Event Resources

In addition to the ALT Annual Conference, we also host occasional one-day conferences and other thematic events. You can access what we hope will be a growing archive of materials from these events below.

2019 Conference details

The ALT is delighted that DeMontfort University Leicester will host the 2019 Annual conference under the theme Legal Education for the Many. We look forward to welcoming you on the 8th and 9th April 2019. Booking details and the call for papers can be found on the DMU website here: http://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/april/association-of-law-teachers-annual-conference-2019.aspx

The Legal Education and Training Review: 5 Years on

The ALT co-sponsored a 1 Day event held at Leeds Beckett University on the 25th June 2018. Leeds Law School and its Applied Legal Education Research Group hosted the one day conference marking 5 years since the publication of the Legal Education and Training Review (LETR). The conference provided an opportunity for about 50 participants to reflect on the last 5 years and to discuss the future(s) of legal education. The LETR research team as well as the professional bodies offered their thoughts on the extent to which recommendations have been followed, predictions have held true and new paths have been taken. Some of the papers have been written up into a Special Issue of the Law Teacher which will be published in December 2018.

View Presentations/Handouts from the day are available

LETR-event-Brannan.pptx

LETR-event-Dunn-Roper-Kennedy.pptx

LETR-event-Brannan.pptx

LETR-event-Dutton-Guth.docx

LETR-event-Gibbons.pptx

LETR-event-Hall.pptx

LETR-event-Jones.pptx

LETR-event-Mason.pptx

LETR-event-Stec.ppt

LETR-event-Waters.pdf

2018 Conference

The 2018 conference ‘Diversity and Innovation’ saw delegates coming together in the magnificent Keele Hall for two packed days of all things legal education. Participants were able to share their own research and learn from others including the 2017 Law Teacher of the Year Nick Clapham. Additional keynotes were given by Richard Susskind, Professor John Harrington and Russel Crawford. Julie Brannan from the Solicitors Regulation Authority also attended to provide the latest information about their legal education reforms. The ALT was again delighted to award a number of prizes. The Stan Marsh Best Paper Prize went to John McArdle, Salem State University for his paper ‘Institutional Liability for Experiential Education; Pitfalls and Best Practices’. The inaugural Chris Gale Memorial prize went to ‘Let Them Eat Cases: bridging the skills gap between school and degree level learning’ by Helene Tyrrell and Joshua Jowitt, Newcastle Law School, Newcastle University and the Teaching Law with Technology Prize co-sponsored by Routledge was awarded to Dr Maria Tzanou (Keele University for her innovative project New Technologies in the Classroom.

2017 Lord Upjohn Lecture

Rethinking Legal Education by Professor William Twining

In May 2018 the ALT hosted an engaging and thought provoking evening with Professor William Twining. William is perhaps the most influential figure in British legal education and has provided insightful commentary on law, legal systems and law schools for over half a century. The ALT was thrilled that William agreed to deliver the (rather delayed!) 2017 Lord Upjohn Lecture to share with us his insights into the current state of affairs. His lecture titled 'Rethinking Legal Education' gave us all plenty to think and talk about and can now be read in the Law Teacher here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03069400.2018.1497260

A video link to the lecture is here: https://echo360.org.uk/media/753361e9-a01f-4611-acb9-505bada919fa/public

Association of Law Teachers' Annual Conference 2018: Diversity and Innovation

The 2018 ALT Annual Conference took place during 26-27 March 2018 in Keele University. More details and the full call for papers are available from the conference website: www.keele.ac.uk/alt2018

Association of Law Teachers' Annual Conference 2017: Foundations and Futures

The 2017 ALT Annual Conference 'Foundations and Futures' took place at the School of Law, University of Portsmouth, during 10-11 April 2017. It attracted 150 delegates and sponsor delegates who saw the Stan Marsh Prizes and the 2017 Routledge/ALT Teaching with Technology Prize awarded during the main conference dinner on the historic HMS Warrior 1860. You can read more about the key Conference highlights on the Conference website and see pictures here. Twitter updates are available on #Storify.

