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Professor Emily Allbon

Professor of Legal Education, Director of Legal Design

The City Law School Academic law programmes

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About

Overview

Emily is Director of Legal Design at the City Law School.

She began her role at City as the Law Librarian in 2000, before joining The City Law School in 2014 as Lecturer. She is known for her work in developing the award-winning Lawbore resource – a website to support and engage those studying law, as well as for her work in the field of legal design. She was proud to launch TL;DR - the less textual legal gallery in late 2019 - which showcases ways of making law more accessible to all. A popular resource within TL;DR is Coltsfoot Vale; a virtual village for learning about land law principles. 

Her work has been recognised in many ways, both by her previous profession (Wildy/BIALL Law Librarian of the Year 2012) and the academic law community (Best paper in Legal Education and Technology at BILETA 2012, Routledge/Association of Law Teachers (ALT) Teaching Law with Technology Prize 2013). In 2013 the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) named her one of 55 National Teaching Fellows – the UK’s most prestigious awards for excellence in higher education teaching and support for learning. Emily is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. 

Emily’s academic background includes degrees in English Literature, Law, Information Science and Academic Practice. Her interests lie in legal education, legal research and legal information literacy, student engagement, legal design and visualisation, and the use of technology in teaching and learning. She runs regular design sprints for students and enjoys working with legal charities and advice agencies (such as Leducate, Liberty) to help them create more usable, accessible and understandable materials. One long-term project is #DesignTheLawNepal, which aims to create a space for all Nepali citizens to understand their sexual and reproductive health rights, by using accessible language and engaging explainers to mobilise the power of visual communication methods. Her most recent book is an edited collection, Design in Legal Education (Routledge, 2022), co-edited with Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris from the University of Kent.

Employment

  • Trustee, BAILII - The British and Irish Legal Information Institute, October 2019 - present

Memberships of professional organisations

  • ALT - Association of Law Teachers
  • Clarity International
  • SLSA - Socio-Legal Studies Association
  • LERN - Legal Education Research Network
  • CILIP - Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
  • BAILII - British and Irish Association of Law Librarians
  • SLS - The Society of Legal Scholars

Teaching

Foundations of Land Law (LLB)
Studying Law and Employability (LLB)
Debates in the English Legal System (LLB)
English Legal System (GELLB)

Publications

Publications by category

Books (6)

  • Allbon, E. and Kaur Dua, S. (2023). The Insider's Guide to Legal Skills. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781003041863.
  • Allbon, E. and Perry-Kessaris, A. (2022). Design in Legal Education. Routledge.
  • Allbon, E. (2019). Legal Research: A Practitioner's Handbook. Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing. ISBN 9780854902651.
  • Allbon, E. and Kaur Dua, S. (2019). Elliott and Quinn's English Legal System 2019/20. Pearson. ISBN 9781292251059.
  • Allbon, E. and Kaur Dua, S. (2018). Elliott and Quinn's English Legal System. Pearson. ISBN 9781292208510.
  • Allbon, E. and Kaur Dua, S. (2016). The Insider's Guide to Legal Skills. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781315738123.

Chapters (11)

  • Allbon, E. and Warner, R. (2022). Taking our interactive co-design workshop online. Design in Legal Education Routledge. ISBN 9780367075798.
  • Allbon, E. and Perry-Kessaris, A. (2022). What can design do for legal education? Design in Legal Education (pp. 1-14). Routledge.
  • Allbon, E. and Warner, R. (2022). Taking a co-design workshop online. Design in Legal Education (pp. 178-191). Routledge.
  • Allbon, E. and Perry-Kessaris, A. (2022). Design in legal publishing. Design in Legal Education (pp. 229-237). Routledge.
  • Passera, S., Allbon, E. and Haapio, H. (2022). Contract transformation: merging drafting and design to meet the needs of human readers. Research Handbook on Contract Design (pp. 92-112). Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 9781839102271.
  • Allbon, E. and Morgan, R. (2021). Is law really that special? In Ducato, R. and Strowel, A. (Eds.), Legal Design Perspectives: Theoretical and Practical Insights from the Field Ledizioni. ISBN 9788855265751.
  • Allbon, E. (2020). Planning a Training Session. BIALL Handbook of Legal Information Management (pp. 283-301). Routledge.
  • Allbon, E. (2016). Showcasing outside the library walls: growth through collaboration. In Mohando, L.F., Gottschalk, S., Schulz, M.R. and Tanja, G. (Eds.), Knowledge Management in Law Firms Expertise in Action Globe Law and Business. ISBN 9781911078135.
  • Allbon, E. (2016). Planning a training session. Biall Handbook of Legal Information Management (pp. 283-302).
  • Allbon, E. (2014). Planning a training session. Biall Handbook of Legal Information Management (pp. 283-302).
  • TREMBLAY, J.-.F. (2006). WORKING THE LIBRARY. (pp. 44-44). American Chemical Society (ACS).

Conference papers and proceedings (5)

Journal articles (19)

Professional activities

Editorial activity

  • The Law Teacher: The International Journal of Legal Education, Editorial board member.

