Kathryn is a Senior Lecturer, Solicitor, Director of Lancaster University's Law Clinic and the Employability Lead within the Law School. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Kathryn is the Director of Lancaster University’s award-winning Law Clinic, which offers free high-quality legal advice to members of the public. Within the Law Clinic our students interview members of the public about their legal issue, conduct legal research and draft letters of advice, which are supervised by qualified legal practitioners. Clinic appointments are offered on a face to face, telephone or virtual basis.

As well as delivering the Law Clinic on campus, Kathryn has led the creation and development of various new impactful engagement Law Clinic partnerships, including developing the ‘Rawtenstall Clinic’, a partnership with the Open University, which involved delivering legal advice to an area of high need. 

The Law Clinic won the FASS Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Award 2020. Praise from clients include: “the advice given was stellar...I am particularly grateful to...the law clinic for offering their time and expertise.’ 

Kathryn jointly co-founded and runs the Law School’s Policy Law Clinic. Due to the Policy’s Clinic’s research on climate emergency, the Policy Law Clinic won Lancaster University’s Environmental Sustainability Award 2023. Due to the Policy Clinic's work on Knife Crime Prevention, the Policy Clinic team was Highly Commended for the FASS Dean's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Engagement (2025).

Kathryn established the University's Street Law project. This provides our students with the opportunity to research, design and deliver interactive presentations about the law to school children, community groups and charities. Each year, our students are invited to deliver lessons to approximately 300 children from various schools. The project has a considerable impact. One teacher reflected: ‘I view the experience as a fantastic resource for our pupils and I believe that it assists in promoting widening participation in Higher Education’.

Kathryn established the Law School’s first podcast series, guiding students to design topical law podcasts, promoting public legal education on a national level. The podcasts are also used for recruitment purposes by the University’s Widening Participation teams and have been utilised by other Universities as examples of excellent practice.

The Street Law project was ‘Highly Commended’ for the FASS Outstanding Contribution to Engagement Award 2023. In addition, Kathryn was Highly Commended for Lancaster University’s Pilkington Teaching Award 2023 for her teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate law students who participate in the Street Law modules.

Kathryn is the Law School’s Lead for Careers and Employability, running a career clinic, delivering masterclasses and arranging an external speaker programme (position held from 2017 and continuing). Under Kathryn's leadership, the Law School was rated number one in the UK for graduate prospects in the Complete University Guide in 2020 and 2021.

Within the Law School, Kathryn has held numerous positions of responsibility, including:

• Programme Lead for the LLB Law (Clinical Learning) between 2019-2025
• Committee member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (position held from 2021 to 2025).
• Completed the Bonington Leadership Development Programme (2023/2024).
• A member of the Staff Assessment Team for the Law School’s successful Bronze Athena Swan award submission. In addition, Kathryn was the Athena Swan Team Leader of the ‘Student Working Group’ element of the Athena Swan submission, which consisted of staff and student members.
• In 2024, Kathryn successfully bid for funding from Lancaster University’s Global Advancement Fund to deliver a 2-week Global Commercial Law Taster Programme at Sunway University, Malaysia.

As a Solicitor, Kathryn specialises in education law. Prior to joining Lancaster University, Kathryn worked for a firm of solicitors based in Lancaster and predominantly conducted legal aid work. Kathryn regularly advised clients on matters relating to special educational needs, school admissions, school exclusions, home to school transport, judicial review, disability discrimination in schools and community care issues. Whilst in practice, Kathryn was recognised within The Legal 500.

Kathryn is a reviewer for Lancaster University's ATLAS Programme. Externally, Kathryn is a peer-reviewer for the International Journal for Students as Partners and the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education. Kathryn served on the Lancaster, Morecambe and District Law Society Committee between 2018-2021.

Kathryn’s current research and scholarship focuses on Clinical Legal Education, Legal Skills, Street Law, Children’s Rights and Education law.

Teaching

Kathryn convenes the following modules:

• Law 206 ‘The Law and Young People’
• Law 381 ‘Advanced Clinical Learning’
• Law 383 ‘Street Law’
• Law 385 ‘Legal Advice Clinic’
• LLM 5381 ‘Legal Advice Clinic (postgraduate)’
• LLM 5382 ‘Street Law (postgraduate)’

Kathryn also teaches on Law 281 ‘Mediation and Conflict Resolution’ and is a guest lecturer on Law 101 English Legal Systems and Methods.

In addition, Kathryn teaches each year on Lancaster University’s International Commercial Law Summer School (2019-2025).