Dr Natalie Cujes

Dr Natalie Cujes is a legal academic within the School of Business at UNSW, Canberra.

Professional and Teaching Experience

Natalie lectures in Business Law, Contract Law (Commercial Acumen) and Legal Risk Management at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels within the School of Business. She has also taught at other academic institutions in the areas of Business Law, Contracts, Litigation and Competition and Consumer Law.

Immediately prior to joining the School of Business on a full-time basis, Natalie was a Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia and of the then Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, appointments she held for almost a decade. She was also Secretary of the former Professional Conduct Board of the ACT Law Society for a number of years. Natalie has served as an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Litigation and Dispute Resolution Section of the Law Council of Australia and serves as an appointed member of the Law Council's Federal Court Liaison Committee, the Federal Circuit and Family Court Liaison Committee and the Australian Consumer Law Committee. Natalie is admitted as a Barrister-at-Law of the Supreme Court of NSW, and as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Australia and of the Supreme Courts of the ACT and Victoria. In addition to her teaching role, Natalie practises law as Special Counsel (Litigation) with a law firm and holds an appointment as an Adjunct Associate Professor with a School of Law.

Natalie's main research area is the business of federal courts and how to resolve civil disputes brought before them as cost-effectively, expeditiously and efficiently as possible. To this end, her book, Litigation in the Federal Court (LexisNexis, 2015), studies the 'overarching purpose' of civil litigation in the Federal Court of Australia. Natalie's PhD thesis concerned the impact on procedural justice of case transfers by the Federal Court to the Federal Magistrates Court.

Areas of academic and research interest

• Business law
• Competition and consumer law (trade practices)
• Contract law
• Legal risk management
• The business of federal courts, particularly the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
• Litigation and dispute resolution
• Court administration and judicial decision-making

Awards and Recognitions

• Senior Fellow, Advance HE (UK)
• UNSW Scientia Education Fellow 2018-2022
• Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor of Law, University of Canberra
• Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award – Unit Satisfaction Survey Recognition Award, University of Canberra, 2009.
• Peace Research Vacation Scholarship, Australian National University, 1991/92.