Janet Wright is the Programme Director for our undergraduate law courses and an Associate Professor. Below she discusses her legal education and career with the University, including her role in creating the new law clinics, designed to make pro bono experience more accessible for our students.
By Grant Longstaff. Published 13 March 2026.
Tell us about your career so far.
I initially trained as a Solicitor at a commercial firm in Birmingham, specialising in employment law. After a few years working as a solicitor, I found the aspects of the work I enjoyed the most were training clients, supporting trainee solicitors and helping people gain new knowledge and skills. The University of Law (The College of Law at the time) announced it was opening a campus in Birmingham. I thought I would apply and see what happened. That was 25 years ago and I haven’t looked back.
I initially joined as a lecturer. After teaching on the Legal Practice Course, Graduate Diploma in Law and Bar course, I’ve been focusing on undergraduate activities for the past ten years, taking on a number of management roles both in staffing and programmes before becoming Programme Director for Undergraduate Law programmes in 2023.
What achievements are you most proud of?
Gaining my masters. I started it in 2016 when my children were aged four and two. Quite a few people told me I was mad, but I wanted to remind myself of what it was like to be a student and build on my employment law background and management experience by studying Human Resource Management.
It was hard work and I was reminded that I’m not a good student as I leave everything to the last minute, so there were a lot of late nights in the run up to assessments. Understanding research methodologies and referencing was also very painful, but that gave me a newfound empathy for my own students. I completed my masters in 2019 and literally cried with relief when I got the result.
In my spare time I also enjoy singing in a choir. I’ve had some amazing experiences, such as recording at Abbey Road Studios, and this summer we’ll be performing at LakeFest festival, sharing a billing with Bananarama and Chesney Hawkes. We all need something to relieve the pressures of work and family life, and I find singing does that for me.
Tell us about someone who made a lasting impact on your journey.
There are so many friends, family members and colleagues who’ve made a lasting impact on me, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. However, I’m grateful to my land law lecturer and supervisor at university. She recognised I was struggling with a particular topic and spent extra time with me breaking the subject down and encouraging me. Land law ended up being one of my better marks. I found that level of care and support from lecturers to be rare at the time, but it made such a difference. I like to think I’ve shown my students a similar level of care over the years, and I know my teams here at the University do too.
Tell us about a moment during your time at The University of Law where you’ve felt rewarded and inspired by your work.
Graduation. The most rewarding aspect of my role is seeing the impact we have on our students. Sitting on the platform at graduation and seeing so many students walk across the stage to receive their degree, hearing the cheers from their family and loved ones, is the greatest reward. I’m humbled by the challenges many of our students face in order to succeed in their degree and they’re truly inspiring. It’s an honour to have played a part in their success.
What keeps you passionate about your role?
Our students. I want to ensure they receive the best education they can, gaining knowledge and acquiring skills that will help them succeed in their future careers, whether that be in law, commerce, the criminal justice system, media or the multitude of other careers a law degree prepares you for. I also work with an amazing team, and we have a shared goal of providing outstanding education which helps to change our students’ lives.
What’s one aspect of your role that truly excites you?
We’re living in a time of constant, fast paced change and it’s crucial we stay on top of that. That makes my role exciting as we’re constantly reviewing our programmes to ensure they meet the needs of our students and equipping them with the skills they’ll need for the legal profession and workplace of the future.
Tell us about your work in reshaping the new law clinics?
The University has always had fantastic opportunities for our students to get involved in clinical legal education through a wide range of pro bono opportunities. However, our students are increasingly time poor due to needing to work to support themselves through their studies and/or having caring responsibilities. They often don’t have the time to take part in the extra-curricular pro bono activities. It’s then challenging for students to gain legal work as they haven’t had the time to gain relevant experience.
I wanted to embed clinical legal education into our programmes in a way that enables students to participate within their study hours and build up that all important experience.
By introducing our new Student Law Clinic module at level 5, students can gain risk free experience of advising clients in a safe, taught environment to build up their skills and confidence. Students can then gain real world experience in advising members of the public as part of the Legal Advice Clinic module at level 6.
It’s been a huge investment for the University but one which is worthwhile and ensures our students have the best possible chance of success in their future careers. We’re confident these new modules, alongside other initiatives to further embed employability into our programmes, will be popular with our students.
Student Law Clinic
The module is currently in development and will involve students handling realistic cases from first client contact through to resolution of the matter. By participating in this experiential learning module, students will strengthen their existing legal research and problem solving skills as well as building the practical skills of interviewing, legal writing and drafting, case management and advocacy.
The academic and pro bono teams are working together in the creation of the module to ensure it’s as realistic as possible for the students. This approach means the module can act as a bridge between classroom learning and professional legal practice, enabling students to build their confidence in handling client matters.
Legal Advice Clinic
The Legal Advice Clinic enables eligible students to provide free legal advice to members of the public under the supervision of a qualified solicitor from ULaw LLP, our own law firm. Over the course of a term, students will spend two days a week working on real-life cases. They’ll take part in client interviewing, drafting advice letters, preparing witness statements and court bundles, and potentially engaging in advocacy in court. This experience will support students in further developing their interpersonal skills, ability to work under pressure to tight deadlines and as part of a team. This experience could count towards a student’s Qualifying Work Experience for the purposes of qualifying as a solicitor.
These new modules form part of our re-designed LLB programmes. The Legal Advice Clinic will also be available to students on our integrated Masters, MLaw (Solicitors’ Practice) programme, which combines the key components of our undergraduate LLB with the postgraduate SQE LLM to support students with ambitions of qualifying as a solicitor.
What advice would you like to give to students joining the University?
First: Try anything. Go along to as many events as possible, be brave and talk to people you don’t know, try new approaches to study and take up as many opportunities as you can.
Second: If you’re not sure about anything then please do ask – we’re here to support you. We have a fantastic team who can help, and we want you to succeed.
Explore our extensive range of undergraduate and postgraduate law courses and enrol today.
