Wellett Potter

Dr Wellett Potter is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the School of Law at the University of New England (UNE), Armidale. A proud UNE alumna, she became a full‑time staff member in 2022 after being conferred with her PhD in Law in March 2021. Prior to 2022, she spent eleven years as a sessional academic at the UNE School of Law, being involved in over 25 law units.

Her PhD thesis specialised in intellectual property, examining the copyright protection of databases in the fourth industrial era. Her passion for research stems from a deep curiosity about intellectual property, copyright law and the emerging challenges posed by artificial intelligence and technology. Recent research discusses the implications of AI-driven creativity and digital culture on Australian copyright law.

Her work has analysed the limits of copyright for digital replicas (voice clones and deepfakes), alongside personality‑rights‑style protections to address identity harms. She has examined originality, authorship and ownership in the generative AI context (including ChatGPT outputs and AI‑generated music), the legality and governance of training data and industry data deals on authors and the ramifications for creators, cultural institutions and platforms. A complementary strand of her research has used cultural case studies - most notably Taylor Swift’s re‑recordings through “Taylor’s Version” - to illuminate intellectual property, copyright, contracts, moral rights and artistic control.

Grounded in earlier work on database copyright, remix culture, music borrowing and mash‑ups, and extended to NFTs and virtual assets, her scholarship combines doctrinal and comparative analysis with a practical law‑reform orientation. This work has been presented to wider audiences through public scholarship in The Conversation and frequent media engagements. She is excited to continue pursuing her research interests and looks forward to contributing to society’s understanding of these issues through peer-reviewed articles, conference presentations and community engagement activities.

Dr Potter enjoys teaching and her teaching philosophy encompasses supporting individual student learning journeys. She influences, motivates and inspires students with her passion for the law while imparting the requisite core legal skills to prepare job‑ready graduates.

In Trimesters 1 and 2 in 2026 she will be on Special Studies Program (SSP), returning in Trimester 3 to teach LAW323 and LLM523 Intellectual Property Law. Other recent teaching includes undergraduate LAW100 Foundations of Law and Masters LLM533 Fundamentals of Australia’s Common Law System, with previous teaching in LAW323 and LLM523 Intellectual Property Law, and coordination of LAW131 Torts.

Dr Potter is delighted to be a principal and co‑supervisor for higher‑degree research (HDR) candidates (PhD & LLM (Research)) as well as undergraduate Honours students.

An active and enthusiastic member of the UNE community, she chairs the School of Law’s First‑Year Committee, which addresses issues particular to first‑year units, and she is Editor of the Law School Student Essentials, an essential guide distributed to all law students in three editions a year. She is also a member of the School of Law’s Communications and Education Committees, the Community of Practice for Generative AI, the Madgwick AI Community of Practice, and the Community of Practice for Retention and Engagement. Other recent community engagement includes assisting High School students with career preparation and mock trials.

LAW100 Foundations of Law

LLM533 Fundamentals of Australia’s Common Law System

LAW323 Intellectual Property Law

LLM523 Intellectual Property Law

Undergraduate (Honours) Principal Supervisor

Higher Degree Research (HDR) (Masters Research and PhD) Principal and Co-Supervisor

Awards

·        Unit Commendation for LAW100 Foundations of Law (External) in recognition of achieving an outstanding result in overall satisfaction in Trimester 2, OUA, of the unit monitoring process and providing students with innovative learning and teaching practices (Trimester 2, 2025)

·        Teaching Commendation for LLM523 unit co-ordination Intellectual Property Law (Masters' students), (Trimester 3, 2024)

·        School Citation for “Excellence in a Team-Teaching Approach that Supports Individualised Learning Journeys by Influencing, Motivating and Inspiring First-Year Students to Study Law” with Ms Carlie Drew (June 2023)

·        Teaching Commendation for LAW100 unit co-ordination Foundations of Law, (Trimester 2, 2022)

·        Teaching Commendation for LAW100 unit co-ordination Foundations of Law, (Trimester 1, 2022)

·        Teaching Commendation for LAW131 unit co-ordination Torts, (Trimester 3, 2021)

·        Teaching Commendation for LAW100 unit co-ordination Foundations of Law, (Trimester 1, 2021)

·        Bob Hughes Prize for Law (2019)

·        Winner of the G C O’Donnell Prize for the Best Essay in Copyright at the 17th Biennial Copyright Law and Practice Symposium (2015)

·        Awarded the opportunity to participate as a “Leader of Tomorrow” in the St. Gallen Wings of Excellence Award at the 44th St. Gallen Symposium, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (2014)

·        Inaugural winner of the Kevin Lindgren Prize for Best Student Presentation on Copyright at the 15th Biennial Copyright Law & Practice Symposium (2011)

·        New England Award (2010)

·        DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship holder to attend a European Study Seminar - Encounter Europe: An European Studies Seminar for Students from Australia and New Zealand – Third Winter Academy at the European Academy, Otzenhausen, Germany (December 2009)