Overview
Background
Associate Professor Francesca Bartlett lectures in Ethics and the Legal Profession and Family Law. She is the Deputy Dean of the Law School. She is a Fellow of the Centre for Public, Comparative and International Law and researches in the area of lawyers' ethics and practice, access to justice and women and the law. She was a CI on the Australian Feminist Judgments Project funded by the Australian Research Council under a Discovery Project Grant. She is undertaking a number of projects relating to lawyers working across Australia including around family law and family violence, abuse of process and duty of competence, as well as legal professions in the Pacific. She has led a project concerning technology and access to justice in the legal assistance sector funded under an AIBE Applied Research Fund grant and was a CI on a project funded by the Queensland Law Society concerning disruption to and innovation by small law firms across Queensland. Francesca was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre on the Legal Profession at Stanford University in November 2018. She is the co-author (with Holmes) of textbook, Parker & Evans' Inside Legal Ethics in 2023 and forthcoming 2026. She also has an interest in clinical legal education and runs an international placement course funded by New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant funding.
She is a member of the Queensland Law Society Ethics Advsory Committee and is the Vice President of the International Association of Legal Ethics. Francesca is an Academic Member of the School's Pro Bono Centre Advisory Board, and has held a senior administrative position as Director of teaching and Learning in the Law School. Before joining the Law School, she practiced for a number of years as a commercial solicitor at a national law firm in Melbourne and Brisbane.
Availability
- Associate Professor Francesca Bartlett is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe University
- Doctor of Philosophy, La Trobe University
- Masters (Coursework) of Juris Doctor, University of Melbourne
Research interests
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Socio-legal research into legal professionalism
I conduct qualitative research about the practises and regulatory environment, and ethical values, of the legal profession and judiciary. For instance, I have undertaken funded projects considering judicial attitudes to gender, the legal profession's adaptability to technology and best practises in lawyering in relation to family violence. My current collaborations involve interdisciplinary explorations of lawyers ethics with academics from philosophy and medicine, and implications of procedures addressing systems abuse in family law.
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Women and the Law
My work explores how women are impacted by law, including working in the law. My current work explores gender in legal education and family violence. In my recent work I am developing a feminist ethical framework for legal practice.
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Lawyers' ethics
My work addresses how the legal profession develops and regulates how lawyers and the judiciary must or should practise. For instance, my scholarship has examined ethics conduct codes, professional discipline and entry controls for lawyers. My work also considers the impact of choices lawyers make about who to represent and how they undertake legal representation.
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Family Law
My work explores topics in family law including family violence and the way the law addresses systems abuse.
Research impacts
Associate Professor Bartlett's research has contributed to debates surrounding the regulation of the legal profession in a number of ways. For instance, she has conducted empirical research concerning women lawyers and judges and the barriers they face to achieving 'success' in law. This research is cited on the Law Council of Australia's website and has been considered by the Council of Law Deans. Her work in the feminist judgments project was read and reviewed by sitting judges and inspired other local and international feminist judgments projects. She has also provided expert advice to an Australian Law Reform Council Inquiry, including drafting a background paper, concerning judicial independence and ethics. She was invited to join the Queensland Law Society’s Ethics Committee based on her research around lawyers’ ethics. In this role she regularly participates in production of professional ethics education and guidance as well as policy advice influencing legal practitioners across the state. She regularly provides education to the legal sector such as a webinar hosted by the Community Legal Centres Queensland reporting on her research concerning best practice for lawyers working in domestic and family violence contexts. Her project collaborating with academics from a regional university resulted in a report delivered to the Queensland Law Society on disruption to legal practice which informs its policy formation around the changing landscape of the profession.
Works
Search Professor Francesca Bartlett’s works on UQ eSpace
2007
Journal Article
Changing law: rights, regulation and reconciliation
Bartlett, Francesca (2007). Changing law: rights, regulation and reconciliation. Griffith Law Review, 16 (1), 289-293. doi: 10.1080/10383441.2007.10854591
2007
Journal Article
Raising the bar: legal profession in East Asia
Bartlett, Francesca (2007). Raising the bar: legal profession in East Asia. Lawasia Journal, 217-224.
2003
Journal Article
Settlements residue auctions in the Australian national electricity market
Bartlett, Francesca (2003). Settlements residue auctions in the Australian national electricity market. International Energy Law and Taxation Review
1999
Book Chapter
Assimilation and women's work
Bartlett, Francesca (1999). Assimilation and women's work. Unmasking whiteness: race relations and reconciliation. (pp. 52-67) edited by Belinda McKay. Brisbane, Australia: Griffith University Publications.
1999
Journal Article
Speaking her language - a report on a women's seminar
Bartlett, Francesca (1999). Speaking her language - a report on a women's seminar. Migration Action, 21
1999
Journal Article
Clean, white girls: assimilation and women's work
Bartlett, Francesca (1999). Clean, white girls: assimilation and women's work. Hecate, 25 (1), 10-38.
1998
Journal Article
Aboriginal resistance literature: life stories, governmentality and collectivity
Bartlett, Francesca (1998). Aboriginal resistance literature: life stories, governmentality and collectivity. UTS Review, 4
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Francesca Bartlett is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Available projects
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Lawyer’s ethics and professional standards
Potential topics available include:
- Technology and ethical legal practise;
- The role of the lawyer in access to justice and efficient administration of the courts
- Prosecutorial ethics and judicial ethics;
- Regulation of the legal profession including admission and disciplinary law and debates about professionalism
- Teaching lawyers’ ethics and legal education.
For further information contact Dr Francesca Bartlett, e: f.bartlett@law.uq.edu.au
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Gender and ‘Others’ doing the law
Potential topics available include:
- Gender and judging – does diversity matter? What is the scope for feminist judging?
- Questions of bias and gendered approaches to the law
- Advocating ‘other’ interests
- Equality of representation within the legal profession
For further information contact Dr Francesca Bartlett, e: f.bartlett@law.uq.edu.au
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Family law and family lawyers
For further information contact Dr Francesca Bartlett, e: f.bartlett@law.uq.edu.au
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Artificially Intelligent Justice: Assessing the Efficacy of Judge AI Through a Procedural Justice Lens
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor John Swinson
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Doctor Philosophy
The Real Housewives of Academia: Working Class Women's Labour and Higher Education through the 21st Century
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sharlene Leroy-Dyer
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Master Philosophy
The End of Tradition? Legal Education and the Search for Purpose in an AI-Driven World
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ross Grantham
Completed supervision
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
A right to breastfeed at work? A feminist human rights account of the legal entitlement to breastfeed in the Australian workplace.
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Harpur
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2025
Master Philosophy
Identifying and Defining Legal Risk - Formulating a Principle Based Definition
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor John Swinson
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2022
Doctor Philosophy
Compensatory Justice and Advocates' Immunity
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Julian Lamont
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Unrepresented Defendants in Criminal Trials in Bhutan: A Comparative Study between Australia and Bhutan
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Honorary Professor Heather Douglas
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2017
Doctor Philosophy
The right choice? An interpretive policy analysis of assistive technology in Australian disability services
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Harpur
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2013
Doctor Philosophy
Remedies in Government Procurement: A Comparative Analysis of the Legal Position in Malaysia, Australia and Singapore - The Implications for Malaysia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Anthony Cassimatis
Media
Enquiries
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