A Day in the Life of ... Simon Kozlina

Simon Kozlina is a lecturer in the School of Law who researches international dispute settlement systems and teaches Contract Law and Property Law. He’s also the School of Law’s First Year Advisor and Academic Course Advisor, is on the School’s Work Plan Committee and is an NTEU delegate on the University Work Plan Committee. Simon told AroundUWS that he sleeps every third Wednesday.

Before starting work at UWS as an Associate Lecturer in 2003, Simon worked at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and on several legal research projects — including a review of the then pilot NSW Youth Drug and Alcohol Court, which first piqued his interest in research and academia. In 2006, his wife, Nik, landed a great job in New York, so they moved there for three years. Simon recommenced work at UWS in 2009.

Before Work

What do you have for breakfast and is there anything you do before you come to work?
Well, there’s my ideal morning and there’s the reality. My ideal mornings involve a run or yoga then homemade muesli, a banana and a cup of tea, completing the Herald crossword and off to the bus stop for a leisurely commute spent reading a committee report. The reality is usually missing my alarm, trying to eat an apple while ironing my shirt, then hotfooting to the bus stop and trying to reply to student emails while standing on a bus.

What do you do usually do when you first arrive at UWS?
I visit my office, turn on my computer (it starts very slowly) and log in. Then I head over to The Bakehouse for Bernie’s great coffee.

At Work

What classes do you teach?
I teach and co-ordinate Contract Law in autumn semester, which is a fairly large unit as it has 600 students, eight staff and is taught across two campuses. I love it. I really enjoy trying to make the unit (a little bit) more relevant each year, although I’m not sure whether all my students liked having to answer questions in their final exam with characters from Game of Thrones and The Voice.

In spring semester I teach Property Law, which students tend to find challenging as the workload is very high but the assessment regime is really popular: a moot (like a mock trial or mini-court proceeding). Students are often really nervous beforehand but usually come out of it saying that they loved it and wished all their units had moots for assessments. Next year, I will be teaching my first elective called Law and Public Policy: Development and Implementation, which I’m really keen about as it involves law, politics, theory, law reform and statutory interpretation — can a unit get any more exciting?

What are the two or three most important things you are currently working on?
The most interesting things to me at the moment are:
• Figuring out how to improve the first-year experience for students straight from school or from industry, or who have been away from university for a while. It’s a big challenge, but with programs like the First Year Law Camp, the Law School’s High Achievers Function and our own buddy scheme, we’re starting to make a difference and to see our retention rates go up, especially for our best-performing students.
• Coaching several university mooting teams for upcoming national competitions. I really enjoy working with motivated and talented students and we have had some great student mooters in recent years.
• Working with colleagues to develop the sequel to a book we published this year called Transnational Governance: Emerging Models of Global Legal Regulation. We’re thinking of titles such as Transnational Governance II: The Governed Strike Back or TGII: Govern Harder. We might have to work on it some more…

What are some things that can make a positive difference to your day?
Waking up on time; a great coffee; Sydney on a shiny day – it’s just the most brilliant city in the world and going to work when it looks beautiful is pretty amazing; getting a question from a student via email that shows they’ve really been thinking about a legal issue or conundrum from class; and a positive review to any article I’ve submitted.

After Work

What might we find you doing outside of work?
I love spending time with my wife. She’s just great fun. We love the re-emergence of small bars in the inner city (thanks Clover!). We usually catch a movie or two over the weekend – a blockbuster with popcorn at Hoyts followed by a tearjerker with proper choc-top ice-creams at the Dendy. Then there’s catching up with friends for breakfast (after 11, please), trying not to forget to give my mum a call, watching TV via iTunes – very addictive (recent favourites are Silk, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Damages and The Killing – and can’t wait for The Newsroom to be released), and playing the Sydney game of finding one-hat restaurants before they become one-hat restaurants.