Barry Yau

Barry lectures in law to undergraduate students at James Cook University, Cairns campus. Barry’s primary teaching philosophy is that even if the law is dry and prosaic, its teaching can be vibrant and engaging for students whether or not they intend to enter legal practice. Barry is a proponent of the teaching-research nexus, where he draws upon his research insights (along with pop culture references) to complement the teaching experience for his on-campus and online students.

Since 2013, Barry has led a longitudinal research project that follows a sample of law students and early career lawyers. As part of this qualitative research, Barry is exploring themes of wellbeing and work-life balance, along with factors, forces and choices shaping the trajectory of life, family and career journeys. So far Barry has published research findings in three journal articles and one book chapter in Australia and the UK. Barry has also presented his research findings at conferences in Australia and internationally.

Barry has blogged about his experience of delivering three teaching models at the same time: asynchronous online, on-campus synchronous, and online synchronous.

Prior to joining James Cook University, Barry was a senior lecturer at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales. Barry taught practical legal training online at these two universities, where he convened commercial and corporate law, and consumer law, with the support of a dedicated team of legal practitioners/mentors. Barry also worked as a lawyer in government and private practice for 13 years, including a stint as an Australian Volunteer Abroad lawyer in Papua New Guinea. Barry also spent several years in the UK where based at the University of Warwick, he was the Project Manager of the SAFE Project. The project, which was supported by a 12 million euro grant from the European Union, researched the implementation of routine and cost-effective non-invasive prenatal diagnosis.