Rate My Professor Selene Mize

Associate Professor Selene Mize earned a BSc from Northwestern University and a JD from Stanford Law School. She practiced law in the United States before joining the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago, where she has served for over 40 years. Initially appointed as a lecturer, she advanced to Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor. Mize is celebrated for her exceptional teaching in legal ethics, civil liberties, negotiation, and mediation. She coordinates courses such as LAWS330 Legal Ethics, LAWS454 Negotiation, LAWS446 Mediation, and LAWS405 Civil Liberties and the Private Sector. Her innovative approaches include flipped classroom techniques and computer-based examining. Mize has coached University of Otago student teams to victories in international negotiation and client counseling competitions, and she hosted the Brown Mosten International Client Counseling Competition in Dunedin in 2001. For her sustained excellence over more than 20 years, she received the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching in 2009, along with recognition as an AKO Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awardee.

Selene Mize's research focuses on legal ethics, civil liberties, negotiation, mediation, media law, and law and psychology. Her publications include 'Some techniques for maximising gain in legal negotiations' in the New Zealand Law Journal (2023), 'Disciplining legal practitioners in New Zealand' in the International Journal of the Legal Profession (2021), 'Dealing with challenges that arise when lawyer and client are from different cultures' co-authored with P. Warbrick in the New Zealand Family Law Journal (2017), 'Not dead yet: Correspondents’ Report from Australia and New Zealand' (2012), 'Should the Lawyer's Duty to Keep Confidences Override the Duty to Disclose Material Information to a Client?' (2009), and 'Privacy and Access to Information' (2003). She has presented at conferences on topics like classroom control undermining student-directed learning (2019) and effective client interviewing. As Vice President of the Brown Mosten International Client Counseling Competition, Mize contributes to global legal education standards, emphasizing practical skills, ethical decision-making, and cultural competence in legal practice.