Barry Yau taught in the GDLP (practical legal training) online program at the ANU School of Legal Practice (formerly ANU Legal Workshop) from 2010 to 2021. Since joining ANU full-time in 2012, Barry convened Commercial Practice, as well as Consumer Law, with the support of a dedicated team of talented legal practitioner/mentors based across Australia. Before joining ANU, Barry 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 worked as the Project Manager of the SAFE Project, which was funded with a 12 million euro grant from the European Union, to research the implementation of routine and cost-effective non-invasive prenatal diagnosis.

Since 2013, Barry has been leading a longitudinal research project that follows a sample of law students and early career commercial lawyers.  As part of this qualitative research, Barry is exploring themes of wellbeing and work-life balance, along with the factors, forces and choices shaping life, family and career paths.

Barry’s research interest has stemmed from his teaching of Commercial Practice in the University’s professional legal training program. One goal of his research is to develop an in-depth understanding of attitudes to continuously improve in preparing students for commercial and corporate legal practice. Barry also integrates his research with his teaching through commercial blogs to his students to provide a vibrant learning environment.  Barry also blogged for the ANU School of Legal Practice on topics such as attitudes to commercial law, work life balance, resilience, pop culture and legal ethics in corporate culture.

Barry was the recipient of the ANU College of Law 2020 Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.