1. Faculty of Social Sciences
  2. School of Law
  3. Research and expertise
  4. Research projects
  5. Reinforcers or reformers: an exploration of how legal educators perceive their role and its relationship with the legal profession following the introduction of the SQE

Research project

Reinforcers or reformers: an exploration of how legal educators perceive their role and its relationship with the legal profession following the introduction of the SQE

  • Start date: 1 January 2023
  • End date: 1 January 2024
  • Funder: Socio-Legal Studies Association
  • Primary investigator: Professor Alex Nicholson

Funder: Socio-Legal Studies Association

Project aim: The aim of this study is to explore legal educators’ perceptions of the evolving relationship between legal education and the solicitors’ branch of the legal profession in England and Wales in the light of the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), specifically investigating whether legal educators believe that their work directly or indirectly reinforces existing cultures, practices, and norms within the legal profession and/or has the potential to reform them.

Publications and outputs

Nicholson, A. & Wainwright, H., “We Don’t Really Have a Voice”: An Exploration of Academics’ Perceptions of the Power Dynamic between Legal Education and the Legal Profession and its Impact on Curriculum Reform’, conference presentation at the Pedagogies for New Times Conference, University of Leeds, June 2023.