Dr Sonya Willis is a senior lecturer at Macquarie Law School.  Sonya researches and teaches primarily in civil procedure, taxation and private international law. Sonya is currently engaged in researching the potential for an online litigant vulnerability assessment tool. Sonya completed her PhD in Law at the University of Sydney on the interaction between case management, justice and procedural fairness in civil litigation. Sonya was also a university medallist in law at UTS and holds a masters of law from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.  Sonya has maintained a NSW Practicing Certificate for over 25 years and was a taxation specialist at an international accounting firm and a senior associate in commercial dispute resolution at Blake Dawson (now Ashurst) prior to becoming an academic.  Sonya is the author of Civil Dispute Resolution: Balancing Themes and Theory published by Cambridge Univerisity Press in 2021 and Civil Procedure published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012. Sonya is also an editor of the Legal Education Review. Sonya is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the NSW Law Society's Law Litigation and Practice Committee.

LAWS3200/398 Civil and Criminal Procedure LLB (Co-Convenor)
LAWS8130/813 Civil and Criminal Procedure JD (Co-convenor)
LAWS8025 Taxation JD (Convenor)
LAWS5053 Taxation LLB (Convenor)
LAWS8098/898 International Commercial LAW JD/MITCL/LLM (Convenor 2018-2021)
LAWS8100 Professional Skills and Practice LLM/MITCL (Convenor 2020)
LAWS530 Jessup International Law Mooting Competition (Co-convenor 2018-2019)
LAW 550 Litigation LLB (Convenor 2016-17)

Civil Procedure; Procedural fairness and its effect on court process; Civil litigant vulnerability; Civil and Commercial Litigation; Alternate Dispute Resolution; Private International Law; International Commercial Arbitration and other means of private international dispute resolution; Conflicts of law; International Commercial Litigation; Legal Education and Taxation.

I am available to supervise higher degree research candidates in civil procedure, commercial litigation, international commercial arbitration, international commercial law, conflicts of law and dispute settlement.

Current Supervisions:

Rose Al-Kahili, Thesis (working title): The middle ground for the missing middle: The potential and limitations of using alternatives to full assistance for litigants in person in the Australian federal family law system (PhD).

Dilini Wijesina, MRes candidate.

HDR Completions:

Ummey Sharaban Tahura, Thesis: The role of legal costs and technology in accessing justice in Bangledesh courts (PhD). 

Rose Al-Kahili, Thesis: The limitations and liabilities of litigating in person: A study of recent Australian federal family law reforms (MRes).

Rhys Manley, Thesis Title, 'Liberalisation of Trade in the Era of Increasing Supervision of the Financial System: A Model for Promoting Financial Stability and Inclusion' (PhD).

Primary Ethics Teacher (2011-present).

Dunmore Lang College Board Member, Finance Committee Member, Governance Committee Member, Risk Committee Member (2022- present).

NSW Law Society Law Litigation and Practice Committee Member (2022- present).