Launch of new Legal Professions Research Group

The Legal Professions Research Group will promote world-leading, interdisciplinary and international research on legal professions, legal professionalism and links with professional training.

The new Legal Professions Research Group centre, is based in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Education  and  the Group will focus on the role of lawyers and other legal services professionals in a rapidly changing world, and the challenges and opportunities they face.

Professor Hilary Sommerlad, co-founder of the LPRG explained, “The last 40 years of dramatic socio-economic and political changes have seen foundational challenges to lawyers’ professionalism and legal ethics, the loss of lawyers’ moral authority, and the fragmentation of the profession. The impact of these changes, for the rule of law and for holding power to account, as well as for the future regulation of the legal professions, will have considerable ramifications for society as a whole.”

Our research explores contemporary issues within the field, at both a national and international level, with a view to understanding the changing nature of the legal profession in the 21st Century.

Alex Batesmith, Lecturer in Legal Profession and co-founder of the LPRG said, “the Legal Professions Research Group as been created as a forum to develop networks for greater cross-disciplinary, cross-border research collaborations to discuss these changes. The group’s research focus is to deepen the analysis of key trends in the contemporary legal profession, the social structures within which it is embedded, and its relationship to the rule of law., Our research explores contemporary issues within the field, at both a national and international level, with a view to understanding the changing nature of the legal profession in the 21st Century.”

The Group’s members have a breadth and diversity of research interests, reflecting the chellenges and complexity of the modern legal landscape.

Visit the The Legal Professions Research Group website to learn more

Trevor Clark, Lecturer in Legal Profession and co-founder of the LPRG said, “the LPRG aims to promote inter-disciplinary, international research into the legal profession across a range of disciplines, including law and justice, politics, business and management, sociology and organisational change. We welcome contributions from and the participation of academic researchers, legal professionals, regulators and policy makers at all levels, nationally and internationally.”