Senior Lecturer Professional Legal Education (Education)

Job ID: 024345 

Salary: Grade 8 £50,618 - £58,655, including London Weighting Allowance 

Posted: 01-Jun-2021 

Closing date: 30-Jun-2021

Business unit: The Dickson Poon School of Law Department: Law School 

Contact details: Christopher Howard, christopher.howard@kcl.ac.uk

The Dickson Poon School of Law is seeking to appoint a Senior Lecturer to join its core team for Professional Legal Education. This is a post on the Academic Education Pathway, which emphasises teaching, scholarship and innovation. Successful candidates will have excellent teaching and course design skills, as well as experience working in the legal profession. 

The successful candidate will be responsible, as part of a new team, for the design and delivery of innovative, practice-oriented programmes in core and specialist areas of Law and Legal Practice.  It will also support the extra-curricular skills programmes.

The programmes undertaken will include, inter alia, post-graduate programmes and short courses.

The successful candidate will be responsible to the Executive Dean.  

The Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London is one of the oldest law schools in England and recognised globally as one of the best law schools in the world. It is ranked 16th in the world and 5th in the UK in the QS World University Rankings for Law 2021. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise, research in the School was rated as number one in the UK.

The Dickson Poon School of Law embraces equality, diversity and inclusion. We attract students and staff from across the world, from many different backgrounds, with a variety of ethnicities, religions, and sexual and gender identities. We promote flexible working as a key enabler of inclusion.  We particularly encourage and welcome applications from women, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, and from candidates who are LGBTQ+ and/or have a disability.

The Dickson Poon School of Law is housed in the East Wing of Somerset House, a Grade One listed building, on the College’s Strand Campus, no more than a couple of minutes’ walk from the Royal Courts of Justice and Inns of Court and midway between Westminster and the City of London. The School’s location has always enabled it to have excellent contacts with practitioners and policy-makers, and there is a strong tradition of engagement with the legal profession.

The Dickson Poon School of Law has a long-standing reputation for excellence in the laws of England and Wales, European, International and Transnational Law. The School’s research interests cover all areas of public and private law and include the philosophy and sociology of law as well as doctrinal, empirical, historical, interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the study of law. Its educational offering covers a broad range of legal disciplines and is home to a vibrant postgraduate research community. It also has a Professional Law Institute and a Legal Clinic.

Of particular relevance to this role are the School’s Professional Law Institute, which provides a focal point for its practice-based education, research and civic engagement, as well as strengthening our connections to practitioners and stakeholder institutions in the heart of legal London, and its Legal Clinic, which aims to improve access to justice through a range of activities, including the provision of free legal advice to members of the public through its Legal Advice Clinic. 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.

Full-time or Part-time (with appropriate pro-rata salary adjustment)

Key responsibilities

• To work with the Director of Professional Legal Education, to design, develop and deliver range of innovative, practice-oriented, programmes of study to provide high quality education and skills training for aspiring and practising legal professionals.  

• To teach and lecture on a variety of modules through on-campus and online lectures, problem-based learning seminars, and guided study sessions. 

• To provide support for students during their career progression. 

• To assist in the creation of relationships with leading legal institutions.  

• To design and teach short courses for practising legal professionals on cutting-edge issues in legal practice. 

• To undertake a range of management and administrative duties as required for the facilitation of the Professional Law Institute at The Dickson Poon School of Law. 

The role holder will be responsible for, inter alia: 

• Assisting in the development of a strategy for creating and maintaining a varied range of professional legal practice programmes fit for the needs of lawyers at all stages of education and practice . 

• Designing, developing and delivering problem-based, practice-oriented modules and courses in core areas of substantive and procedural law and connected disciplines such as IT and Business as part of programmes of study for lawyer qualification and professional development. 

• Developing the School’s responses to the demands of the Solicitor’s Qualifying Examination. 

• Developing innovative teaching methods and designing and setting assessments that test and develop both substantive legal knowledge and practical skills relevant to professional practice. 

• Lecturing, leading seminars, and tutorials in face-to-face, online and blended learning teaching environments. 

• Taking an active role in the Quality Assurance and internal programme review processes to help ensure that the highest standards of teaching and curriculum content are met. 

• The timely marking and second-marking of assessments, providing thorough feedback on students’ work in accordance with the relevant internal frameworks and marking guidelines. 

• The oversight and supervision of visiting staff on modules within the responsibility of the role holder, ensuring teaching quality is of the highest standards. 

• Attending and reporting to College and Faculty committees. 

• Representing The Dickson Poon School of Law through attendance at relevant professional and academic conferences. 

• Undertaking a range of management and administrative duties that arise from the design, teaching, assessment and management of the modules within the responsibility of the role holder including Programme and Module Leadership. 

• Maintaining engagement with law firms, chambers, regulators and other industry stakeholders to ensure the currency of each programme / module. 

• Research and development in the creation of international partnerships with institutions and regulators for the facilitation of transferable qualifications. 

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria                     

• Qualification as a lawyer in a common law jurisdiction and post-qualification experience as a legal professional. 

• Understanding of the current state of the legal sector and emerging trends and innovations in the way legal services are delivered. 

• Excellent teaching, programme management and administration skills. 

• The ability to design innovative modules for practice-oriented programmes of study in Law in face-to-face and online environments. 

• Knowledge of and the ability to teach a combination of at least two core substantive law modules and/or procedural law subjects required for professional legal qualification.    

• Experience of face-to-face and online learning environments as a tutor or module leader. 

• Experience of professional legal education. 

• A strong interest in the future development of the legal profession and changes to legal practice on a domestic and international level. 

• Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders 

• Ability to work to and meet deadlines on own initiative and as part of a team. 

• A professional approach and a willingness to contribute to the School’s culture of collaboration. 

Desirable criteria 

• HEA recognition and / or Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education  

• Knowledge of and the ability to teach any of Equity & Trusts; Property Law & Practice; Company Law & Practice; or Litigation Practice. 

• Knowledge of and the ability to teach non-core specialist legal disciplines such as Family Law or Equity Finance at postgraduate level or as part of professional practice programmes 

• Knowledge of and the ability to teach non-law disciplines relevant to legal practice such as Information Technology, Project Management, Artificial Intelligence, Business Development 

• Excellent IT skills including knowledge of course creation and delivery on Moodle or similar VLE 

• Experience of participation in university governance and regulatory matters 

Further information

The selection process will include a panel interview and a teaching presentation as part of the interview.

Full-time or Part-time (with appropriate pro-rata salary adjustment)