Insights and research
Research Program
Leo Cussen Centre for Law undertakes applied research into legal education, professional capability and the changing nature of legal practice.
Our research examines how lawyers develop professional skills and judgement, how legal education prepares them for practice, and how technology and regulation are reshaping professional work. We aim to contribute evidence, frameworks and practical insights that inform educational design, professional standards and legal practice.
Research Papers
Research and Publications
Our research program produces peer-reviewed publications, working papers, research reports, commentaries and books. These outputs advance research, encourage professional discussion and contribute to legal education and practice reform.
Each publication identifies its authors and publication type, allowing readers to distinguish research findings, developing scholarship and professional commentary.
Legal Education
The paper proposes coordinated regulation of legal education, aligning standards, assessment, supervision and specialist development across four professional stages nationally. Authors: Donald Feaver and Shirley Southgate.
Legal Education
This paper proposes a five-part standards architecture linking legal contexts, tasks, skills, workflows and observable performance evidence to improve professional capability formation across Australian legal education. Author: Donald Feaver.
Teaching & Learning
PLT reform should prioritise structured capability formation, authentic assessment and AI-ready professional judgement rather than course duration alone. Authors: Donald Feaver and Shirley Southgate.
Legal Education
An evaluation of a redesigned Crime unit shows how scaffolded learning pathways, guided practice and professional workflows can strengthen student confidence and professional capability. Authors: Craig Collins and Bianca Patterson.
AI & Legal Practice
This paper explains how structured workflows, allocated authority and human judgement can contain agentic AI while preserving lawyers' professional responsibility and accountability. Author: Donald Feaver.
Legal Education
This paper proposes guidelines for transforming legal materials into accessible, purposeful and professionally authentic learning content that develops novice lawyers' knowledge, judgement and practical capability. Author: Talia Braue.
Professional Capability & Skills
This paper defines legal skill and proposes a taxonomy explaining how professional capability can be progressively developed, assessed and assured across legal education and practice. Authors: Donald Feaver, Craig Collins and Shirley Southgate.
AI & Legal Practice
This paper argues that lawyers must govern AI across legal workflows, exercising professional judgement, supervision and accountability beyond verification of final outputs. Author: Donald Feaver.
Professional Capability & Skills
A survey of 106 supervisors identifies gaps in first-year lawyers' writing, accuracy, judgement and self-management, alongside growing expectations for responsible AI use. Authors: Linda Baxter, Craig Collins and Donald Feaver.
AI & Legal Practice
This book presents a practical framework for integrating AI into legal work through structured workflows, verification and governance while preserving professional judgement, responsibility and trust. Author: Donald Feaver.
Legal Education
This paper examines early-career lawyer resilience as sustainable professional functioning, not endurance, driven by supervision combining high challenge and support. Author: Maria Pejoski.
AI & Legal Practice
This paper investigates how workflow analysis can allocate responsibility in AI-assisted legal work, showing which operations AI may safely assist, where human judgement is reserved and which professional obligations apply. Author: Donald Feaver.