Richard Grimes

LLB (Hons), MA (Criminology), DPSE, Solicitor (England and Wales), Solicitor and Barrister (Republic of Fiji)

Contact details

Email: richard.grimes@york.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 32 5817
Office: York Law School, LMB/280

Biography

I qualified as a solicitor in 1977 and have, since then, followed a career both in academia and legal practice, in the belief that one informed the other. My work as a solicitor has been in general practice and in law centres, with a focus on litigation and social welfare law. I have worked at several universities including Sheffield, Manchester, University College North Wales, University College Cork and Keele. Whilst at Sheffield Hallam University I established an in-house legal practice where students, under the supervision of professionally qualified staff, conducted real casework as part of their studies. I was seconded to work with the University of the South Pacific in 1995 and there established the Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies. I joined The College of Law in 2000 as Professor and Director of Pro Bono Services. In 2006 I left to establish a consultancy service – Talkinglaw – and have since worked with educators, government and the not for profit sectors, in improving access to justice and developing legal education programmes. Much of this has been overseas including in Afghanistan, Iran and Nigeria. I joined the York Law School in August 2010 as Director of Clinical Programmes.

Description of current research/research interests

My main research interest is in access to justice issues including public funding of legal services (Legal Aid). legal literacy (public legal education) and clinical legal education.

Selected books and book contributions

Street Law and Social Justice Education (with E O’Brien, D McQuoid-Mason and J Zimmer) in The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice, F Bloch (ed.), OUP, forthcoming, 2010

Law in action - learning through scripted role- plays (with A Butcher and R Parker), UKCLE, University of Warwick, 2007), 239pp

Clinical Legal Education - Active Learning in Your Law School (with H Brayne and N Duncan), Blackstone Press, 1998, 278pp (new edition pending)

Selected articles

All change please - lessons to learn from legal education reforms in Nigeria , The Law Teacher, 2009, 43 (1), 7pp

Why (and how to) do pro bono work in law schools? Journal of Commonwealth Law and Legal Education, 6 (1), 2008, 27, 13pp

Reviewing legal education – what do we want from our lawyers and how do we get it? (with C Smith) , XXVII – XXIX, Delhi Law Review, 2007, 1, 29pp

Professional Activities

Co-founder and current member of Global Alliance of Justice Education (GAJE)

Member of the Public Legal Education Strategy Task Force, (then) Department of Constitutional Affairs, 2005-2007 and now member of Plenet (Public Legal Education network)

Member of Attorney General’s Pro Bono Co-ordinating Committee 2003-date

Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies 1999-date .

Last Updated: May 27, 2011 | se526

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