"Valuable legal education and aspiring human lawyers: a manifesto" - A Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Alex Nicholson

Join us for the third lecture in the 2025-26 Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series!

We are delighted to announce that the third lecture in the 2025-26 Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series will be given by Professor Alex Nicholson (School of Law).

Alex is a lawyer, educationalist and academic leader. After running his own video production business for seven years, he began his legal career as a solicitor at the global business law firm DLA Piper. In 2014, Alex left private practice to take up an academic post at Sheffield Hallam University, where he later became Deputy Head of Law. During this time, he completed both an Executive MBA and a PhD, and led the development of an innovative legal education programme through which students at all levels gained credit-bearing work experience in an on-campus, teaching law firm. In 2022, Alex joined the School of Law at the University of Leeds, where he now serves as Director of Student Education, overseeing the strategic development of the School’s learning and teaching activities. Alex is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and was named the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Teacher of the Year in 2024. Alex’s teaching and scholarship span legal education, legal strategy, and the law of private obligations. He is best known for his work on the “value” of legal education; examining how value is understood, created and communicated in this context, across stakeholder groups.

The Lecture

Title: Valuable legal education and aspiring human lawyers: a manifesto

Abstract

In a world of increasingly intelligent machines, how can we ensure legal education remains “valuable”? Most students who choose to study law do so because they see it as their route into the legal profession, and universities have become financially reliant on this ambition. Yet legal educators are deeply divided on whether a law degree should serve primarily as preparation for practice or as a broader public good, and this lack of consensus has made it difficult for law schools to articulate a coherent vision of value. Meanwhile, the massification and marketisation of higher education are placing pressure on law schools to focus on the kinds of knowledge and skills that machines can now replicate. In England and Wales, this narrowing of focus is reinforced by the Solicitors Qualifying Examination through its heavy emphasis on recalling and applying established rules of law. It is argued that human lawyers remain essential to the future of justice, but that the nature of legal work will soon be fundamentally transformed, demanding professionals who are interdisciplinary, commercially minded, ethically grounded, and AI-literate. This lecture sets out a manifesto for a future of legal education that preserves and enhances what is valuable, both for aspiring human lawyers and for society more broadly.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and scholarship contributions of Professor Nicholson. Please register for your free ticket through TicketTailor.

The lecture will take place on Thursday 4 December 2025 at 17:00 in Liberty Building (Moot Court) LT (1.28) on the Western University of Leeds campus. The lecture will take place from 17:00-18:00 including introductions and a Q&A session, after which there will be a drinks reception. Registration is free of charge.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Dr Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events and Communications Officer) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.