Vacancies

Call for Convenorship Nominations
Deadline for Nominations: Monday 5 August 2024, 17:00

The terms of the convenors of the following sections will come to an end in September 2024. We thank them all sincerely for their service during their terms.  This year, terms of the Convenors for the following Subject Sections are available:

Banking and Financial Services Law
Company Law
Contract, Commercial and Consumer Law
Family Law
Human Rights
Jurisprudence
Labour Law
Legal Education
Property and Trusts
Public Law
Restitution

The Subject Sections play a vital role in the work of the Society, and each Convenor leads the activities of their section. A Convenor is appointed by the Executive Committee of the Society, and has the following indicative responsibilities:

• The convenor should arrange for a meeting of the section at the Society’s annual conference, and may arrange other meetings as appropriate.
• Convenors should report annually to Council on the activities of their section.
• The membership of the Society should be kept informed of the work of the sections through the SLS Reporter, the website and centrally-maintained email distribution lists.
• Co-convenors may take responsibility for specific parts of the work of the section, for example as Conference Convenor or Treasurer or to co-ordinate responses to consultation papers.
• The convenor should ensure that the section considers and responds to matters referred to it by Council as well as Law Commission Consultation Papers and similar items.
• Prior to self-nominating, members should discuss the role and its implications with the relevant financial lead within their department. Convenors are expected to book and pay for the conference, and associated expenses.

Convenors must be fully-paid-up members of the Society prior to commencing the role (and must remain so throughout their tenure). The term of office is three years, although serving Convenors are able to stand again. Co-convenorships may be considered, although that does not change the resources available to each section. Although Sections are primarily self-financing, the Society has made available a Subject Sections Fund to which convenors are encouraged to apply for support for events to promote the activities of the Section.

The Society of Legal Scholars aims to promote equality, diversity and inclusion across legal academia. Our overarching aspiration is to ensure that legal academia is a profession representative of all and for all, and we emphasise that commitment in respect of the convenorship of our sections. We therefore encourage applications from members from all genders, ethnicities, regions and types of institution. BAME members of the Society are particularly encouraged to apply. Although the role is for three years, the Society wishes to support Convenors in their role and has therefore introduced the possibility of co-opting convenors in the event of a convenor needing to take a temporary absence from their role. The Subject Sections Secretary provides further support for each convenor in the coordination of the Sections’ activities.

Nominations will be put to the meeting of the relevant subject section at the Annual Conference in September. Where the position is contested, there will be a secret electronic ballot. The subsequent nomination of each Convenor will then be formally put to the Executive Committee in the Autumn. The new Convenor would then serve from November onwards, with their term running until the end of the Society’s Annual Conference in 2027.

Members of the SLS can self-nominate by completing the attached nomination form and sending to admin@legalscholars.ac.uk by 5pm UK time on Monday 5 August 2024.

If you have any questions about convenorship of a Section, or if you would like an informal and confidential chat about the role, please do not hesitate to contact the Honorary Subject Sections Secretary on sss@legalscholars.ac.uk.