About

I have pursued an academic career for 40 years. I have extensive experience of teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses. I have also taught on many short courses. The dominant areas of teaching have been Contract Law, Commercial Law, Business Law Company Law and Corporate governance. I have taught modules in these areas on law, accounting, business and management courses. I have previously taught modules in Criminal Law and for many years taught Evidence modules on the LLB (Hons) programme.

I am currently teaching Company Law and Evidence at undergraduate level and Module Leader at postgraduate level for Company Law, Legal Scholarship and the Independent Studies. 

I also contribute to the court room training of police officers and other professionals.

Teaching responsibilities

I am currently teaching the Equity and Succession module which is a core module for final year LLB (Hons) students. This module deals with Trusts and Wills and, as the title suggests, has a most significant focus on Equity and its application in this area.

Company Law and Evidence are two further modules I am currently teaching. The former provides a broad understanding of company law application to the range of companies from the 'one member' company to the large, stock-exchange-listed organisation. Study of this module does draw upon practical application wherever appropriate. The Evidence module deals predominantly with Criminal Law. Consideration of types of evidence, eg character, identification and opinion, dominate within the module, building on provision of guidance dealing with the court procedure, roles of those involved including issues such as burden of proof. 

Professional interests

I've combined an academic career with practice as a barrister. I was called to the Bar in 1977 and completed pupillage in 1978. It was in 1978 that I began my academic career here at Derby. Whilst being a lecturer, I did for many years practice as a barrister being a part-time Door Tenant at Gazette Chambers, later Rochester Chambers in Birmingham. I am currently a Door Tenant at Derwent Chambers in Derby.

Research interests

I have undertaken research in a wide range of areas within the field of Company Law. For some time, I have focused on the area of auditors, in particular auditor independence. This remains a great area of interest and expanding research. Minority Shareholder Protection and Women in the Boardroom are other areas of research. All areas are dynamic with media considerations and review at senior levels. 

In the area of Evidence, I am continuing research into the development and value of surveillance evidence. This is a developing area with constantly changing technological capabilities and consequent need for judicail considerations.

Membership of professional bodies

I am a member of Lincoln's Inn.

Qualifications

• LLB University of London
• LLM University of Derby
• Barrister at Law (Lincoln’s Inn)
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Recent conferences

I have been a regular presenter at the EIASM (European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management) Workshops in Corporate Governance held in Brussels. I have also presented papers at the European Business and Management Conference. I have also undertaken the role of reviewer of material submitted for presentation at this conference. Most recently, I have presented papers at International Relations and Corporate Governance conferences both organised by the University of Derby.  

Recent publications

I have had a number of books published in the area of Company Law. I have also contributed to books, mainly in the area of Business Law. These include:

As sole author

Practical Company Law, A Guide to Practical Company Law and Company Law - A Tutor's Manual, - all published by Elm Publications.

As a contributing author

Business Environment and Information Technology, published by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants; Business Law and also Fundamentals of Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Law, both published by Elsevier. Also, the Dictionary of Policing published by Willan.

I was co-author for The Modern Company published by Frank Cass.