It is a tremendous honour to have been elected to this position and I am very grateful to the members who trusted me with their vote. The Society means a great deal to me, having afforded me many formative experiences throughout my career. I know that it can be a source of support, advice and inspiration for many colleagues across the legal academy, especially in challenging times. I look forward to working with other officers, our administrative team, committee colleagues, convenors, and fellow members across the world to develop those opportunities even further. I shall engage with members of all career stages, backgrounds and jurisdictions in representing our Society and community of legal academics.
Professor James Lee, Professor of English Law.
29 September 2026
Professor James Lee elected Vice-President Elect of the Society of Legal Scholars
Professor James Lee will play a leading role in representing and supporting legal academics across the UK, Ireland and beyond.
Professor James Lee, Professor of English Law and Vice-Dean (People & Culture) at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, has been elected as Vice-President Elect of the Society of Legal Scholars, the learned society for academic lawyers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The Society has over 2,700 members and is the oldest learned society for law, having held its first meeting in 1909.
Professor Lee takes up the role on 1st October, having been elected at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in September. He will serve as Vice-President in 2027-2028, and President of the Society in 2028-2029. As a result, King’s will host the Society’s Annual Conference, one of the largest regular meetings for legal academics of all disciplines, in 2029.
James has held various roles within the Society, serving on its Executive Committee for over a decade. He was Subject Sections Secretary of the Society from 2017-2020, having previously convened or co-convened several of the sections which cover specific areas of the law. He is currently one of four General Editors of Legal Studies, the Society’s principal academic publication, which is one of the leading generalist law journals and published by Cambridge University Press. In 2007, James won the Inaugural Best Paper Prize at the Society’s Annual Conference, for his paper ‘Fidelity in interpretation: Lord Hoffmann and The Adventure of the Empty House’, which became his first article, published in Legal Studies. At the Society’s 2024 Annual Conference, James spoke in the plenary session entitled ‘Learning from Others: Supporting ECRs and those entering the academy’.
The contribution of King’s academics to the work of the Society is illustrated by the fact that Professor Lee will be the second member of the Faculty to serve as President within a decade, following Professor Catharine MacMillan in 2021-22.
Congratulations to James on his election as Vice-President Elect of the Society of Legal Scholars, a role that reflects his longstanding contribution to the organisation and the wider legal academic community. His appointment continues our strong tradition of engagement with the Society, and we look forward to supporting James in the role and welcoming legal scholars from across the UK and beyond to King's for the Society's Annual Conference in 2029.
Professor Dan Hunter, Executive Dean, The Dickson Poon School of Law
James is also an Academic Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, a Trustee of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, and an academic member of the Property Bar Association and the Chancery Bar Association. His research interests lie in private law, law reform and judicial decision-making, and his principal current project explores the role of narrative in legal change and how the stories which institutions tell about the law enable them to reform it.
In this story
Professor of English Law, Vice-Dean People and Culture