My work centres around the theme of connection, across the entire arc of the student journey, from before transition into university, to well beyond the achievement of graduate outcomes and into professional life.  It impacts upon innovation in three key areas:

1. Legal Skills and Legal Education

My work is supporting the delivery of demonstrable change in the incorporation of legal skills into legal education nationally. My co-authored textbook published by Oxford University Press, Legal Systems and Skills, has been widely adopted across the sector. It responds to the increasing emphasis on skills, the growing connection between academic and professional legal education, and furnishes all readers with essential cultural capital to flourish in academia and into professional life. 

2. Professional Life and Legal Practice

My work is shaping the way in which professional legal education and training is delivered and assessed nationally. Founded upon my fee-earning as a corporate lawyer in practice, I have enjoyed connecting through education, to collaborate to solve problems and to co-create, with leading law firms and in-house legal departments, legal education providers, and professional, statutory and regulatory bodies including the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Chartered Institute for Legal Executives and the Ministry of Justice. 

3. Social Mobility, Social Justice and Outreach

My work as Outreach Lead is connecting our School with the third sector, with interventions to support learners’ successful transition to university even before they arrive. It responds to the current call on universities to research what works best to connect students with their university experience.  I work collaboratively with the Social Mobility Business Partnership and other legal education charities, and our own Widening Participation and award-winning First Generation Scholarship Programme teams. 

‘Fragments no longer: a project to discover what works best to connect the expectations of first generation and foundation level students in Manchester Law School with the reality of their university experience, for successful and enjoyable outcomes.’.  

This project has been accepted by the Faculty of Business and Law’s Delivering Educational Excellence scheme for 24/25.

Students often experience difficulty envisaging university life, leading to a mismatch between their expectations and reality (Briggs, Clark et al. 2012). The UPP Student Futures Commission recently reported that this disconnect between students and their university experience is growing. The Commission concludes that universities will need to change their offer to meet students where they are at, and calls on us to prioritise research about what young people are expecting of the university experience (UPP Foundation 2024).

This project responds to that call, to inform the debate about student transition and journey and the importance of connection (Connecting Legal Education 2024, Gravett, Taylor et al. 2024).

I enjoy teaching students and currently I lead Manchester Law School units in corporate law and practice for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Previously, I collaborated with our Business School to lead an innovative, interdisciplinary postgraduate professional programme in Legal Practice Management.

In my classrooms, students experience active learning, engaging with technology, problem-based-learning and authentic assessment to connect with our profession, our subject area, and each other.

My teaching objectives are:

1.   To maximise my students’ learning (so we all have what we need to prepare for success).

2.   To instil in students the value of learning life-long transferable, professional skills (so we can all influence with integrity beyond the examination).

3.   To encourage students to feel supported to take responsibility for their own learning (and understand why this matters).

4.   To create an honest, open, inclusive and enjoyable atmosphere in our teaching and learning sessions (where we can all enjoy making mistakes and learning from them).

I am able to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students in dissertations and projects in all aspects of:

(i) Professional Life and Legal Practice

(ii) Corporate Law

(iii) Legal Skills

(iv) Social Mobility and Justice through Legal Education

I enjoy developing and communicating my ideas in person (as an invited speaker, in conference, and in the media) and also in writing. I can work alone and I really enjoy connecting and working in collaboration with others involved in legal practice and/ or legal education, including my students.

I publish my ideas in academic journals, conference papers, books, and professional publications to inform current debate about legal practice and legal education. These publications reflect the broad arc across which I work (from school, transitioning into and through the student journey, into successful graduate outcomes, the profession and beyond). They draw on a variety of scholarly and practice-based sources, including researching my own students’ approaches to learning, including reciprocal mentoring inside and outside my classrooms.

It feels important to me that my outputs have relevance to each and every student in Manchester Law School, and in turn inform their learning and my teaching. 

Thoughts on Manchester Met’s Innovation and Teaching Excellence Learning Lab (i-TELL)

Catherine Shephard International Women’s Day 2023

Find out about Catherine Shephard’s work on innovation in professional practice

Pro Bono Week Q&A with… Catherine Shephard

New book from Law School academic praised by alumnus

ITV and Squire Patton Boggs host Manchester Students

ITV and Squire Sanders host Law students: Widening access to top legal careers

Placements with ITV Legal

Catherine Shephard challenges the audience to set their own standards

Be curious and not fearful when it comes to corporate governance