Dr Jenny Richards

Lecturer

College of Business, Government and Law

place Law & Commerce (2.19)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Jenny joined Flinders Law as a part-time Lecturer in 2006 after starting as a sessional academic in 2000. She also worked at Adelaide Law School 1996-2005. She has taught a wide range of topics over the years, with her focus being criminal law and law reform, human service/social work law, and legal theory. She researches predominantly in issues relating to domestic and family violence and religion, human service law, and disability. She undertook a PhD on faith responses and criminal justice system responses to domestic and family violence against Christian women in 2019-2023. Her thesis is 'Embodied Justice: An Integrated Faith-Law Response for Christian Women Experiencing Domestic and Family Violence in Australia' (Flinders University, January 2024). 

Jenny is part time at Flinders Law, having worked for 11 years in criminal law as a Senior Associate at an Adelaide firm. She finished that role in March 2023.

Jenny has previously lectured at UniSA teaching law to social work and social science students and worked at their Research and Education Unit on Gendered Violence on police responses to domestic and family violence. She is the College Disability Academic Advisor for the College of Business Government and Law. She served on the Management Committee of the Centre for Crime Policy and Research at Flinders University from 2015-2019, and was a Flinders Law Indigenous Students Mentor from 2008-2020.

Qualifications

BA(Jur), LLB, GCLP, PhD

Jenny is admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor in the Supreme Court of South Australia and the High Court of Australia.

Honours, awards and grants

*2024 Office for Aging Well, Government of South Australia ($25,000) (Chief Investigator and Project Co-lead)

Helen McLaren, Jenny Richards, Carla McLaren and Emi Patmisari, ‘Co-Designing a Conceptual Model for a Residential Aged Care Facility for Prisoners’ June 2024-June 2025.

*2024 Department of Education and Workplace Relations, Australian Government ($266,006) (Chief Investigator)

Andreas Cebulla, Marinella Marmo, Kate Seymour, Nada Ibrahim, Hossein Esmaeili and Jenny Richards, ‘Independent Review of the Operation of the Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave Entitlement in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)’ May-July 2024.

2019 Law Foundation of South Australia

Hossein Esmaeili, Jenny Richards, Lana Zannettino and Marinella Marmo, “Family Violence Among Afghan Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women in South Australia: Improving Engagement with the Criminal Justice System” ($25,601).

2011 Excellence in Teaching Award, Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law

For "Excellence in utilising an integrated pastoral approach to teaching law which facilitiates student achievement and enhances personal development."

Key responsibilities
  • College Disability Academic Advisor (College of Business, Government and Law).
  • Member, Flinders University Disability and Access Committee.
  • Member, Student Life Project Committee, College of Business Government and Law.
Teaching interests

Criminal law, legal theory, family law, human service law, domestic and family violence, criminal practice and advocacy, child protection, evidence, statutory interpretation, case analysis skills.

Topic coordinator
LLAW2321 Jurisprudence
LLAW2215 Human Service Law and Practice
Topic lecturer
LLAW1323 Criminal Law and Procedure
LLAW3334 Advanced Criminal Law