09/15/2026
I'm back from the UK where I attended and presented at the Society of Legal Scholars annual meeting in Norwich. The theme this year was "doing law differently." Some highlights were:
Attending the dinner where I met two new friends with whom I am already planning a collaboration: Jaspal Kaur Sadhu Singh and Louise Glover!
Several sessions in Family Law, including one by Pawan Kumar Yadav (National Law University, Delhi) on reimagining matrimonial property in India, constitutional equality and economic justice after divorce, and another by Andy Hayward (Durham University) on needs-based cohabitation reform. I enjoyed a few that addressed legal education, including one by a young lecturer, James Shipton, who showed great insight into how the legal profession needs to change to make it attractive to new lawyers. And I enjoyed the plenary, "What Are Legal Educators For? Doing Things Differently in Legal Education," with Lydia Bleasdale (University of Leeds), Michael Doherty (University of Lancaster), and Fiona Ní Drisceoil (University of Sussex), which included significant discussion on making the classroom more open and experiential. Every session seemed to include a segment about the impact of AI on the work of the lawyer and on legal education, seeming to encourage us to make changes that value connection and develop a more relational pedagogy.
In the session where I presented, I had the pleasure of meeting Anna Luk, who is exploring a broader framework for legal training, and Scott Turpin. After our session, Scott and I spent well over an hour outside, and I was truly shocked to hear how much his day-to-day work as a barrister resembled the work of so many of my peers.
