Academic Profile

Senior University Lecturer in the School of Law. Particular areas of interest, contract law, commercial law and company law.

Having graduated from Sheffield in 1984 I first qualified as a Solicitor in 1987 and worked in private practice specialising in commercial law, intellectual property and IT law and worked for leading national and international law firms. I was listed as a leading professional in my field in Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession for a number of years.

On my return to academia in 2000 I worked as a lecturer on the Legal Practice Course at the University of Sheffield where I led the Commercial Law Elective and, for a number of years, its’ Business and Legal Practice Course. I began teaching on postgraduate commercial courses in spring 2008 and moved to teach full time on undergraduate and postgraduate law courses in September 2008.

I became a Senior University Teacher in January 2008 and currently teach company law and contract law subjects to undergraduates and several post graduate commercial law and practice based modules.

Member of the Institute for Commercial Law Studies (ICLS) Research Cluster.

Qualifications

• LLB (Hons) ,The University of Sheffield, 1984
• Law Society Finals, The College of Law Chester, 1985
• Masters in Education, University of Sheffield, 2010

Teaching and Learning

I am extremely interested in the teaching and learning experience of my students:

• I gained a Masters in Education at Sheffield with a dissertation concerning student experiences of feedback;
• As a result of my dissertation the third year undergraduate options I teach place an emphasis on student centred learning with small group work designed not only to enhance the acquisition of substantive knowledge and critical skills but also to provide students with the opportunity to acquire and practise key transferable skills such as problem solving, team working and communication skills;
• I currently lead two university funded internationalisation projects within the department that focus on supporting overseas postgraduate students especially at induction and at the early stages of their masters’ programmes;
• As part of the new LLM in International Commercial Law and Practice I have instigated an intertwined English language support course to run alongside the new LLM and to support international students in succeeding in the practice based skills modules included in the new LLM programme;
• Whilst teaching on the Legal Practice Course I devised and introduced a study skills session which was made available to the students on the course and also introduced a Dragons Den Club to enhance students’ commercial awareness and commercial skills;
• I was a Teaching Advocate for the School of Law for a number of years – the primary role being to encourage the sharing of best teaching and learning practice through the department;
• I was chair of the School’s Teaching and Quality Standards Committee for a number of years having been a member of that committee for several years beforehand; and
• I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I am the programme director for the School’s new LLM in International Commercial Law and Practice which I introduced in September 2011.

The modules I teach are:

Undergraduate	Postgraduate and MA
Company Law I: The Law Relating to Private Companies (Convenor)	International Business Transactions (Convenor)
Law of Contract	Commercial Legal Skills (Convenor)
	Commercial Legal Contracts (Convenor)

Research Interests

Originally on a teaching only contract I became research active in September 2009.

My current area of research interest is contract law and how it deals (or does not deal) with long-term complex relationship contracts. I am currently undertaking qualitative emperical research with legal practitioners concerning changes to long term relational contracts and how they are managed in practice.

Recent Invited Papers and Keynote Lectures

September 2010 - Society of Legal Scholars Contract law Group – "Relational contracts, change mechanisms and the economic crisis"

September 2011 – Society of Legal Scholars Contract and Commercial law Group – member of a plenary panel on "Narrowing the gap in commercial law between practice and academia"

September 2011 – University of Sheffield - Transatlantic Contract Conference – "Managing the risks of changes in commercial contracts"

Professional Activities and Recognition

• Member of the University of Sheffield’s Senate Committee 2010-2013
• Law Society Appointed External Examiner for the Legal Practice Course 2006-7
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the Society of Legal Scholars
• External Examiner BPP Law School

Areas of Research Supervision

• Company Law
• Commercial Law