View available papers and presentations

Dr John McArdle, Bertolon School of Business

Alison Bone and Jane Woods, University of Brighton

Anil Balan, University of Oxford

Dr Anthony Cullen, Lughaidh Kerin, Middlesex University

Caroline Strevens, Portsmouth Law School, University of Portsmouth

Cath Sylvester, Elaine Hall and Emma Hall, Northumbria University School of Law

Charlotte Harrison, Portsmouth Law School, University of Portsmouth

Dr Cherry James and John Koo, London South Bank University

Claire Sparrow, Portsmouth Law School, University of Portsmouth

Dr Colin James, Newcastle Law School

Dr Emma Jones, The Open University

Foluke Ifejola Adebisi, University of Bristol

Gareth Bramley, Zoe Ollerenshaw, University of Sheffield Law School

Vera Bemingham, Graeme Broadbent, Mike Cuthbert and John Hodgson

Jan Houston and Liz Aylott, BPP University

Jeanette Ashton (Brighton) and Ben Waters (Canterbury Christ Church)

Jenny Henry, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London

Kelly VanBuskirk, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Jenny Knox and Melanie Stonne, BPP University Law School

Dr Lars Mosesson and Accalia Atkinson,Bucks New University

Luke Mason, St Mary's University

Maribel Canto-Lopez

Martin Salisbury and Karen Buckley

Michael Blissenden, Law School, University of London

Nigel Duncan, City Law School, University of London

Nigel Hudson, Nottingham Trent University

Paula Baron, La Trobe University

Pippa Trimble and Kerry Gilbert, Plymouth University

Richard Owen, Swansea University

Risham Chohan, Chris Shepherd, London South Bank University

Stephen Clear and Marie Parker, Bangor University

Dr Susan Stokeld, University of Aberdeen

Vicki Brown, Pat Feast, University of Portsmouth

Yvonne Marsh, Leeds Beckett University

2016 Lord Upjohn Lecture

The 2016 Annual Lord Upjohn lecture ‘Is the legal landscape changing? Reflections from the UK and South Africa’ took place on Thursday 3 November 2016 in The City Law School. It was delivered by Dame Linda Dobbs DBE, who, following a successful career at the Bar, in October 2004 became the first non-white high court judge in the UK. In 2013 Dame Linda stepped down from the Bench to pursue her various interests, including training of judges and lawyers internationally (in particular, in the Caribbean and Africa), and commercial mediation. She is a patron of a number of charities (including two in Sierra Leone and two in South Africa), holds five honorary doctorates and sits on a number of advisory committees.

OCR/ALT Law Conference

On Friday 10 June 2016, the OCR Law Conference, organised in association with the ALT, took place at the Supreme Court in London. At the event, there was a range of interesting and engaging talks.

Professor Rebecca Huxley-Binns, Vice Provost of the University of Law, spoke about innovative approaches to reaching law. Henry Mares of the University of Cambridge briefed the attendees about studying, and applying to study, law at Cambridge. Professor Andrew Murray of the London School of Economics discussed the value of studying Information Technology Law. Professor Gary Slapper of NYU London spoke about the historic and future importance of the English Legal System. Ewan Brady, OCR Subject Specialist for Law, outlined the plans for new OCR AS and A Level Law for first teaching in 2017.

The day ended with a guided tour of the Supreme Court. The conference was well received by the attendees, who were UK teachers from as far and wide as Truro, St Helens and South Shields. Many commented on how inspired they felt by the presentations and the venue. Planning has begun for next year already!

Talking about teaching law project [audio]

In summer 2015, the HEA carried out a research project on teaching, were the ALT organised three focus groups that fed into the report. The ALT members explored some of the challenges of teaching law in higher education today, including assessment, student skills, teaching approaches and technology.

The extracts from the focus groups have been recorded as short audio clips, reflecting some of the key issues and sharing good practice. They can be downloaded here:

Association of Law Teachers' Annual Conference 2016: Promoting Collaboration

The 2016 ALT Annual Conference took place during 20-22 March 2016 at the School of Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne. It examined the ways in which legal educators and trainers could work together and explored collaborative links between legal education and the legal profession, law students, other professions and the community.

