Jess is a socio-legal empirical researcher, specialising in issues of access to justice and family law. She is particularly interested in innovations that improve the accessibility of legal systems as well as the empowerment and capabilities of those experiencing legal need.

Jess has published widely on these issues in a variety of leading academic journals and book publishers. One of her recent monographs, Litigants in Person and the Family Justice System (Hart, 2022), examines the issue of self-representation in the family courts. A key objective of her research agenda is to produce research and evidence that can make impactful improvements to the accessibility of justice. For instance, her most recent co-authored monograph Legal Aid and the Future of Access to Justice (Hart, 2023), reports the findings of the largest ever census of legal aid practitioners in England and Wales, and was published as an open access (free to read) resource that is being used by not-for-profit organisations and practitioners to support service enhancements as well as advocacy and campaign work within the legal aid sector.

Jess joined Monash Law in 2022 after establishing her career in the UK, where she previously held the position of Lecturer in the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University, and prior to that, Sessional Lecturer at the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds.

Specific areas of interest include:

• Self representation and lay participation in legal systems
• Family dispute resolution
• The role of technologies in faciliating access to justice, including blended/hybrid legal support and remote court hearings
• Legal aid policy and governance
• Innovations in advice provision and legal support
• Understandings of legal need, legal capability and legal literacy
• Family violence and legal systems abuse
• Socio legal theory and approaches
• Empirical legal methods and qualitative methodology

Jess has an established record of consulting with the public and third sectors in the UK and Australia across her research interests. Previously she has undertaken consultancy work for organisation including: The Access to Justice Foundation, The Ministry of Justice, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, and the Victorian Legal Services Board + Commissioner.