Professor of Law in Leeds

Leeds Beckett is a modern, professional university with a dedicated, diverse community. Our vision is to be an excellent, accessible, globally-engaged university contributing positively to a thriving northern economy. Our mission is to ensure we use our knowledge and resources to make a positive and decisive difference to people, communities and organisations. We are a community of around 23,000 students from over 140 countries and 2,200 staff, and our history dates back to the founding of Leeds Mechanics Institute in 1824. We are a major organisation in our region and the University contributes around £500m to the economy each year. Our Law School sits in the heart of the city of Leeds and is positioned to provide access to practical experience and employment opportunities for our students. We work closely with employers and partners to help our graduates become ready for work, ready for life and ready to seize opportunities.

This appointment is for a Professor and reflects our commitment to research leadership, student success and regional impact.

Applications are encouraged from existing Professors who want to develop their career as a research leader in our School and broader research community. The successful candidate will develop and maintain a research profile of distinction and encourage the promotion of research and research funding in Law within Leeds Law School and across the institution more broadly. As such we expect applicants to have experience of developing and/or leading an interdisciplinary research institute. The successful candidate will have a strong track record in securing significant research income (over £150k in a recent year) and be in a strong position to secure (or have already secured) significant funding within this REF period and beyond. We expect to see a funding track record that includes significant research council/government funding. We expect the applicant to be able to support our Director of Research in our UoA 18 REF submission. Candidates must have held a role such as UoA lead/deputy and have a strong track record in both research impact and developing research environments. We expect the applicant to have led an Impact Case Study and be conducting research that has a significant impact on policy and practice within the criminal justice system. The successful applicant will have held a senior administrative role – including leading a School’s research community (Associate Dean for Research as an example). We are looking to build our PGR community within the Law School and encourage applications from Professors with experience in leading/building PGR communities. We are particularly interested in applicants who have engaged with law and criminal justice organisations to develop strategic connections that align with PGR communities.

Leeds Law School expects everyone to contribute to the success of our students and help deliver a high-quality student experience. We encourage applications from those who bring experience of developing research culture and helping to build a strong research environment. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of research outputs with evidence of originality, rigour and significance that are internationally excellent. The applicant must have a number of internationally excellent outputs in the pipeline that will be submitted within this REF period. We expect the applicant to have a track record of timely doctoral completions and experience of externally examining PhDs. Applicants must have a track record of significant research esteem including but not limited to international keynote invitations, peer reviewing (outputs and grants) and significant policy engagement/invitations linked to their research. We are particularly interested in applicants with experience in developing secondment and policy engagement opportunities with criminal justice related organisations. We expect the applicant to have a track record of organising policy relevant national conferences and have secured plans to continue this level of engagement with policy and practice. The successful candidate will have a qualifying law degree and have experience of policy engagement in law as well as policing or the wider criminal justice system. Successful candidates will be expected to contribute to developing and teaching both law and criminology modules at undergraduate and postgraduate level. We welcome applications from academics with strong links with policy makers and practitioners in law, policing and criminal justice. We will be looking to appoint candidates who can strengthen our links with these organisations both locally, nationally and internationally.

Closing Date: Tuesday 17th February (23.59) Interview date: Tuesday 3rd March 2025 (this may be subject to change) Working here means you’ll also have access to a wide range of benefits including our generous pension schemes, excellent holiday entitlements, flexible working, reduced study fees, subsidised fitness facilities and a lot more. We welcome applications from all individuals and particularly from black and minority ethnic candidates as members of these groups are currently under-represented at this level of post. All appointments will be based on merit.

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