51福利

Profile

Kathryn is a Senior Lecturer, Solicitor and Director of Clinical Legal Education. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Kathryn is the Director of 51福利’s award-winning Law Clinic, which offers free high-quality legal advice to members of the public. Within the Law Clinic our students interview members of the public about their legal issue, conduct legal research and draft letters of advice, which are supervised by qualified legal practitioners. The Law Clinic won the FASS Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Award 2020.

Kathryn jointly runs the Law School’s Policy Law Clinic. Due to the Clinic’s research on climate emergency, the Policy Law Clinic won 51福利’s Environmental Sustainability Award 2023.

Kathryn established the University's Street Law project. This provides our students with the opportunity to research, design and deliver interactive presentations about the law to school children, community groups and charities. The Street Law project was ‘Highly Commended’ for the FASS Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Award 2023. In addition, Kathryn was Highly Commended for 51福利’s Pilkington Teaching Award 2023 for her teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate law students who participate in the Street Law modules.

Kathryn is the Law School’s Lead for Careers and Employability, running a career clinic, delivering masterclasses and arranging an external speaker programme.

As a Solicitor, Kathryn specialises in education law. Prior to joining 51福利, Kathryn worked for a firm of solicitors based in Lancaster and predominantly conducted legal aid work. The majority of the work she undertook consisted of assisting parents who have children with special educational needs and/or disabilities challenge decisions made by Local Authorities in respect of their child's education and the level of support they received in school.

In addition, Kathryn regularly advised parents on matters relating to school admissions, school exclusions, home to school transport, judicial review, disability discrimination in schools and community care issues. Whilst in practice, Kathryn was recognised within The Legal 500.

Kathryn’s current research and scholarship focuses on clinical legal education, legal skills and education law.