Dr Steven Montagu-Cairns
- Position: Associate Professor in Banking & Corporate Law
- Areas of expertise: Digital Education, Banking & Finance Law, Financial Crime, Corporate Law, Corporate Governance & Game Based Learning
- Email: S.Cairns@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 5570
- Location: 2.35 Liberty Building
- Website: LEGEND | LinkedIn
Profile
Dr Steve Montagu-Cairns is a multi-award-winning academic and higher education strategic leader specialising in financial regulation, corporate governance and prevention of financial crime within multinational corporate entities. Steve is currently the Deputy Pro-Dean: Student Education within the Faculty of Environment and Social Sciences. He has a passion for innovative pedagogy, game based learning and the use of digital technology within legal education. He is committed to liberating legal pedagogy from outdated methods that have led to an impersonal, uninspiring and disjointed learning experience for the modern student. He is the co-founder and co-convenor of Legal Educational Games: Engagement, Network and Dissemination (LEGEND) the largest global network to support academics interested in the use of game based learning in legal education. https://legaleducationalgames.my.canva.site/
Recent Publications
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, Newbery-Jones, Yuratich, How to Apply Game-Based Learning in Legal Education (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd: 2026)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘Digital Escape Rooms’ in Ashton, Drisceoil and Wilson How to Design and Embed Authentic Assessment in Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd: 2026)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns & Andrew Campbell, ‘The Risks of Fintech to Financial Crime’ in Walker et al, Financial Technology and Digital Commercial Law (OUP: 2025)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘Game Based Learning and Legal Education’ in Jones, Cownie & Bradney Concise Encyclopaedia of Legal Education (Edward Elgar: Publishing Ltd: 2025)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, Ayush Dimri, Andy Campbell, ‘Non-Performing Loans Resolutions through Assets Management Companies: A Global Scenario’ (2024) 6 ICCLR
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘Merchants of Briberia: A Case Study In Adapting Commercial Boardgames To Increase Creativity In Legal Education’ in Creativity in the Law School (2024: ALT Publication Series)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns & Andrew Campbell, ‘The Risks of Fintech to Financial Crime’ in Walker et al, Financial Technology and Digital Commercial Law (OUP: 2024)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘You wake up in a locked room… Using digital escape rooms to promote student engagement’ THE Campus 2023 (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/you-wake-locked-room-using-digital-escape-rooms-promote-student-engagement)
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘Corporate criminal liability and the failure to prevent offence: an argument for the adoption of an omissions based offence in AML’ In Benson, King & Walker, Assets, Crimes and the State: Innovation in 21st Century Legal Responses (Routledge: 2020). This article was cited multiple times by the Australian Law Reform Commission in their final report on Corporate Criminal Responsibility. ALRC Report 136 April 2020
• Steven Montagu-Cairns, ‘Fostering Business Relationships or an Inducement to Improper Performance: An analysis of the role of corporate hospitality following the implementation of the Bribery Act 2010’ In Ryder & Corruption in the Global Era: Causes, Sources and Forms of Manifestation (Routledge 2019)
• Steven Cairns, ‘Minority Shareholders: Law, Practice and Procedure’ (2012) 31(1) Civil Justice Quarterly 131
Responsibilities
- Deputy Pro Dean: Student Education Faculty of Environment and Social Sciences
Qualifications
- Phd
- LLM
- PGCert LTHE
- LLB
Professional memberships
- Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- Member, Society of Legal Scholars
- Executive Committee Member, Association of Law Teachers
- Member, Financial Crime Research Network
- Founder, Legal Educational Games: Evaluation, Network Dissemination (LEGEND) Network
- Member, Socio-Legal Studies Association
- Member, Centre for Innovation and Research in Criminological and Legal Education
- Member, Centre for Research in Digital Education
- Member, International Future of Law Association
- Member, Active Learning Network @ Leeds
Student education
Module Leader (when available)
International Banking Law: The Regulatory Framework
Corporate Finance and Securities Law
Financial Crime
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Business Law and Practice
- Centre for Innovation and Research in Criminological and Legal Education