Academic Profile

I have been a lecturer in the School of Law since 2001 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2009. Before that I worked as a policy development officer for NACRO. I am an LLB Law graduate and completed my PhD in the School. As well as my teaching and research interests, I run the School of Law’s student-led Innocence Project and the Freelaw Legal Clinic. The Innocence Project involves students in the investigation of alleged miscarriages of justice. Freelaw is a public-facing legal advice / signposting service and allows the University and the School to integrate with the community and provide employability in the curriculum for students.

I am also involved in undergraduate recruitment, particularly in the field of Widening Participation (WP). Through working with colleagues, and students I am constantly innovating around the University. I have also created a community between the University, the participants and all the contributing individuals and agencies I work with in both WP and Freelaw and the Innocence Project. This work provides a distinctive suite of projects and developments that successfully engage, involve, motivate and inspire students to realise their talent and ambitions.

Member of the Centre for Criminological Research.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Sheffield
• LLB , University of Sheffield

Teaching and Learning

I am the holder of a University Senate Award for excellence in learning and teaching and an Award for Excellence in Inquiry Based Learning. I am also a highly motivated and innovative teacher who has worked hard at modernising and redeveloping traditional and inaccessible courses and course materials. I have brought new skills and methods to the fore, deploying adaptive and digital tools, which have transcended the School, to be recognised across both the University and the wider academic community.

The modules I teach are:

Undergraduate	Postgraduate and MA
Understanding Law I	Law of Crime (Joint Convenor)
Understanding Law II (Convenor)
Criminal Law (Joint Convenor)
Criminal Evidence (Convenor)
Criminal Process (Convenor)
FreeLaw (Joint Convenor)
Miscarriages of Justice and Their Consequences -The Innocence Project (Convenor)

I am also the Course Designer for the Legal Skills course.

Key Publications

McGourlay, C. and Quinton Smith, G. (201)  The Criminal Cases Review Commission: Hope for the Innocent? Howard Journal.

McGourlay, C. (2011) Criminal Evidence Statute Book. 3rd Edn. Routledge Cavendish

Doak, J. and McGourlay, C. (2008) Criminal Evidence in Context. Routledge Cavendish

McGourlay, C. (2006) Is Criminal Practice Impervious to Logic?: R v Hayter. International Journal of Evidence and Proof

Department for Constitutional Affairs Consultation Paper (CP2104) The Independent Review of the Community Legal Service 25 June 2004

McGourlay, C., Allan, C., Archer, D. (2002) Father Figures An Evaluation-Working with Fathers of Children at Risk. NACRO

Professional Activities and Recognition

• Consultant to Matrix Consultancy 2002/2005
• Consultant to NACRO, involving project design, data analysis and production of the final reports for two projects-Father Figures and Crime Reduction in Secondary Schools 1999/2001
• External Examiner the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Hull 2006-2009.
• External Examiner-Sheffield Hallam University
• External Examiner The University of Dundee
• Member of SLS
• Consultancy to South Yorkshire Police Training Unit 2007-09
• Vice Chair of Governors at Norton Free School in Sheffield this includes interviewing staff and being on several governance committees. I have also attended various courses including: Parenting Orders-Feb 2005 and Safer Recruitment and Selection-Feb 2006.
• Criminal law Consultant to ICS. This company provides home learning to mature applicants-2007-2010.

Widening Participation Work

My work as admissions tutor includes running the PPP programme for Law with Student services, delivering Discovering Law, the A Level Law Teachers Conference, MOSAIC workshops, and Court in the Act. The combined skills and shared passion of our 'cross-institutional' team blend experience of managing outreach activities; links with schools and colleges; mentoring and support; experience of A level teaching and vocational law education; guidance on university admission criteria and processes and experience of private practice.

Over 1300 pupils have visited the University. Many events involve student-centred learning activities using facilities such as the IBL Collaboratory to introduce HE learning and teaching practice. All events are designed to inspire self belief and to empower pupils to fulfil their potential.

• Discovering Law brings around 130/150 teenagers and teachers from schools across the region to the Law School each year. It is a unique outreach event, designed to teach students about the law, and how it affects them
• Working with South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield City Council’s Children and Young People’s Directorate as part of the Aiming Higher programme. We run an event called ‘Court in the Act’. This event takes a trial and makes it as realistic as possible with the help of experts from South Yorkshire Police, Sheffield City Council’s Children and Young People’s directorate, Law School staff and the Drug and Alcohol Action Team. This is held in the moot court in Bartolome House a few times a year. On each occasion 150 Young people from across South Yorkshire come into the Law School and attend this trial. They also get the opportunity to tour the University engage in Legal debate and meet with our students. This programme is part of the Positive Activities for Young People Initiative which is part of a national Participation and Consultation Strategy. This allows the Law School to work with school children across Sheffield educating them on the role of law in society and the impact it has in their lives
• The A level Law Conference was set up by Dr McGourlay in 2009. This conference brings A level Law tutors from around South Yorkshire to the Law School to be updated on new thinking in various areas of the law. This involves the participation of many Law School staff and one academic from Nottingham Trent University.
  The aim of this conference is to widen participation, promote the Law School and the University of Sheffield and to encourage knowledge transfer.