About

I am an experienced Course and Module Leader, and Academic Advisor for courses in both Law and Business Management. My work has also included undertaking the role of Law Apprenticeships Lead for the University. I specialise in Land Law and Tort Law and I have taught students across the University within the fields of Law, Engineering, Real Estate, and Business and Management. As a non-practising Solicitor with over twenty years' collective experience in practice and academia, I have devised and rolled out modules 'from scratch' following revalidation which have involved creating simulated law firm and careers recruitment environments.

Alongside my undergraduate teaching, I supervise and assesses postgraduate research projects across law, criminology, real estate and business management. I was also successfully awarded funding to supervise a Doctoral Training Alliance PhD Studentship in collaboration with Liberty. An experienced Academic Advisor, I have achieved the Award in Personal Tutoring and Academic Advising from the Centre for Recording Achievement & Staff Educational Development Association. I have also become a Recognised Practitioner in Advising with UK Advising and Tutoring. Additionally, I am an External Examiner for both Coventry and Nottingham Law Schools, and a Senior Fellow for Advance HE. I have judged both the Yorkshire Legal Awards and the Advance HE Global Teaching Excellence Awards. My approach has also been recognised through both the Law Works & Attorney General Pro Bono Awards, and also the University’s Team Awards for the National Client Interviewing Competition.

During my academic career, I have also been nominated for Awards for my leading roles in developing the following initiatives: the Freeths Competition Law Solutions Project, the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scheme and the Lawyer in London Event. In addition, students have nominated me for both University Inspirational Teaching and Outstanding Student Support Awards. My approach to research has been recognised by the Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence 2020. My research focuses on law and place, and professional development. I am an Associate Editor for the Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law, and have also guest-edited Special Issues for different journals. As a former member of both the Executive Committee and the Grants Sub-Committee for the Socio-Legal Studies Association, I continue to co-convene the Property, People, Power & Place Annual Conference Stream. I am also an Associate of the Centre for Regional, Social and Economic Research and a Fellow of the Sheffield Institute for Policy Studies.

Teaching

Department Of Law and Criminology

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Projects include: Pracademia: research, practice and and professional development initiatives around the experiences of former/current practitioners as they make the transition(s) between practice and academia); Changing Spaces: exploring staff and students' experiences of the blended working environment; Examining students' engagement with extra-curricular activities and their levels of self-efficacy; Freeths' Competition Law Solutions Project; the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme; and Lawyer in London Student Employability Event

Subject Area

- Student Engagement, Evaluation and Research (Student Experience, Teaching and Learning) (Secondment);
- Department of Law and Criminology

Courses

- LLB (Hons) Law;
- LLB (Hons) Law and Criminology;
- BA (Hons) Business and Management

Modules

I have led and/or taught on a range of modules across law, business and management, engineering, and real estate. Whilst I specialise in teaching both Land Law and Tort Law, I have also developed core modules 'from scratch'. These include Clinical Legal Education (where students worked in simulated law firm environments) and Careers Development Learning (which involved students engaging with simulated recruitment and selection activities). I also supervise a number of postgraduate research projects.

Research

• Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice , Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research
• Social and Economic Research Institute

My multidisciplinary research adopts two key themes: law and place, and professional development.

Law and Place: Focusing on law’s manifestations across a spectrum of private and public places, my research explores places across the private/public place spectrum. These include the home, shopping centres, greenspaces, and towns and city centres, and the issues created by the blurred boundaries that may be found within them. This research has led to initiatives including the ESRC-funded launch of the Public Urban Green Space Group as part of the Festival of Social Sciences; supervising doctoral students including a Doctoral Training Alliance PhD Studentship around public spaces protection orders; and securing research funding from organisations including the Oak Foundation and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Research Trust, now the Property Research Trust.

Professional Development: As a former practitioner myself, I research aspects of professional development including practitioners’ transitions into academia (‘pracademia’), staff/student transitions to the blended learning environment, and the development of student self-efficacy, for example through engagement with extra-curricular activities. This research stream has led to collaborations including the establishment of the Pracademia Network with Advance HE and the launch of am Annual Connecting with Professional Practice Conference and associated funding streams.

Featured Projects

Link 1: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/pracademic-expertise-and-its-value-higher-education
Link 2: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/add/2021/05/21/hallam-guild-event-connecting-with-professional-practice-conference-8-june-2021/?doing_wp_cron=1623333875.0578598976135253906250
Link 3: https://www.shu.ac.uk/news/all-articles/latest-news/asb-legislation-and-homeless-people
Link 4: https://southwestsheffield.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/its-great-outdoors-exhibitions-debates-and-events-between-3rd-10th-nov-2018/
Link 5: https://sheffieldinstituteforpolicystudies.com/2020/11/09/exploring-the-effect-of-covid-19-on-the-future-of-sheffields-greenspaces/
Link 6: https://sheffieldinstituteforpolicystudies.com/2020/07/03/sips-postgraduate-research-poster-competition-now-in-its-fourth-year/

Relevant Projects

Professional Development Projects including:

• Pracademia: a community of practice involving a range of research, practice and and professional development initiatives around the experiences of former/current practitioners as they make their transition(s) between practice and academia;
• The Annual Postgraduate Research Showcase and Poster Competition; and
• Self-efficacy: a research project that examines students' self-efficacy within a range of contexts, including extra-curricular activities.

HE/Industry Projects including:

• The Annual Connecting with Professional Practice Conference and associated funding stream to support the development of inter HE/industry collaborations
• Student employability projects, for example: the Freeths' Competition Law Solutions Project; the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme; and the Lawyer in London Student Employability Event

Place and Space-related Projects including:

• Changing Spaces: a research project that explores staff and students' experiences of the blended working environment;
• The High Streets Network; and
• The international Co-working Spaces Cluster.

Collaborators and Sponsors

Research funders include the Oak Foundation, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Research Trust, now the Property Research Trust, La Trobe University, and most recently AdvanceHE. 

Publications

Other activities

External responsibilities include: Co-Convenor of the Property People Power and Place Stream for the Annual Socio Legal Studies Association Conference; External Examiner for Nottingham and Coventry Law Schools; and Associate Editor for the Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law.

Postgraduate supervision

Working with colleagues from a range of disciplines, I have supervised and/or examined postgraduate research on a range of topics related to the central themes of law, place, and professional development. These include: the regulation of social media platforms, human trafficking, refugee integration, anti-social behaviour, mentoring, and professional identities.

Media

After spending 10 years working in practice as a solicitor, specialising in shopping centre management, Jill moved into academia where she is involved in a number of different research streams.

Primarily interested in place-governance, Jill’s research explores the law’s influence on both public and private land, including issues around home defence, greenspace and public space protection orders. Following on from this, she has founded a new Public Urban Green Space (PUGS) Group for practitioners, policy-makers, academics and other stakeholders to collaboratively work together on green space projects.

She is also co-leading a stream of research which examines students’ engagement in extra-curricular activities and their levels of self-efficacy.

Jill is also interested in how experience as a former/current practitioner shapes academics’ approaches in higher education, and has created a new Community of Practice: Hallam Pracademia.