How the law shapes corporate and professional behaviour.

I’m Dr Aaron Timoshanko, a legal scholar at the University of Southern Queensland. My work uses regulatory theory and empirical evidence to ask how corporations, shareholders, and the legal profession actually respond to the rules meant to govern them, and where those rules fall short. I’m less interested in how regulation is supposed to work than in its true effect.

Read my Research
The research, by the numbers.
Competitive research funding
Research participants surveyed
HDR students supervised
of articles in A and A*-ranked journals

My approach. Good regulation is almost invisible when it works and expensive when it doesn’t. I don’t assume rules behave the way their drafters intended; I test them. By surveying the people regulation actually targets, investors, practitioners, graduates, I look for the gap between what the law promises and what it delivers, and then I say so plainly, even when the finding is inconvenient.

Where my work sits

Let’s Collaborate

Corporate law, regulatory theory, and empirical legal studies.

– Corporate accountability and CSR
– Shareholder rights and corporate governance
– Regulation of the legal profession
– Survey and evidence-based methods

Supervising research that tests law against evidence.

– Corporate and regulatory law topics
– Empirical and socio-legal projects
– Legal profession and legal education

I teach company law, and I approach teaching as a scholarly practice in its own right: student-centred, evidence-led, and built to ready graduates for a profession that AI is rapidly reshaping.

– Company law (LLB and JD)
– Generative AI in legal education and authentic assessment
– Curriculum, assessment design, and feedback
– Work-integrated learning and graduate employability

I hold school and program leadership roles and contribute to national conversations on the future of legal education.

– Honours Program Director (LLB Honours)
– Academic Integrity Lead
– Program review, curriculum, and AQF alignment
– National speaker on AI in legal assessment

Selected Research

Corporate accountability

Do Shareholders Support CSR, or Should Companies ”Stick to Their Knitting”?

A survey of 236 investors on how much profit they’ll really give up for social causes. The answer: less than the corporate rhetoric suggests.

Corporate Law

A New Sheriff in Town? Section 596A and Shareholders’ Newfound Powers

How a single High Court decision handed shareholders unprecedented power to examine company officers.

The legal profession

An Empirical Study of Lawyers’ Capability to Adapt to Disruption in Queensland

261 practitioners on technology, demographic change, and resilience after COVID.

LEgal Education

Honours and Employability: Perceived Value, Null Effects, and Decision Psychology

Graduates rate the Honours credential highly, yet a matched comparison finds the employment premium disappears.

  • The best lecturer I’ve had.

    “’Aaron has been probably the best lecturer I have had at USQ. The provision of verbal feedback via Turnitin was excellent and reduced any ambiguities that may have popped up with written feedback.”
    LLB Student
    Company Law (LAW3311), 2021

  • A real game changer.

    Once I understood the assignment, I found myself really enjoying the process and have now transferred those skills to my workplace… It has been a game changer for me in using generative AI, and a skill I am very glad to have learned.”
    LLB Student
    On the generative AI assessment

  • The most helpful feedback.

    “In my time at UniSQ (I am in my final year), I have found Aaron’s feedback to be the most meaningful and helpful of any class I have taken, which has enriched my learning tremendously.”
    Juris Doctor student
    Advanced Company Law (LAW5311), 2021

Get in Touch

Whether you’re a prospective research student, a journalist after expert comment on corporate regulation, or a collaborator with a project in mind, I’d like to hear from you. I usually reply within a few days, sooner if it’s time-sensitive.