professor Burton's research interests include trauma-informed practices in higher education, student wellbeing, assessing reflective practice and curriculum design.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference
Affiliation: Canberra Law School, University of Canberra
Country: Australia
Abstract: Hallucinations, Drift, and the Practice-Ready Practitioner: Developing AI Verification Competencies in Law Students
Bio: Ashley Brine is a researcher at Canberra Law School, University of Canberra, with research interests in emerging technologies, legal education, privacy, tort law and professional responsibility. Her current work examines how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping legal learning, academic integrity and the formation of practice-ready lawyers. Ashley鈥檚 contribution focuses on how Australian law schools are responding to AI in legal education, particularly where institutional approaches remain misaligned with the realities of AI-mediated legal practice.
Where presenting: Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) conference