As always, Stan Marsh Prizes were awarded for the best contributions. Kim Silver, from London South Bank University, won Best Poster Prize for ‘The Devil’s Advocate: the Benefits of Collaborating to Produce a Student Magazine’. Jessica Giles, Amanda Smith and Vicki Schipper, from the Open University, won the Best Paper Prize with ‘Collaboration using Online Classrooms to Facilitate Skills Training’. A high commendation was awarded for Prof Daniel J Herron’s paper, from Miami University, Ohio, ‘A Unified Approach to Collaborative Decision-Making: How to Teach it and How to Operationalize It’. Dr John Hodgson, from Nottingham Trent University, received the ALT Contribution to Legal Education Award 2016.

2015 Lord Upjohn Lecture

The 2015 Annual lecture Tripping over thresholds; capturing the legal learning process in outcomes was held at The Atkin Building Lecture Theatre, City Law School, Gray's Inn, London, on Friday 13 November 2015 from 17:30. It was delivered by Professor Rebecca Huxley-Binns the Chair of the 2015 QAA Law Subject Benchmark Statement Review and former Chair of the Association of Law Teachers.

 

50th Annual Conference - 50 Years of Legal Education

The 50th Annual Conference took place at the St. David’s Hotel in Cardiff during 29-31 March 2015. As ever, there was a very full programme, with plenary and parallel sessions, as well as opportunities to talk with the other legal academics, who come from across the world, and the various law publishers. There was some nostalgia, with eighteen of the previous Chairs in attendance, as well as interesting analysis of what has happened since 1965 and what legal educationalists can learn from it, and speculation about what may happen over the next fifty years, in both education and legal practice.

Panel sessions included a discussion with regulatory bodies (CILEX Regulation and the Solicitors Regulation Authority) about the on-going reform of lawyers’ training. Stan Marsh Best Paper Prize was won by Patricia Pattison: ‘Legal Education for the Invincible Millennials’. Stan Marsh Best Poster Prize was awarded to Jeanette Ashton, Alison Bone and Juliet Turner, ‘Responding to the LETR: the development of communication skills and commercial awareness’. Routledge/ALT Prize for Teaching Law with Technology was won by Michael Doherty for mixing mapping and legal awareness via OpenLawMap.

View available papers and presentations

 

One-Day Conference: 50 Years of Assessment in Legal Education

This event took place on 29 January 2015 at the Institute for Advanced Legal Study, London. It looked back at assessment in legal education and also at the exciting ways that today’s law students are being challenged to demonstrate both their knowledge and skills. For more information, see programme and available presentations from the event.

 

49th Annual Conference - Responding to Change

Our 49th Annual Conference took place at The Queens Hotel in Leeds, during 13-15 April 2014. The theme of the conference followed the research-phase of the Legal Education & Training Review, and the conference was designed in part to provide input for the consultations on the next steps.

As ever, there was a full and diverse programme, with plenary sessions and parallel sessions, as well as opportunities to talk with the various law publishers and the other participants, who come from across the world.

 

48th Annual Conference - All Consuming Legal Education

The 48th Annual Conference took place in Nottingham during 24-26 March 2013.

In spite of the cold and snowy weather, more than 100 participants joined us for 3 days of excellent papers, an engaging keynote speech by Lord Reed who gave us a unique insight into the UK Supreme Court, a drinks reception and dinner at the Nottingham Conference Centre, as well as the annual dinner at Nottingham Castle. A few photos from the event can be viewed on our Facebook page.

The Routledge/ALT Teaching with Technology Prize was awarded to Emily Allbon and Sanmeet Kaur Dua for their Learmore site. The Stan Marsh Best Paper prize was awarded to Hazel Dawe, Law Programme Leader Greenwich School of Management and Sessional Lecturer Birkbeck College University of London. The Stan Marsh Best Poster Prize went to Debra Burke of Western Carolina University, USA.