Events/conferences (28)

  • Connecting Legal Education (CLEFest). (Conference) University of Leeds (2024). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Power of legal design (for legal education)
    Author: Allbon, E.
  • Symposium on making law more accessible for younger audiences. (Seminar) University of Warwick (2023). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Demystifying law for (older) young people
    Author: Allbon, E.
  • CLEO Annual Conference Post-Pandemic: new frontiers in teaching and research in clinical legal education. (Conference) University of Derby (2023). Invited speaker.
    Paper: How could you use design in a legal clinic setting?
    Author: Allbon, E.
  • SLSA Annual Conference. (Conference) University of Derry (2023).
    Paper: Reproductive rights as socio-economic rights in Nepal: using legal design to improve access to justice
    Author: Germain, S.
    Co-authors: Allbon, E. & Malagodi, M.
  • International Conference on Typography & Visual Communication. (Conference) Thessaloniki, Greece (2022).
    Paper: Freeing Liberty through Information Design
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Warner, R
  • SLSA Conference 2021. (Conference) Virtual, hosted by Cardiff University, Wales, UK (2021). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Making legal education more inclusive by design
    Author: Allbon, E
  • Legal Design Roundtable 2020. (Conference) Online, hosted by UCLouvain, Belgium (2020).
    Paper: Is Law that special?
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Morgan, R
  • CLEO Conference: Games, Stories and Simulations. (Conference) London South Bank University, UK (2019). Organising Committee Invited speaker.
    Paper: TLDR and Coltsfoot Vale
    Author: Allbon, E
  • ALT Conference 2019. (Conference) De Montfort University, UK (2019).
    Paper: From contract visualisation to legal design: the first 20 years
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Haapio, H
  • Nottingham Law School, Centre for Legal Education Conference, UK. (Conference) Nottingham, UK (2017).
    Paper: Lagton Legal: creating a transmedia storyworld for the LLB in Legal Practice
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Pamplin, M
  • BILETA: British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association. (Conference) Braga, Portugal (2017).
    Paper: Keeping it real: Transmedia for online legal education
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Pamplin, M
  • ALT Conference. (Conference) Portsmouth, UK (2017).
    Paper: Developing a transmedia resource for online legal education
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Pamplin, M
  • All-day legislation workshop for the Welsh Assembly. (Workshop) Cardiff, UK (2016). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Legal Research Masterclass in Legislation
    Author: Allbon, E.
  • Society of Legal Scholars Conference. (Conference) Oxford, UK (2016).
    Paper: Seeing is believing: We are all converging
    Author: Allbon, E
  • Learning at City Conference. (Conference) London, UK (2016).
    Paper: Murder, Diamonds and Walking: Using walks in your teaching practice through an exploration of Hatton Garden
    Author: Allbon, E
    Co-authors: Bullimore, A.; Benata, R.
  • Infiltrate and conquer: Showing the World what Librarians can do. Brighton, UK (2015).
    Description: Plenary session at the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians Annual Conference
  • Web, Social Media and Online Communities for those studying for the Professions: Embraced or Tolerated? Barcelona, Spain (2014).
    Description: eLmL: The Sixth International Conference on Mobile, Hybrid and Online Learning
  • Teaching Research Skills at City. London, UK (2014).
    Description: Teaching Research Skills to Law Students – Best Practice (HEA Workshop), IALS
  • Engaging Legal Minds: Providing the digital tools students need. Plymouth, UK (2013).
    Description: Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference (PELeCON)
  • Law Libraries and Law Students: Motivating Broader Learning and an interest in practical legal skills. Oslo, Norway (2013).
    Description: Law Libraries and Law Students Symposium, University of Oslo
  • Engaging and Educating the Screen Addicts of 2012. Boston, USA (2012).
    Description: American Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference
  • Too Cool for (Law) School? Using Technology to Engage Students in Legal Skills. Northumbria University, UK (2012).
    Description: British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association (BILETA), winner best paper in Legal Education stream
  • Lawbore rocks! LILAC (Librarians' Information Literacy Annual Conference) (2009).
  • Innovative involvement not embarrassing intervention: Using technology to connect with students without treading on virtual toes. BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians) Annual Conference (2009).
  • Getting down with the kids; satisfying the 'google generation' without compromising quality for cool (both possible!). Internet Librarian International (2008).
  • Debunking the myth: Lawbore, Indispensibility and becoming the vanguard of change. AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) Annual Meeting and Conference (2006).
  • Developing the student learning environment at City University. UKCLE Seminar on teaching and learning for legal skills trainers (2005).
  • Developing the legal portal of City University to support learners. ASSIGN Conference (2004).

Keynote lectures/speeches (3)

  • One for sorrow, two for joy: why legal education needs design. Kings College, London, UK (2022). SLS Conference 2022
  • Futures of Legal Education and Practice conference Making legal education and practice meaningful by design. Open University, UK (2018). Joint keynote with Amanda Perry-Kessaris (University of Kent)
  • Connecting with Clients - What Tools Work? Adelaide, Australia (2014). Australian Law Librarians Association Annual Conference