The Association of Law Teachers’ Annual Seminar was held this year at Queen’s University Belfast.  The theme was the community and purpose in the law school. Those in law schools have had a relatively tough last few years.  Some law schools have expanded rapidly and so have had to cope quickly with new pressures and demands. COVID did little to bring together communities that were beginning to expand. For some, it exacerbated the pace at which connections were loosened. It contributed to a loss of a sense of belonging. The last few rounds of industrial action have, perhaps, demonstrated most keenly the general sense of unhappiness among the academic workforce.

The Association of Law Teachers’ Annual Seminar marked a shift in these discussions. It gave us the opportunity to reconnect with the broader question of why we do this job in the first place.  For two days, participants spoke about who we teach, how we teach them and what we enjoy most about being a law teacher. There were around 25 speakers across a packed programme.  Topics ranged from technology and the use of AI to individual mentoring schemes. The papers were inherently reflective and they drew upon individual experiences of teaching and best practice. 

Participant Reflection
"Really great to take the pulse of legal education... the drivers and challenges."

Speakers considered how they had designed programmes that often brought together a whole cast of characters, such as students, staff and those in the legal profession. Improving employability was an important goal for those creating initiatives. Another key aim was conceiving educational initiatives with justice, fairness and equality embedded in them. Law schools were thought to be places that should produce good citizens.

The first keynote was given by Dr Meryl Dickinson from Brunel University London on a joined-up and holistic approach to community and wellbeing in higher education. Bringing in aspects of psychology, she showed how staff and students might experience stress in the law school. While most law schools have adopted a strong student wellbeing focus, she welcomed such changes but cautioned against forgetting staff. Her talk brought together a new theory around including both staff and students in wellbeing initiatives.

Dr Eimear Brown gave the second keynote. Dr Brown is based in King’s Inns in Dublin. King’s Inns is Ireland’s Inns of Court. It provides professional legal education and training. Dr Brown spoke about changes in student engagement in a post-pandemic environment. She explained the initiatives that she had developed as response to COVID to provide opportunities for socialisation, such as book clubs. Some of those plans have survived in the post COVID era and continue to be excellent and engaging ways of bringing to the legal community. These extra-circular activities were also crucial to improving attendance and enhancing creativity, more generally.

The final keynote was given by Dr Verona Ni Drisceoil from the University of Sussex. She discussed the literature on how to create a community and then offered a powerful critique. She explained her new walking interview project, which seeks to uncover the lived experiences of those in the law school community. She also explored the tracks for those on teaching and education focused contracts. This is important advice for those on such tracks, especially as this is a new career pathway and an area where women are overly present.

Participant Reflection

"An extremely enjoyable opportunity to reflect on the purpose of and community within the Law School and how to adapt to changes whilst maintaining rigour and academic integrity. Excellent, well organised and enlightening."

Overall, there were a wide range of papers and topics explored over the course of two days.  Some speakers developed theory that implored better approaches towards building a sense of community. Others showed, more pragmatically, how to put these ideas into practice. The discussions were fruitful. They allowed for much in the way of cross fertilisation and the sharing of ideas between a variety of law schools across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Despite differences in how we approach community building, there was strong agreement on the purpose of law schools. This was, namely, to instil legal knowledge, ethical values and confidence into the next generation.