Afterword
Emma Jones
The contents of this Guide represent a valuable glimpse into the challenges and opportunities faced within legal academia. As a career, it can also feel rewarding and engaging, motivating and exciting but it can also feel confusing and chaotic, pressurised and demanding. There is no one roadmap to follow. Instead, individual circumstances and values, cultural and structural norms and institutional and sector-wide regulation and policies all exert their own influences on career paths. However, finding a sense of community, connection and belongingness can provide help, guidance and support along the way.
Back in 1965, the importance of community, connection and belongingness was recognised by a small group of people who became the founding members of the Association of Law Teachers. At the time, the leading organisation for legal academia (the Society of Public Teachers of Law) was only open to those who taught in university settings, imposing strict criteria on membership. The ALT’s founding members took the radical step of creating their own organisation, welcoming law teachers from technical colleges and other institutions (many of which subsequently became polytechnics). In doing so, they recognised the value of diversity and inclusion and the need for community, connection and belonging. These values are at the heart of the ALT’s mission and purpose.
As this Guide demonstrates so well, the ALT continues to strive to provide an inclusive and welcoming and supportive community for legal educators. In particular, over recent years, it has been exciting to witness the fantastic work done by colleagues on the Committee to support those early on in their career. This includes Early Career Conferences, Symposiums and other events, the ALT mentoring scheme, ALT publications (available to all via the ALT website) and other targeted resources. More generally, legal educators at all stages of their career are able to use the ALT to share experiences, expertise and ideas, providing early career colleagues with a rich web of connections, guidance and support.
At present, I am conducting some research into the history of the ALT, including interviewing some past committee members. A key theme that arises again and again is around the sense of community the ALT provided. This includes the friendships forged, the networks created, the support given and received, and the fun and laughter along the way. This resonates with my personal experience of arriving at my first ALT conference feeling extremely nervous and intimidated, only to leave two days later feeling that I had become part of a community who shared my passion for law teaching and legal education. I know this Guide will provide valuable assistance as you navigate your path through legal academia. I would also encourage you to draw upon the other resources offered by the ALT and, most of all, to consider yourself a part of its community. Sixty years after its creation, it remains a place for connection, guidance and support. One in which those at the early stages of their career are welcomed and acknowledged as vital to the future of legal education.
