Legal educators: reformers or reinforcers?
New study examines legal educators’ perceptions of their role and relationship with the profession.
The School of Law is pleased to announce the publication of a new article, Reformers or reinforcers: an exploration of how legal educators perceive their role and its relationship with the legal profession, in the journal Legal Studies.
The article is co-authored by Professor Alex Nicholson from the School of Law and Hannah Wainwright from the School of Education, and the study was funded by the Socio-Legal Studies Association. Amalia Albu, an LLB Law with French student, also worked as a Research Assistant on the project.
The article explores how legal educators perceive the evolving relationship between legal education and the legal profession. Through their work, do legal educators see themselves as positively influencing the development of the legal profession for the benefit of society (‘reformers’), or as merely supporting and responding to what the profession says it needs (‘reinforcers’)?
Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews with legal educators in England and Wales, the authors identify a deep sense of uncertainty around the purpose, influence, and agency of legal education.
A crisis of identity
The findings suggest a crisis of identity within the legal education community. Few participants felt they had any significant opportunity to influence reform within the profession, with some questioning whether they should even aspire to do so. By contrast, most believed that law firms now exert significant and growing influence over legal education, although opinions differed on whether this influence is appropriate or beneficial.
Written for a broad academic and professional audience, the article calls for legal educators, regulators, and policy makers to more actively monitor and respond to these shifting power dynamics. The authors argue that doing so is essential if legal education is to serve not only the profession, but society as a whole.
Professor Alex Nicholson reflected on the wider implications of the research:
I believe that how we as legal educators see our role shapes how we teach. If we don’t feel we have the power to influence the profession, we may be less likely to encourage students to think critically about how things might change. The literature highlights much about the legal profession that would benefit from change, and our paper encourages educators, regulators and policy makers to unite around a shared vision for a genuinely reformatory curriculum.
The School of Law congratulates Professor Nicholson, Hannah Wainwright, and Amalia Albu on this significant contribution to legal education research.
Professor Nicholson is a member of the Legal Professions Research Group that sits within the Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education. He can be found on LinkedIn.
