I am LLB Course Lead and Lecturer in Law at York St John University. I joined the University in 2023, having previously taught at Sheffield Hallam University and Arden University. I hold a First Class LLB from the University of Huddersfield and an LLM by Research from Sheffield Hallam University, and I am currently completing my PhD.
My academic career brings together teaching, research, programme leadership and professional engagement. I teach at undergraduate and postgraduate level and have experience across a broad range of legal subjects. As LLB Course Lead, I have responsibility for the undergraduate law programme and a particular interest in the student experience, curriculum development and preparing students for the different opportunities available to them after their degree.
I am committed to legal education that is academically rigorous while remaining connected to the world beyond the classroom. I enjoy helping students develop as confident lawyers and graduates, whether their ambitions lie in legal practice, other professional careers, postgraduate study or academic research.
My own interests are similarly wide-ranging. Much of my work is concerned with how law responds to contemporary challenges and how it is experienced in society, bringing together doctrinal and interdisciplinary approaches across several fields of legal scholarship.
My teaching is centred on making law intellectually challenging, accessible and relevant. I encourage students to move beyond learning legal rules and to ask why the law has developed as it has, whose interests it serves, how effectively it works, and how it might respond to new social, economic and technological challenges.
I teach in areas including intellectual property, employment law, public law, tort, sports law, media law and clinical legal education. Across these subjects, I make extensive use of contemporary cases, practical problems and realistic scenarios. Students are encouraged to develop their own arguments, test different interpretations of the law and become confident in defending their conclusions.
Professional development is an important part of my teaching. I incorporate legal research, problem solving, advocacy, drafting, client communication and professional judgment into learning and assessment, helping students understand how the knowledge and skills developed during a law degree translate into legal practice and other professional settings. My involvement in clinical legal education also enables me to support students as they apply their knowledge to real clients and experience the responsibilities that accompany professional legal work.
I also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and particularly enjoy helping students develop an initial idea into an ambitious, independent piece of legal research.
My research spans intellectual property, employment law, therapeutic jurisprudence, public law, and law and popular culture. Although these interests are diverse, they share a concern with how legal rules respond to changing social, economic, technological and environmental conditions, and with the consequences of law beyond purely doctrinal analysis.
A significant strand of my research focuses on intellectual property. I am particularly interested in patents, trade marks and the relationship between intellectual property and sustainability. My work examines areas including sustainable innovation, biodiversity and genetic resources, plant-based technologies, the circular economy, repair and reuse, and environmental claims and certification. I have a particular interest in the development and application of intellectual property law in African jurisdictions and in questions of ownership, access and value arising from biological resources and emerging technologies.
My employment law research considers workplace rights, dismissal, equality and the changing relationship between employers and workers. Alongside this, therapeutic jurisprudence provides an important strand of my interdisciplinary research. My doctoral research examines refugee integration in the UK and considers how legal and administrative frameworks can affect dignity, autonomy, wellbeing and participation.
I also research the relationship between law and popular culture, including the use of music, television, film and video games as sites of legal inquiry. This work explores how cultural texts can reveal, challenge and reshape understandings of law, justice, institutions and legal experience.
My work has been published across leading legal journals and academic collections, including publications with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Springer. I am particularly interested in research that crosses traditional subject boundaries and in developing new collaborations around intellectual property, sustainability, legal experience and interdisciplinary legal scholarship.
Recent publications
I contribute to the wider legal academic community through external examining, peer review, academic quality assurance and professional service. I serve as an External Examiner for the University of Greater Manchester and as Chief External Examiner for postgraduate law provision at UWE Bristol, contributing to the maintenance of academic standards across undergraduate and postgraduate legal education.
I regularly undertake peer review for academic journals, including the European Journal of Legal Studies, the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education and the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal. I am a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Association of Law Teachers, and an Affiliate Member of the Institute for Health and Care Improvement at York St John University.
Within York St John University, I contribute to institutional academic governance through the Academic Conduct Committee and School Quality Panel, with responsibilities relating to academic integrity, standards and quality assurance.
My professional interests also extend to collaboration and academic development. I work with colleagues and students on research and publication projects and support the development of student research beyond formal assessment where there is potential for wider scholarly contribution. I also contribute to the wider exchange of ideas between legal scholarship, legal education and professional practice.
