Increasingly, the task of mediating the complexity and diversity of the first year experience has fallen to casual or sessional academic staff who are, themselves, often embarking on their own first year experience (of teaching) or, at best, in the early stages of their own transition to the new role of tertiary educator. As the rate of casualisation in the tertiary sector grows exponentially in response to the endemic diminution in public funding, the imperative of assuring the quality of the casual teaching and learning environment has become critical. The response has been to resource management initiatives and teaching strategies that focus on innovative and effective ways to train, support and nurture this integral staff cohort in recognition of the pivotal role they play in delivering increasingly complex and resource intensive programs. This paper will examine some of the issues that have arisen and identify some models of good practice that have been developed in a law faculty case study.