Professor of Socio Legal Studies
BA History ( Cambridge); PGCE ( Leeds); PhD Politics ( York); Solicitor
Email : hilary.sommerlad@le.ac.uk
Telephone: 0116 252 2334

Hilary has taught international politics at the University of York, where she completed a PhD on Latin American development, and Law at Leeds Metropolitan University, where she established and directed the Centre for Research into Diversity in the Professions. She has also practised as a solicitor. She has been invited to give keynote talks and lectures at numerous institutions in the UK and overseas including Cardiff, Kent, Harvard, Osgoode Hall Law School, Griffiths and Fordham Law School. Her work has also been translated into Japanese and Spanish. She is involved in the editorial work of two international journals: Journal of Law and Society and Legal Ethics, is a member of various international research groups including the International Legal Aid Group and the International Research Collaborative on Women Judges. She convenes streams in two research groups: Profession, Practice & Ethics ( Society of Legal Scholars) and Professional Identity and Ethics (International Working Group for Comparative Studies of Legal Professions ); and is a founder member of the Equal Justices Initiative . She is currently working on masculinities and race in the solicitors’ profession, and the development of a legal precariate.

Research Interests

Bourdieusian analysis of cultural practices in the legal profession; professional socialisation; legal training and regulation; diversity in the legal profession. relationship between citizenship and access to justice; legal aid

Selected Publications

• (with Webley, L; Muzio, D; Tomlinson, J and Duff, L) Diversity in the legal profession in England and Wales: a qualitative study of barriers and individual choices ( London, Legal Services Board, 2010)
• (with Sanderson, P.) Training and Regulating those providing Publicly Funded Legal Advice Services: a Case Study of Civil Provision ( London, Ministry of Justice, 2009 http://www.justice.gov.uk/latest-updates/training-regulating-legal-advice.htm)
• ‘Reflections on the reconfiguration of Access to Justice’, 2008 International Journal of the Legal Profession, 15 (3), pp 179-93
• ‘Researching and theorizing the processes of professional identity formation’, 2007 Journal of Law & Society, 34 (2), pp 190-217
• (with Sanderson, P) ‘Gender, Power and Law in Screwball Comedy’ in S. Greenfield & S. Osborn (eds) Law and Popular Culture ( London, Routledge, 2006)
• ‘Some reflections on the Relationship between Citizenship, Access to Justice and the reform of Legal Aid’, 2004 Journal of Law & Society, 31 (3), pp 345-6
• (with Sanderson, P) Gender, Choice and Commitment: Women Solicitors and the struggle for equal status. (Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1998)

Full publications list (pdf)

Current Teaching

Civil Justice and Criminal Justice

PhD supervision

Hilary welcomes approaches from prospective doctoral students, especially in the areas of the legal profession, including regulation, legal ethics, New Public Management, diversity and access to justice. The topics of her current PhD students include a Critical Race Feminist analysis of law.