View available papers and presentations

The following papers/presentations have been made available by the presenters:

Allbon, E and Kaur Dua, S: Welcome to Learnmore

Bromby, M: The All-consuming MOOC

Dagilyte, E,  and Coe, P: Teaching Professionalism through Assessment: A Case for Take-Home Exams in Law Studies

Dagilyte, E,  Mosesson, L and Coe, P: Experience of Professional Development Weeks on an LLB

de Silva, C: Law Reports: their use in examining

Duncan, N and Ferris, G: Fishing for Values in Legal Education

Ferris, G: Is acting ethically a skill?

Mossesson, L: Two modest proposals for the happier teaching of public law

Murray, S: Winning gold but losing the race

Watson, A: Teaching Advocacy Skills with History Paper and Presentation

 

47th Annual Conference: (Re)assessing Legal Education

The 47th Annual Conference took place at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, during 1-3 April 2012.

View available papers and presentations

 

46th Annual Conference: Crossing Borders: Legal Education United

The 46th annual conference took place in Cardiff at the David's Hotel & Spa from the 18th -20th April 2011. The theme of the 46th Conference was Crossing Borders: Legal Education United. In addition to its traditional themes of exploring best practice in the provision and practice of legal education, the conference sought to add a comparative dimension by inviting delegates to explore best practice across borders and the extent to which such practices are universal or local and culturally dependent.

View available papers and presentations

The following papers/presentations have been made available by the presenters:

Watkin, T: Keynote Speech

Huxley-Binns, R: Keynote Speech

 

45th Annual Conference: Legal Education: Making a Difference

The 45th annual conference took place at Clare College, Cambridge from the 29th -31st March 2010.

View available papers and presentations

The following papers/presentations have been made available by the presenters, The Conference Programme provides details of the papers given:

Stickley, A: Providing a Law Degree for the Real World: The Perspective of an Australian Law School

Steventon, P and Wood, J: The Role of a Bespoke Law Foundation Programme in Widening Access

Brooman, S and Darwent, S: Can 1st Year Law Students Use Self Awareness Literature to Help Them Adjust to University Life?

DiMatteo, L and Miller, S: Law in Context: Teaching Law Through the Lens of Extra-Legal Sources

Harrison, C, Pope, A, Puttick, K and Walton G: Enquiring Minds: Information Literacy in the Design & Assessment of Student Research Tasks

Herron, D and Luzadis, R: Constructing a Matrix for Integrating Economics, Law, and Ethics: A Rethinking of the Model for Teaching Corporate Governance

Hutchinson, T and Duncan, N: Defining What We Do – Doctrinal Legal Research

Lane, J: Do we Deliver on Law Students Expectations? If not, how can this be achieved?

Mosesson, L: Legal Education in a Semi-Literate Culture - Abstract

Duberry, L: Really Real Real Property: The Third Reality

Angus, M: Streetlaw as Pedagogy

Oswald, M: The Story of a Pheonix, a Chef and Some Raptors: Piecing Together the Company Law Jigsaw

Ball, M: Governmentality and the Ethical Reflection of Legal Educators: Assessment Practices as a Case Study

Connolly, M: Three Difficult Cases of Discrimination

Jones, M E: Learning Law Through Art

Jefferson, M; Discrimination Law Into Equality Law

Pattison, P: Developing Ethical Behaviour

Clarke, S: Peer Interaction and Engagement Through Online Discussion Formus

Siedel, G and Haapio, H: Using Proactive Law for Competitive Advantage: Implications for Teaching and Law Practice

Murray, S and Scott, P: Blended Delivery, VLE’S and Student Engagement: What Difference has it Made

 

44th Annual Conference: Legal Education: Extending the Boundaries

The 44th Annual Conference took place at the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, during 5- 7 April 2009.

43rd Annual Conference: Engaging Law Teachers

16-18 March 2008, St Anne's College, University of Oxford, Oxford. Baroness Ruth Deech gave a keynote address.

42nd Annual Conference: Legal Education: fit for purpose?

1-3 April 2007, Plymouth

41st Annual Conference: Our Student, Our Customer?

9-11 April 2006, Norwich

40th Annual Conference: Enhancing the Student Experience

20-22 March 2005, Edinburgh

39th Annual Conference: The Law Teacher Unbound: Autonomy in Legal Education

4-6 Apr 2004, York