Dr Leela Cejnar is an Associate Professor at the Warwick Business School (WBS), University of Warwick, where she teaches in the undergraduate business law program.

Before joining WBS, Leela worked at the Department of Law and Criminology at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), where she taught Contract Law (for which she was Module Convenor in Spring 2023), Tort Law and Professional Legal Skills in the undergraduate law program. She was also the Employability Lead for Law and Criminology.

Prior to her appointment at RHUL, Leela worked at The University of Sydney (USyd), Australia (2019-2022), in the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), with USyd's interdisciplinary Industry and Community Projects Unit (ICPU). Leela collaborated with industry partners to co-design and co-deliver a form of work-integrated learning, using real world challenges to engage undergraduate students in complex problem-solving. She supervised interdisciplinary student teams as they developed innovative and creative solutions for their industry projects.

Leela has also previously held academic positions in Australia at Macquarie University (Faculty of Business and Economics, 2009), the University of New South Wales (UNSW Business School, 2010-2016) and the Australian Catholic University (Thomas More Law School, 2017-2018). She has supervised Honours students in undergraduate law programs and higher degree research law students in MPhil and PhD programs.

Leela's background includes twenty years in legal practice in Australia, both with major international law firms and with the Australian Commonwealth Public Service (notably, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission).

Leela holds a PhD in Law and has previously researched and published in the area of competition and consumer law. Her research now focuses on the scholarship of learning and teaching and her current research areas of interest include:

- Interdisciplinary effectiveness in enabling the transferability of skills into the workplace
- Developing resilience in first year students, to improve the student experience
- Higher education regulation and policy
- The future of legal education.

Leela has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice and is currently an Editor in the Policy and Educational Developments Team of The Law Teacher.

Leela is the recipient of several teaching citations and awards for outstanding contributions to student learning. In 2024, she received a Warwick Business School Core Award for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching.

Leela is a Senior Fellow of the UK's Higher Education Academy.

Research Interests